January 24, 2021

Hyvää Päivää from Helsinki, Finland ! Today’s digest contains quite a lot of different topics. If you are interested in  early-life microbiome, I recommend taking a look at the paper from Mortensen and collaborators. To understand the role of the maternal vaginal microbiome’s in seeding their child and the importance of the delivery mode in early-life microbiome acquisition, they studied 665 mother–child dyads and modeled the transfer of the vaginal microbiota from mother to infants.

In today’s digest, you’ll also find a really interesting preprint from Abiriga and collaborators, looking at the microbiome of a groundwater aquifer contaminated by a municipal landfill while undergoing intrinsic bioremediation. This preprint is particularly notable because studies looking at the microbiome of contaminated aquifers are particularly rare, despite groundwater contaminations from landfills being a very common issue.

Today’s non-microbiology pick takes a look at the difficulty of detecting scientificly fraudulent images produced by Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). They demonstrate that this deep-learning method can generate realistic western blot images that are indistinguishable from real western blots. In conclusion, the authors argues that additional information should be required to ensure that the western blots published in scientific publication are not generated images. 

Have a great Sunday!


Human respiratory microbiome

Functional lower airways genomic profiling of the microbiome to capture active microbial metabolism – Sulaiman et al. – European respiratory journal

Human skin microbiome

Preprint: Comparative investigation of the Diabetic foot ulcer microbiome – Saeb et al. – BioRxiv

Human vaginal microbiome

Preprint: Vaginal bacterial load in the second trimester is associated with early preterm birth recurrence: a nested case-control – Goodfellow et al. – MedRxiv

Modeling transfer of vaginal microbiota from mother to infant in early life – Mortensen et al. – eLife

Human gut microbiome

Review: Linking Gut Microbiome and Lipid Metabolism: Moving beyond Associations – Lamichhane et al. – Metabolites


Animal microbiome

Individual fate and gut microbiome composition in the European wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) – Funosas et al. – Scientific reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Microbiome structure and functional potential in permafrost soils of the Western Canadian Arctic – Varsadiya et al. – FEMS Microbial ecology

Book chapter: Microbial Diversity of Phyllosphere – Dhankhar et al. – Phytomicrobiome Interactions and Sustainable Agriculture

Review: Novel and Emerging Capabilities that Can Provide a Holistic Understanding of the Plant Root Microbiome – Singer et al. – Phytomes journal

Water and extremophile microbiome

Book chapter: Potential of Extremophiles for Bioremediation – Kaushik et al. – Microbial Rejuvenation of Polluted Environment. Microorganisms for Sustainability, vol 25. Springer, Singapore.

Built environment

Microbial Diversity Analysis of Sediment from Yeosu New Harbor of South Korea Using 16S rRNA Gene Amplicon Sequencing – Lee et al. – Microbiology ressource announcements

Preprint: Characterisation of the bacterial microbiota of a landfill-contaminated confined aquifer undergoing intrinsic remediation – Abiriga et al. – BioRxiv


Phages and viruses

Reduced metagenomic sequencing (RMS) approach to determine the gut-associated phageome in mother-child – Manohar et al. – Human Microbiome Journal

Review: Enteric Viruses and Inflammatory Bowel Disease – Tarris et al. – Viruses

Bioinformatics

book chapter: Advances in Omics and Bioinformatics Tools for Phyllosphere Studies – Bansal – Phytomicrobiome Interactions and Sustainable Agriculture

MegaR: an interactive R package for rapid sample classification and phenotype prediction using metagenome profiles and machine learning – Dhungel et al. – BMC Bioinformatics


My non-microbiology picks

Preprint: Emerging Concern of Scientific Fraud: Deep Learning and Image Manipulation – Qi et al. – BioRxiv

January 22, 2021

Good morning from New Jersey! A wide range of microbiome research to share with you today. Highlights include fecal microbiota transplantation in horses with colitis and a review on the foggy relationship between microbes and plastics. There are also a couple papers on metabolic modeling and an examination of how much black soldier flies like human food waste (hint: a lot).

Jobs

New postdoctoral positions were just announced at the University of Minnesota for “research at the interface of microbiome + human genomics” in the lab of Dr. Ran Blekhman (disclosure: my Ph.D. advisor).

Human skin microbiome

Potential role of the skin and gut microbiota in premenarchal vulvar lichen sclerosus: A pilot case-control study, Chattopadhyay and Arnold et al., PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Degradation of complex arabinoxylans by human colonic Bacteroidetes, Gabriel V. Pereira et al., Nature Communications

Review – The complexities of the diet-microbiome relationship: advances and perspectives, Emily R. Leeming et al., Genome Medicine

Review – Understanding the host-microbe interactions using metabolic modeling, Jansma and El Aidy, Microbiome

Microbial Species that Initially Colonize the Human Gut at Birth or in Early Childhood Can Stay in Human Body for Lifetime, Li and Nelson, Microbial Ecology

Animal experiments

Preprint – The Predicted Metabolic Function of the Gut Microbiota of Drosophila melanogaster, Nana Ankrah et al, bioRxiv

Animal microbiome

Assessment of clinical and microbiota responses to fecal microbial transplantation in adult horses with diarrhea, Caroline A. McKinney et al., PLOS ONE

Climate change alters the haemolymph microbiome of oysters, Elliot Scanes et al., Marine Pollution Bulletin

Functional screening of a Caatinga goat (Capra hircus) rumen metagenomic library reveals a novel GH3 β-xylosidase, Betulia de Morais Souto et al., PLOS ONE

Built environment

Impact of Processed Food (Canteen and Oil Wastes) on the Development of Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) Larvae and Their Gut Microbiome Functions, Thomas Klammsteiner et al., Frontiers in Microbiology

Review – Plastics and the microbiome: impacts and solutions, G. Lear et al., Environmental Microbiome

Bioinformatics

Real-time resolution of short-read assembly graph using ONT long reads, Son Hoang Nguyen et al., PLOS Computational Biology

Covariance matrix filtering with bootstrapped hierarchies, Bongiorno and Challet, PLOS ONE

January 19, 2021

Today’s digest includes a full list of the collection of articles looking at the prenatal microbiota that was recently published in Microbiome as well as some excellent articles from Cell Host & Microbe. 

General Microbiome

A microbial metabolite remodels the gut-liver axis following bariatric surgery – Chaudhari et al. Cell Host & Microbe. 

[REVIEW] The microbiota in pneumonia: From protection to predisposition. Thibeault et al. Science Translational Medicine. 

Prenatal Microbiome

BMC Microbiome has published a collection of articles looking at the prenatal microbiome including perspectives, and commentaries from a range of experts.  

A philosophical perspective on the prenatal in utero microbiome debate – Walter and Hornef. Microbiome. 

Batch effects account for the main findings of an in utero human intestinal bacterial colonization study – Goffau et al. Microbiome

Group therapy on in utero colonization: seeking common truths and a way forward. Silverstein and Mysorekar. Microbiome. 

Lessons learned from the prenatal microbiome controversy. Blaser et al. Microbiome. 

Microbiome or no microbiome: are we looking at the prenatal environment through the right lens? – Fricke and Ravel. Microbiome. 

Corroborating evidence refutes batch effect as explanation for fetal bacteria – Rackeiyte et al. Microbiome

Gut microbiome

Role of dietary fiber in the recovery of the human gut microbiome and its metabolome. Tanes et al. Cell Host & Microbe

Biogeography of the Relationship between the Child Gut Microbiome and Innate Immune System – Amenyogbe et al. mSystems

Associations of Genetic Variants Contributing to Gut Microbiota Composition in Immunoglobin A Nephropathy – He et al. mSystems

Traditional Human Populations and Nonhuman Primates Show Parallel Gut Microbiome Adaptations to Analogous Ecological Conditions – Sharma et al. mSystems

Animal microbiome

Heritable Gut Microbiome Associated with Salmonella enterica Serovar Pullorum Infection in Chickens –  Ding et al. mSystems 

Probiotics

Bifidobacterium bifidum strains synergize with immune checkpoint inhibitors to reduce tumour burden in mice – Lee et al. Nature Microbiology. 

January 15, 2021

Today’s digest features a collection of reviews, opinion pieces, discussion on prenatal microbiome, pipeline to extract metabolic models from whole metagenome sequencing data (metaGEM), novel type of colistin resistance genes, mechanisms that shape microbial pangenomes, and more. Check out a list of free web-based microbial seminars. Happy reading/listening!

General microbiome

*Mechanisms That Shape Microbial Pangenomes – Maria Rosa Domingo-Sananes
and James O. McInerney – Trends in Microbiology

Evolution to alternative levels of stable diversity leaves areas of niche space unexplored – Ilan Naftali Rubin – bioRxiv

Prenatal microbiome

*The prenatal in utero microbiome controversy: Microbiome or no microbiome: are we looking at the prenatal environment through the right lens? – W. Florian Fricke and Jacques Ravel – BMC Microbiome

Urinary microbiome

The Urinary Microbiome in Postmenopausal Women with Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections – Monique H. Vaughan – bioRxiv

Alterations in Urobiome in Patients With Bladder Cancer and Implications for Clinical Outcome: A Single-Institution Study – Jiarong Zeng – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Bare Versus Hair: Do Pubic Hair Grooming Preferences Dictate the Urogenital Microbiome? – Geynisman-Tan J – Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgery

Vaginal microbiome

Amylases in the Human Vagina – Kenetta L. Nunn – mSphere

Gut microbiome

Predicting drug-metagenome interactions: Variation in the microbial β-glucuronidase level in the human gut metagenomes – Moamen M. Elmassry – PlosOne

Microbiome and ischemic stroke: A systematic review – Yee Teng Lee – PlosOne

Antimicrobial resistance

*A novel type of colistin resistance genes selected from random sequence space – Michael Knopp – Plos Genetics

Identifying novel β-lactamase substrate activity through in silico prediction of antimicrobial resistance – Kara K. Tsang – Microbial Genomics

A framework for identifying the recent origins of mobile antibiotic resistance genes – Stefan Ebmeyer – Communications Biology

Minimal biophysical model of combined antibiotic action – Bor Kavčič – Plos Computational Biology

Mobilization of antibiotic resistance genes differ by resistance mechanism – Tue Kjaergaard Nielsen – bioRxiv

Carbapenem and Colistin Resistance in Enterobacter: Determinants and Clones – Zhiyong Zong – Trends in Microbiology

Animal microbiome

Fermented traditional Chinese medicine alters the intestinal microbiota composition of broiler chickens – Peng Huang – Research in Veterinary Science

Plant/root/soil microbiome

Coordination between microbiota and root endodermis supports plant mineral nutrient homeostasis – Isai Salas-González – Science

Food microbiome

Metabolic cooperation and spatiotemporal niche partitioning in a kefir microbial community – Sonja Blasche – Nature Microbiology

Generation of lactose and protease positive probiotic Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG by conjugation with Lactococcus lactis NCDO 712 – Nazar Hussain – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Phages and Viruses

Engineered Phage Endolysin Eliminates Gardnerella Biofilm without Damaging Beneficial Bacteria in Bacterial Vaginosis Ex Vivo – Christine Landlinger – Pathogens

Bioinformatics

*metaGEM: reconstruction of genome scale metabolic models directly from metagenomes – Francisco Zorrilla – bioRxiv

Whole genome phylogenies reflect the distributions of recombination rates for many bacterial species – Thomas Sakoparnig – eLife

CAFE: a software suite for analysis of paired-sample transposon insertion sequencing data – Anna Abramova – Bioinformatics

Finding orthologous gene blocks in bacteria: the computational hardness of the problem and novel methods to address it – Huy N Nguyen – Bioinformatics

Unraveling city-specific signature and identifying sample origin locations for the data from CAMDA MetaSUB challenge – Runzhi Zhang – Biology Direct

RefSeq: expanding the Prokaryotic Genome Annotation Pipeline reach with protein family model curation – Wenjun Li – Nucleic Acids Research

Techniques

A co-culture microplate for real-time measurement of microbial interactions – Charles Jo – bioRxiv

Webinars

Mind, Mood & Microbes Expert Q&A: From Mechanisms to Clinical Applications – Jane Foster, Mauro Costa-Mattioli, John Cryan, Eldin Jašarević, Aletta D. Kraneveld, Filip Scheperjans, Elaine Hsiao – 21 January

SGBUG (Singapore Bacterial Ultra Group) seminar: Silencing bacterial genes with CRISPR-dCas9: from basic insights to high-throughput screens – David Bikard – 21 January

LoopSeq Solo Webinar: High Resolution Metagenomic Sequencing using DADA2 and LoopSeq Long-Read Sequencing – Benjamin Callahan – 21 January

FEMS Yeast Research Webinar on Genomic Insights into Yeast Diversity and Evolution – FEMS – 28 January

SSB Seminar: Double Trouble: Inappropriate Image Duplications in Biomedical Publications – Elisabeth Bik – 29 January

Geomicrobiology Network Seminar Series – The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland

Winter 2021 WESTalks – Weekly seminars related to Water and the Environment with speakers from around the globe – IC-IMPACTS Student Engagement Committee (SEC) and the University of British Columbia’s Future Waters

MicroSeminars 2021 – Free Web-based Microbiology Seminar Series

Conferences &c

1st Microbiome PT Summit – The Portuguese Microbiome Community – 4 February

The 2021 UK Cellular Microbiology Network meeting – The Francis Crick Institute – 1-2 March

The Biology and Physics of Bacterial Chromosomes meeting – 4 March

Symposium Celebrating 100th Birthday and Research Accomplishments of Dr. Evelyn M. Witkin – Waksman Institute of Microbiology – 13 April

Podcast

TWiM 233: Antivirals made by bacteria – Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt – This week in microbiology podcast

January 13, 2021

Good morning! Today we have a rather short reading list. One study links gut microbiome and COVID19. A second study shows the impact of the gut microbiome on the peripheral immune response. Additionally, two preprints were selected.

Human gut microbiome

Gut microbiota composition reflects disease severity and dysfunctional immune responses in patients with COVID-19 – Yeoh et al. – Gut

Gut microbiota impact on the peripheral immune response in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease related hepatocellular carcinoma – Behary et al. – Nature Communications

Animal microbiome (for animals in the wild)

[PREPRINT]Alterations in gut microbiota linked to provenance, sex, and chronic wasting disease in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) – Minich et al. – bioRxiv

Bioinformatics

[PREPRINT]AncestralClust: Clustering of Divergent Nucleotide Sequences by Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction using Phylogenetic Trees – Pipes & Nielsen – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news (popular press, EurekAlert, ScienceDaily, Youtube, NPR, etc)

Gut Microbiome and COVID-19 Severity: New Evidence for Link – Molly Walker – MedpageToday

January 12, 2021

Good morning, today we have a quite divers selection of studies. Of special note are the results of the PREDICT 1 study, published in Nature Medicine (Asnicar et al.). Furthermore, we cover among others virome in pregnant women, gut microbiome and PD, some animal microbiome studies, water microbiome, and bioinformatic tools.

General microbiome

[Meeting Report]Microbiome for Mars: surveying microbiome connections to healthcare with implications for long-duration human spaceflight, virtual workshop, July 13, 2020 – LaPelusa et al. – Microbiome

Identifying background microbiomes in an evidence recovery laboratory: A preliminary study – Neckovic et al. – Science & Justice

Human vaginal microbiome/virome

Comparison of viromes in vaginal secretion from pregnant women with and without vaginitis – Zhang et al. – Virology Journal

Human gut microbiome

Microbiome connections with host metabolism and habitual diet from 1,098 deeply phenotyped individuals – Asnicar et al. – Nature Medicine

Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis Is Associated with Elevated Bile Acids in Parkinson’s Disease – Li et al. – Metabolites

Animal microbiome

The Combined Effects of Magnesium Oxide and Inulin on Intestinal Microbiota and Cecal Short-Chain Fatty Acids – Omori et al. – Nutrients

Effect of host breeds on gut microbiome and serum metabolome in meat rabbits – Ye et al. – BMC Veterinary Research

Differential response of digesta- and mucosa-associated intestinal microbiota to dietary insect meal during the seawater phase of Atlantic salmon – Li et al. – Animal Microbiome

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Diversity and composition of the Panax ginseng rhizosphere microbiome in various cultivation modesand ages – Tong et al. – BMC Microbiology

Water microbiome

Eukaryotic community diversity and pathogenic eukaryotes in a full-scale drinking water treatment plant determined by 18S rRNA and metagenomic sequencing – Li et al. – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Microbial community structure in aquifers associated with arsenic: analysis of 16S rRNA and arsenite oxidase genes – Sonthiphand et al. – PeerJ

Fungi Present in Antarctic Deep-Sea Sediments Assessed Using DNA Metabarcoding – Ogaki et al. – Environmental Microbiology

Built environment

Comparative analysis of impact of human occupancy on indoor microbiomes – Cao et al. – Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering

Bioinformatics

Re-purposing software for functional characterization of the microbiome – Gardiner et al. – Microbiome

[PREPRINT]Mining underutilized whole-genome sequencing projects to improve 16S rRNA databases – Nolan et al. – bioRxiv

Meta-Apo improves accuracy of 16S-amplicon-based prediction of microbiome function – Jing et al. – BMC Genomics

Techniques

Exploring protocol bias in airway microbiome studies: one versus two PCR steps and 16S rRNA gene region V3 V4 versus V4 – Drengenes et al. – BMC Genomics

Quantitative image analysis of microbial communities with BiofilmQ – Hartmann et al. – Nature Microbiology

Microbes in the news (popular press, EurekAlert, ScienceDaily, Youtube, NPR, etc)

Do the bugs in our guts make us sick, sad and obese? – Sismondo – Toronto Star

New microbiome research finds associations between microbes, diet, and metabolic health – Krawiec – Nutritional outlook

January 08, 2021

Human gut microbiome

Altered diversity and composition of gut microbiota in Wilson’s disease – Cai et al. – Scientific Reports

Emotional well-being and gut microbiome profiles by enterotype – Lee et al. – Scientific Reports

The Composition and Concordance of Lactobacillus Populations of Infant Gut and the Corresponding Breast-Milk and Maternal Gut – Zhang et al. – Front. Mircobiol.

Lifestyle modifications result in alterations in the gut microbiota in obese children – Cho – BMC Microbiology

Animal microbiome

Nutritional combinatorial impact on the gut microbiota and plasma short-chain fatty acids levels in the prevention of mammary cancer in Her2/neu estrogen receptor-negative transgenic mice – Sharma et al. – PLOS One

Modeling dysbiosis of human NASH in mice: Loss of gut microbiome diversity and overgrowth of Erysipelotrichales – Carter et al. – PLOS One

Geography as non-genetic modulation factor of chicken cecal microbiota – Viso et al. – PLOS One

Intestinal microbial communities of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) may be improved by feeding a Hermetia illucens meal/low-fishmeal diet – Rimoldi et al. – Fish Physiology and Biochemistry

Dramatic shifts in intestinal fungal community between wintering Hooded Crane and Domestic Goose – Xiang et al. – Avian Research (BMC)

Bacterial diversity in intestinal mucosa of mice fed with Dendrobium officinale and high-fat diet – Li et al. – 3 Biotech

Shift of Maternal Gut Microbiota of Tibetan Antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii) During the Periparturition Period – Shi et al. – Current Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Bacterial seed endophyte shapes disease resistance in rice – Matsumoto et al. – Nature Plants

Environment

Metagenomics survey unravels diversity of biogas microbiomes with potential to enhance productivity in Kenya – Muturi et al. – PLOS One

Wastewater treatment alters microbial colonization of microplastics – Kelly et al. – PLOS One

Bioinformatics

MetGEMs Toolbox: Metagenome-scale models as integrative toolbox for uncovering metabolic functions and routes of human gut microbiome – Patumcharoenpol et al. – PLOS Computational Biology

Techniques

Assessment of two DNA extraction kits for profiling poultry respiratory microbiota from multiple sample types – Abundo et al. – PLOS One

January 06, 2021

Good morning, today we selected papers about the cancer microbiome atlas, detection of blood parasites, antibiotics and gut microbiome, metabolome and a new binning approach for metagenomic data using auto-encoders.

General microbiome

The cancer microbiome atlas: a pan-cancer comparative analysis to distinguish tissue-resident microbiota from contaminants – Dohlaman et al. – Cell Host & Microbe

Human nearly-sterile sites (blood, organs, brain)

Sensitive universal detection of blood parasites by selective pathogen-DNA enrichment and deep amplicon sequencing – Flaherty et al. – Microbiome

Human gut microbiome

Long-Term Impact of Suppressive Antibiotic Therapy on Intestinal Microbiota – Escudero-Sanchez et al. – genes

Water and extremophile microbiome (sea, rivers, lakes, glaciers, permafrost, high-salt)

Metagenomics dataset used to characterize microbiome in water and sediments of the lake Solenoe (Novosibirsk region, Russia) – Bryanskaya et al. – Data in Brief

*Metabolome

Changes in the Serum Metabolome of Patients Treated With Broad-Spectrum Antibiotics – Kaskiw et al. – Pathogens and Immunity

Walnut Consumption, Plasma Metabolomics, and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease – Guasch-Ferre et al. – The Journal of Nutrition

Bioinformatics

Improved metagenome binning and assembly using deep variational autoencoders – Nissen et al. – Nature Biotechnology

December 31, 2020

General microbiome

Review: Brain-gut axis: From the conditioned reflex to the microbiota-gut-brain communication system – Klara Gyires – Integrative Physiology

Human skin microbiome

Microbiological profile of diabetic foot ulcers in Kuwait – Asma Alhubail – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory microbiome

The airways microbiome of individuals with asthma treated with high and low doses of inhaled corticosteroids – Matthew J Martin – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

The beneficial or detrimental fluoride to gut microbiota depends on its dosages – Guijie Chen – Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

Review: Synthetic Gut Microbiome: Advances and Challenges – Humphrey A. Mabwi – Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

Review: Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis as a Regulator of Reward Process – Rubén García-Cabrerizo – Journal of Neurochemistry

Review: Modulatory effects of gut microbiome in cancer immunotherapy: A novel paradigm for blockade of immune checkpoint inhibitors – Sama Rezasoltani – Cancer Medicine

Animal experiments

Effects of heat-killed Enterococcus faecalis T-110 supplementation on gut immunity, gut flora, and intestinal infection in naturally aged hamsters – Takio Inatomi – PLOS ONE

Nasal Tissue Extraction Is Essential for Characterization of the Murine Upper Respiratory Tract Microbiota – L Patrick Schenck – mSphere

Animal microbiome

Review: Gut microbiota of animals living in polluted environments are a potential resource of anticancer molecules – Morhanavallee Soopramanien – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Metabarcoding on both environmental DNA and RNA highlights differences between fungal communities sampled in different habitats  – Martino Adamo – PLOS ONE

Changes in microbial communities at different soil depths through the first rainy season following severe wildfire in North China artificial Pinus tabulaeformis forest – Qianqian Qin – Journal of Environment Management

Shifts in a Phenanthrene-Degrading Microbial Community are Driven by Carbohydrate Metabolism Selection in a Ryegrass Rhizosphere – Longfei Jiang – ACS

Forest gaps mediate the structure and function of the soil microbial community in a Castanopsis kawakamii forest – Xuelin Wang – Ecological Indicators

Review: Herbicide bioremediation: from strains to bacterial communities – Marcos Pileggi – Heliyon

Spatial scale structure soil bacterial communities across an Arctic landscape – Lucie A Malard – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Metagenomic Analysis of Rhizosphere Bacteria in Desert Plant Calotropis procera – Ahmed M Ramadan

Water and extremophile microbiome

Archaeal communities of low and high microbial abundance sponges inhabiting the remote western Indian Ocean island of Mayotte – Ana Rita Moura Polónia – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Preprint: Novel integrative elements and genomic plasticity in ocean ecosystems – Thomas Hackl – bioRxiv

Food microbiology

The diversity of microbial communities in Chinese milk fan and their effects on volatile organic compound profiles – Chen Chen – Journal of Dairy Science

Characterizing Relationship of Microbial Community in Xiaoqu and Volatiles of Light-aroma-type Xiaoqu Baijiu – Zhe Wang – Food Science and Technology Research

Virus and phages

Acquisition, prevalence and clearance of type-specific human papillomavirus infections in young sexually active Indian women: A community-based multicentric cohort study – Richard Muwonge – PLOS ONE

Techniques

Informed sequential pooling approach to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection – Renato Millioni – PLOS ONE

Thesis: Statistical Methods for Longitudinal Data Analysis and Reproducible Feature Selection in – Lingjing Jiang – UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations

MicroGMT: A Mutation Tracker for SARS-CoV-2 and Other Microbial Genome Sequences – Yue Xing – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbes and evolution

Long-term experimental evolution of HIV-1 reveals effects of environment and mutational history – Eva Brons – PLOS BIOLOGY

The role of Ulva fasciata in the evolution of the microbial community and antibiotic resistance genes in maricultural sediments – Yuqin Luo – Marine Pollution Bulletin

Preprint: The Diversity and Evolution of Microbial Dissimilatory Phosphite Oxidation – Sophia D Ewens – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

Synthetic Biologics Inc. (SYN) Soars 5.43% on December 25 – equities.com

The Brain, Gut and Consciousness: Microbiology of Our Mind – Inquiries Journal

Non-microbiology pick

Preprint: National Institutes of Health Institute and Center Award Rates and Funding Disparities – Michael S Lauer – bioRxiv

Communicating risk in human-wildlife interactions: How stories and images move minds – Sarah K Guenther – PLOS ONE

December 27, 2020

Joyeuses fêtes from Paris, France ! In today’s digest, you will find great papers looking at various animal and plant microbiomes. In particular, I recommend taking some time to look at a preprint from Brealey and collaborators exploring the impact of human antibiotic use on oral microbiome in wild animals. The authors used shotgun metagenomics to determine the abundance and diversity of antimicrobial resistance genes in the oral microbiome of brown bears from Swedish museum specimens. Importantly, they show a significant increase in antimicrobial resistance genes in correlation with modern human antibiotics use, showing an impact even on wildlife of our antibiotic consumption.

Today’s non-microbiology pick takes a look back at the history of bioinformatics through the data analysis and visualization of papers published between 1998 and 2019. In addition of reading this very interesting paper, you can take a look at the data collected through interactive visualizations available at http://bioinfo.dcc.ufmg.br/history !

Have a great Sunday!


Pregnancy and early life

Preprint: Metabolomic signature of the maternal microbiota in the fetus – Pessa-Morikawa et al. – BioRXiv

Human nearly-sterile sites

Preprint: The urinary microbiome in postmenopausal women with recurrent urinary tract infections – Hiersoux Vaughan et al. – BioRXiv

Preprint: Biofilm development on urinary catheters promotes the appearance of viable but non-culturable (VBNC) bacteria – Wilks et al. – BioRXiv


Animal microbiome

Preprint: Wild animal oral microbiomes reflect the history of human antibiotics use – Brealey et al. – BioRXiV

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Dissimilarity analysis of microbial communities in the rhizosphere and tissues of diseased and healthy cherry trees (Cerasus pseudocerasus) – Ding et al. – Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology

First Recorded Account of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Sand Dunes in South Eastern Australia: Biogeography and Species Richness – Hanlon et al. – Journal of Coastal Research

Diversity and structural differences of bacterial microbial communities in rhizocompartments of desert leguminous plants – Zhou et al. – PLOS ONE

Preprint: Orchard management and landscape context mediate the floral microbiome of pear – Schaeffer et al. – BioRXiv

Water and extremophile microbiome

Interplay of microbial communities with mineral environments incoralline algae – Valdespino-Castillo et al. – Science of the total environment

Acid Mine Drainage as Energizing Microbial Niches for the Formation of Iron Stromatolites: The Tintillo River in Southwest Spain – Chacon-Baca et al. – Astrobiology


Bioinformatics

PStrain: An Iterative Microbial Strains Profiling Algorithm for Shotgun Metagenomic Sequencing Data – Wang et al. – Bioinformatics

MegaPath: sensitive and rapid pathogen detection using metagenomic NGS data – Leung et al. – BMC Genomics


My non-microbiology picks

A Brief History of Bioinformatics Told by Data Visualization – Mariano et al. – Brazilian Symposium on Bioinformatics