Category Archives: Metagenomics & Bioinformatics

November 15, 2016

Posted on by

Microbial profiling in the classroom, viral abundance in seawater membrane vesicles, two Akkermansia in vitro studies, the phyllospere of Phoenix’ urban forest, the (im)possibility to reconstruct plasmids, high confidence protein annotations.

General microbiome

Microorganisms as Scaffolds of Host Individuality: An Eco-Immunity Account of the Holobiont – Lynn Chiu – PhilSci Archive

Microbial Community-Level Physiological Profiling as an Inquiry Laboratory Exercise – Pamela A. Marshall – The American Biology Teacher

Human oral microbiome

Bacterial communities associated with apical periodontitis and dental implant failure – Simon Dingsdag – Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease

Human respiratory microbiome

Review: Development of the respiratory tract microbiota in cystic fibrosis – Emma M. de Koff –  Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine

Human gut microbiome

Oral application of Escherichia coli bacteriophage: safety tests in healthy and diarrheal children from Bangladesh – Shafiqul Alam Sarker – Environmental Microbiology

The SURMetaGIT study: Design and rationale for a prospective pan-omics examination of the gastrointestinal response to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery – Priscila Sala – Journal of International Medical Research

Review: The Human Microbiome and I-Cubed: A Modern Medical Paradigm – David S. Younger – World Journal of Neuroscience

Animal and in vitro models

In vitro colonisation of the distal colon by Akkermansia muciniphila is largely mucin and pH dependent – F. Van Herreweghen – Beneficial Microbes

Akkermansia muciniphila mediates negative effects of IFNγ on glucose metabolism – Renee L. Greer – Nature Communications

Animal microbiome

Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) and domestic horse (Equus caballus) hindgut microflora demonstrate similar fermentation responses to grape seed extract supplementation in vitro – N. F. Huntley – Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Sensitive responders among bacterial and fungal microbiome to pyrogenic organic matter (biochar) addition differed greatly between rhizosphere and bulk soils – Zhongmin Dai – Scientific Reports

Thesis: The Phyllosphere of Phoenix’s Urban Forest: Insights from a Publicly-Funded Microbial Environment – Benjamin C. MacNeille – Arizona State University

Diversity of phylloplane microflora in certain tea cultivars of Assam, North-East India – Amarjyoti Tanti – European Journal of Biological Research

Review: Do genetically modified plants affect adversely on soil microbial communities?
– Zheng-jun Guan – Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

Water and extremophile microbiome

The Microbiota of Recreational Freshwaters and the Implications for Environmental and Public Health – Chang Soo Lee – Frontiers in Microbiology

Functional diversity of microbial communities in pristine aquifers inferred by PLFA – and sequencing – based approaches – Valerie F. Schwab – Biogeosciences

Trade-off between taxon diversity and functional diversity in European lake ecosystems – Lars Grossmann – Molecular Ecology

Glycerol enhances fungal germination at the water-activity limit for life – Andrew Stevenson – Environmental Microbiology

Bacterial and archeal community composition in hot springs from Indo-Burma region, North-east India – Amrita Kumari Panda – AMB Express

Phages and viruses

Next-generation sequencing and norovirus – Matthew Cotten & Marion Koopmans – Future Virology

Membrane vesicles in sea water: heterogeneous DNA content and implications for viral abundance estimates – Steven J Biller – ISME Journal

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

On the (im)possibility to reconstruct plasmids from whole genome short-read sequencing data – Sergio Arredondo-Alonso – bioRxiv

EMDUnifrac: Exact linear time computation of the Unifrac metric and identification of differentially abundant organisms – Jason McClelland – bioRxiv

Optimal prediction of the number of unseen species – Alon Orlitsky – PNAS

Constraint-based stoichiometric modelling from single organisms to microbial communities
– Willi Gottstein – Journal of the Royal Society Interface

Metabolomics, culturomics, proteomics

Critical decisions in metaproteomics: achieving high confidence protein annotations in a sea of unknowns – Emma Timmins-Schiffman – The ISME Journal

Prioritizing Natural Product Diversity in a Collection of 146 Bacterial Strains Based on Growth and Extraction Protocols – Max Crüsemann – Journal of Natural Products

Probiotics

Review: Probiotics and Subclinical Psychological Symptoms in Healthy Participants: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis – Jennifer McKean – The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine

Microbes in the news

Good News at Fred Hutch: Evolutionary biologists Drs. Harmit Malik and Jesse Bloom win American Society for Microbiology awards – Fred Hutch

NTU don once downed a dish of live bacteria, for science’s sake – Straits Times

MCR-1 resistance gene could make its way into bacteria and superbugs in Australia – NT News
Biofilm battle is key to antibiotic war – University of Queensland

‘Probiotics’ on salad greens could make them safer, healthier – The University of Queensland

Monique Keiran: Laziness and hubris making us sick – Times Colonist

From the American Heart Association annual meeting: Could C-Section Birth Raise Child’s Risk of Obesity? – Dennis Thompson – Pantagraph

November 12, 2016

Posted on by

Two papers on the detection of diseases by metabolomics of breaths or fecal gases, responses of soil bacteria to solar radiation and soil warming, genotyping of probiotics.

General microbiome

Special Issue on ‘Microbe–host interactions’ – Sven Hammerschmidt – FEBS Letters

Pregnancy and early life

Serum cathelicidin, nasopharyngeal microbiota, and disease severity among infants hospitalized with bronchiolitis – Kohei Hasegawa – Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Human respiratory microbiome

Feasibility of Early Detection of Cystic Fibrosis Acute Pulmonary Exacerbations by Exhaled Breath Condensate Metabolomics: A Pilot Study – Xiaoling Zang – Journal of Proteome Research

Features of the bronchial bacterial microbiome associated with atopy, asthma and responsiveness to inhaled corticosteroid treatment – Juliana Durack – Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Human vaginal microbiome

“Murdochiella vaginalis” sp. nov., a new bacterial species cultivated from the vaginal flora of a woman with bacterial vaginosis – Khoudia Diop – Human Microbiome Journal

Human esophagus and stomach microbiome

Editorial: The microbiome as a potential biomarker for oesophageal adenocarcinoma – Julian A Abrams – The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology

A non-endoscopic device to sample the oesophageal microbiota: a case-control study – Daffolyn R Fels Elliott – The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Human gut microbiome

Irritable bowel syndrome and active inflammatory bowel disease diagnosed by faecal gas analysis – R. B. M. Aggio – Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics

Review: Formation of propionate and butyrate by the human colonic microbiota – Petra Louis

Review: The Gut Microbiota : The Gateway to Improved Metabolism – Kristina B. Martinez – Gastroenterology Clinics of North America

Review: Regulation of the gut microbiome by inflammasomes – Grace Y. Chen – Free Radical Biology and Medicine

Review: The role of the microbiome in kidney stone formation – Mansi Mehta – International Journal of Surgery

Animal models

Giardia alters commensal microbial diversity throughout the murine gut – Nanelle R Barash – bioRxiv

Animal microbiome

Virus detection using metagenomic sequencing of swine nasal and rectal swabs – Ben M. Hause – J Swine Health Prod

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Bacterial active community cycling in response to solar radiation and their influence on nutrient changes in a high altitude wetland – Veronica Molina – Frontiers in Microbiology

Land-use change under different climatic conditions: Consequences for organic matter and microbial communities in Siberian steppe soils – Norbert Bischoff – Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

Identifying the microbial taxa which consistently respond to soil warming across time and space – Angela M. Oliverio – Global Change Biology

The drivers underlying biogeographical patterns of bacterial communities in soils under sugarcane cultivation – Ademir Durrer – Applied Soil Ecology

Editorial: A small soil bacterium dominates – Ursula Hofer – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Editorial/Review: The Role of Microbial Communities in Tropical Ecosystems – Silvia Pajares – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water microbiome

Cyanobacteria in lakes on Yungui Plateau, China are assembled via niche processes driven by water physicochemical property, lake morphology and watershed land-use – Jingqiu Liao – Scientific Reports

Implications of Ecological Niche Differentiation in Marine Bacteria for Microbial Management in Aquaculture to Prevent Bacterial Disease – Tom Defoirdt – PLOS Pathogens

Bacterial composition, abundance and diversity in fish polyculture and mussel–fish integrated cultured ponds in China – Xiafei Zheng – Aquaculture Research

Food microbiome

Diversity study of microbial community in bacon using metagenomic analysis – Langbo Yi – Journal of Food Safety

Probiotics

Genotyping by PCR and High-Throughput Sequencing of Commercial Probiotic Products Reveals Composition Biases – Wesley Morovic – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Weight gain by gut microbiota manipulation in productive animals – Emmanouil Angelakis – Microbial Pathogenesis

Viruses and phages

VirusDetect: An automated pipeline for efficient virus discovery using deep sequencing of small RNAs – Yi Zheng – Virology

Metabolomics

Book Chapter: A Mathematical Perspective on Microbial Processes in Earth’s Biogeochemical Cycles – Christof Meile – Mathematical Paradigms of Climate Science
Bioinformatics and metagenomics

EMDUnifrac: Exact linear time computation of the Unifrac metric and identification of differentially abundant organisms – Jason McClelland – bioRxiv

Genomic and metagenomic technologies to explore the antibiotic resistance mobilome – José L. Martínez – Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

More microbiology

The planktonic relationship between fluid-like electrodes and bacteria: wiring in motion
– Sara Tejedor Sanz – ChemSusChem

Experimental study and Random Forest prediction model of microbiome cell surface hydrophobicity – Yong Liu – Expert Systems with Applications

Microbes in the news

uBiome CEO Dr. Jessica Richman to Deliver Opening Keynote at American Medical Informatics Association Symposium – PR web

The impact of the rhizosphere microbiota on root system development and tolerance to environmental constraints in cereals – International Center for Biosaline Agriculture

Miami wants to introduce MORE mosquitoes to fight Zika: Officials considers bringing in bacteria-infected insects to stop spread of virus – Daily Mail

Bruker Moving Into PCR-Based Testing to Expand Clinical Microbiology, MALDI Biotyper Offerings – Genome Web

 

 

November 11, 2016

Posted on by

The human microbiome before birth, the HIV lung microbiome, leprosy in squirrels, and ticklish rats. That latter story has nothing to do with microbiology, but we can all use some uplifting stories.

Events

Advancing Microbiome Research Symposium: Microbiome & Disease – November 17, 2016 – Chicago, IL, USA

HIV Microbiome Workshop 2016 – November 17-18, 2016 – Bethesda, MD, USA.

2nd Annual European Microbiome Congress – November 30-Dec 1, 2016 – London, UK

Microbiome Drug Development Summit Europe – Jan 24-26 January 2017. Paris, France

North American Microbiome Congress / Human Microbiome Conference January 24-25 2017, San Diego, CA

Pregnancy and early life

The Human Microbiome before Birth – Martin J. Blaser and Maria G. Dominguez-Bello

Human respiratory microbiome

The bronchial epithelial cell bacterial microbiome and host response – Marc A. Sze – BMC Pulmonary Medicine

Biofilms in ventilator-associated pneumonia – Laia Fernández-Barat – Future Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

An evaluation of the therapeutic potential of fecal microbiota transplantation to treat infectious and metabolic diseases – Albert K Groen – EMBO Molecular Medicine

Association of colorectal carcinogenesis pathway with life style and intestinal microbiome based on the genome and epigenome abnormalities – Nihon Shokakibyo Gakkai Zasshi

Perspective: The Liver at the Nexus of Host-Microbial Interactions – Andrew J. MacPharson – Cell Host & Microbe

Animal experiments

Expression of recombinant human lysozyme in transgenic chicken promotes the growth of Bifidobacterium in the intestine and improves postnatal growth of chicken – Hai Wang – AMB Express

Chronic Early-life Stress in Rat Pups Alters Basal Corticosterone, Intestinal Permeability, and Fecal Microbiota at Weaning: Influence of Sex – Nabila Moussaoui – J Neurogastroenterol Motil.

Animal microbiome (and infection)

Red squirrels in the British Isles are infected with leprosy bacilli – Charlotte Avanzi – Science
Red squirrels in the British Isles are infected with leprosy bacteria – Phys.org
Leprosy Surprise: Medieval Scourge Is Lurking In British Squirrels – Michaeleen Doucleff – NPR

Bacterial Associations Across House Fly Life History: Evidence for Transstadial Carriage From Managed Manure – Klara Zurek – Journal of Insect Science

Built environment microbiology

Review: Constructed Wetlands Revisited: Microbial Diversity in the -omics Era. – Olga Sánchez – Microbial Ecology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Commentary: Insights into microbial ecosystems using a new computational approach – Thuy Do – Oral Diseases

Microbes in the news

Are we ready for consumer microbiome testing? – Juliet Preston – MedCityNews

Raining Cats and Dogs… and Bacteria? – Julie Taylor – uBiome

Scientists Try Bacteria to Halt Invading Cheatgrass in West – Keith Ridler – ABC News / Associated Press

Targeting pathogenic bacteria – using phage-derived proteins, proteins developed from the bacteria-invading viruses, for detection of pathogenic bacteria – Science Daily

Your flu risk may be linked to the year you were born – Jacqueline Howard – CNN

How ‘Psychobiotics’ Use Gut Bacteria To Treat Mental Illness. Targeting the gut could create a new class of psychiatric treatments – Carolyn Gregoire – The Huffington Post

Animal Science Professor Identifies Gut Microbiota Signatures of Healthy Aging – ScienceBlog

Quest to map Africa’s soil microbiome begins. Sub-Saharan project could one day help ecosystems to resist climate change and improve agriculture – Sarah Wild – Nature

Microbiome, Hidden Chemical Secrets, Being Accessed At Scripps Pier In San Diego – PR Newswrire

New Method Allows Scientists to Detect the Presence in Ham of the Parasite that Causes Toxoplasmosis – SciCasts

Bik’s non-microbiology Picks

Why are we ticklish? Scientists who tickled rats offer an intriguing answer – Karen Kaplan – LA Times
Neural correlates of ticklishness in the rat somatosensory cortex – S. Ishiyama – Science

November 8, 2016

Posted on by

I’m sick at home but my inbox is exploding with new papers, so I scraped myself together for a new Microbiome Digest.

Precision medicine and the microbiome, salivary microbiome of Tsimane mothers and infants, food emulsifiers promote colon cancer in mice, microplastics in urban rivers, and a hypothetical silver Nobel prize for Jeffrey Gordon.

Events

SF Bay Area Microbiome meetup – a new LinkedIn group for people in the San Francisco area interested in all things microbiome!

Society of Nutrition Education and Behavior (SNEB) Webinar – Probiotics: Understanding The Microbiome And The Role Of Probiotics In Long Term Health – Wednesday, December 7 at 12:00 p.m. EST

This one is about me: Stanford Microbiome Pioneer Elisabeth Bik Becomes New Science Editor at uBiome – uBiome

General microbiome

Introducing the Microbiome into Precision Medicine – Thomas M. Kuntz, Jack A. Gilbert – Trends in Pharmacological Sciences

Can They Make It on Their Own? Hosts, Microbes, and the Holobiont Niche – Sarah M. Kopac – Frontiers in Microbiology

Opinion: Do antibodies select a healthy microbiota? – Jason L. Kubinak & June L. Round – Nature Reviews Immunology

Editorial: Complexity at the sub-genus level – Andrea Du Toit – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Human oral microbiome

Salivary microbiomes of indigenous Tsimane mothers and infants are distinct despite frequent premastication – Cliff S. Han – PeerJ

A Pilot Study to Evaluate the Oral Microbiome and Dental Health in Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma – Polla, Daniel – Journal of Glaucoma

Sputum microbiology predicts health status in COPD – DCW Braeken – International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Human respiratory microbiome

Assessing the Airway Microbiota in Cystic Fibrosis – Jordana E. Hoppe – Clinical Microbiology Newsletter

Review: The microbiome-metabolome crosstalk in the pathogenesis of respiratory fungal diseases – Samuel M. Gonçalves – Virulence

Human vaginal microbiome

Effects of pelvic organ prolapse ring pessary therapy on intravaginal microbial flora – Kazuaki Yoshimura – International Urogynecology Journal

Review: Why do lactobacilli dominate the human vaginal microbiota? – SS Witkin – BJOG

Human gastric microbiome

Characterization of the Gastric Microbiota in a Pediatric Population According to Helicobacter pylori Status – Llorca, Laura – The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal

Human gut microbiome

Shotgun Metagenomics of 250 Adult Twins Reveals Genetic and Environmental Impacts on the Gut Microbiome – Hailiang Xie – Cell Systems

Culture of previously uncultured members of the human gut microbiota by culturomics – Jean-Christophe Lagier – Nature Microbiology

Impact of Cystic Fibrosis Disease on Archaea and Bacteria Composition of Gut Microbiota – Francesco Miragoli – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Animal models

Systems-level metabolism of the altered Schaedler flora, a complete gut microbiota
– Matthew B Biggs – The ISME Journal

Gut microbiota induce IGF-1 and promote bone formation and growth – Jing Yan – PNAS

Dietary emulsifier-induced low-grade inflammation promotes colon carcinogenesis – Emilie Viennois – Cancer Research

Chronic Opisthorchis viverrini Infection Changes the Liver Microbiome and Promotes Helicobacter Growth – Upsornsawan Itthitaetrakool – PLOS ONE

Sex-specific modulation of the gut microbiome and behavior in Siberian hamsters – Kristyn E. Sylvia – Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

Animal microbiome

Optimised scat collection protocols for dietary DNA metabarcoding in vertebrates – Julie C. McInnes – Methods in Ecology and Evolution

High-throughput sequencing highlights the significant influence of seasonal housing and teat preparation on the raw milk microbiota – Conor J Doyle – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Metagenomic analysis reveals the influences of milk containing antibiotics on the rumen microbes of calves – Wei Li – Archives of Microbiology

Repeated sampling of white syndrome-affected corals reveals distinct microbiome at disease lesion fronts – F. Joseph Pollock – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Relationships between soil fungal and woody plant assemblages differ between ridge and valley habitats in a subtropical mountain forest – Cheng Gao – New Phytologist

AMF, phylogeny, and succession: specificity of response to mycorrhizal fungi increases for late-successional plants – Liz Koziol – Ecosphere

Microbial Community Functional Potential and Composition Are Shaped by Hydrologic Connectivity in Riverine Floodplain Soils – William A. Argiroff – Microbial Ecology

Effect of disturbance by oil pollution on the diversity and activity of bacterial communities in biological soil crusts from the Sultanate of Oman – Raeid M.M. Abed – Applied Soil Ecology

Book chapter: Root-Microbe Interactions in Response to Soil Conditions – Anil Somenahally – Global Soil Security

Water and extremophile microbiome

Microplastic in surface waters of urban rivers: concentration, sources, and associated bacterial assemblages – Amanda R. McCormick – Ecosphere

Evidence for microbial mediation of subseafloor nitrogen redox processes at Loihi Seamount, Hawaii – Jason B. Sylvan – Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

Bacterial metacommunity organization in a highly-connected aquatic system – Silke Langenheder – FEMS Microbial Ecology

Microbial communities and their predicted metabolic characteristics in deep fracture groundwaters of the crystalline bedrock at Olkiluoto, Finland – Malin Bomberg – Biogeosciences

Extremophile microbiomes in acidic and hypersaline river sediments of Western Australia
– Shipeng Lu – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Review: Microbial Community Assessment in Wetlands for Water Pollution Control: Past, Present, and Future Outlook – Kela P. Weber – Water

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Alternative for PiCRUST: Piphillin: Improved Prediction of Metagenomic Content by Direct Inference from Human Microbiomes – Shoko Iwai – PLOS ONE

Measurement of bacterial replication rates in microbial communities – Christopher T Brown – Nature Biotechnology

Microbes in the news

If there was a Nobel silver medal, I’d award it to Jeffrey Gordon and our gut microbes – Tim Spector – The Conversation

The Microbiome Hits #1 for 2017: Cleveland Clinic’s announcement of the Top 10 Medical Innovations came at the conclusion of the 2016 Medical Innovation Summit.

Gut Instincts: The Link Between Diet, the Gut Microbiota and the Brain – Kiana West – Imperial College London

Q&A with Stanford statistics Professor Susan Holmes: Statistics in the era of big data – Stanford News

Conference report: Gut microbes linked to immunotherapy response in melanoma patients – EurekAlert

Gut bacteria ‘may help drugs fight cancer’ – James Gallagher – BBC

Assistant professor Joanna Slusky recognized for work with antibiotic-resistant bacteria – The University Daily Kansan

Three Soundcloud episodes by the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine on the microbiome, to accompany their September issue:

  1. Microbiome: Episode I: history of the field, current techniques used in microbiome research, and how the microbiome influences our health
  2. Microbiome: Episode IIMicrobiome: Episode II: Dr. Martin Kriegel discusses articles published in our issue, – Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine
  3. Microbiome: Episode III: Dr. Camille Konopnicki, talks about current on going research on the microbiome here at Yale and how microbiome research is evolving and changing.

Companies Bet on Designer Bacteria as New Way to Treat Disease – MIT Technology Review

About Bethany Rader: Researcher studying squid-human bacteria connection – Tim Crosby – The Southern Illinoisan

Horrible title, but nice student work: Students create Frankenstein’s monster of bacteria to detect toxic chemicals – New Atlas

 

November 2, 2016

Posted on by

Microbiome and precision medicine, bacterial responses to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, bacterial dynamics in a water distribution system, and uBiome launches a clinical gut test.

General microbiome

Introducing the Microbiome into Precision Medicine – Thomas M. Kuntz – Trends in Pharmacological Sciences

Press: Making the microbiome part of precision medicine – EurekAlert

Probiotics / Skin microbiome

Bacterial Etiology and Risk Factors Associated with Cellulitis and Purulent Skin Abscesses in Military Trainees – Ryan C. Johnson – PLOS ONE

Local Application of Probiotic Bacteria Prophylaxes against Sepsis and Death Resulting from Burn Wound Infection – Anne Argenta – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

Uterine Microbiota and Immune Parameters Associated with Fever in Dairy Cows with Fever – Soo Jin Jeon – PLOS ONE

Thermodynamic Driving Force of Hydrogen on Rumen Microbial Metabolism: A Theoretical Investigation – Henk J. van Lingen – PLOS ONE

Water microbiome

Metabolic and spatio-taxonomic response of uncultivated seafloor bacteria following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill – Kim M Handley – bioRxiv

Built environment microbiome

Long-Term Bacterial Dynamics in a Full-Scale Drinking Water Distribution System – E. I. Prest – PLOS ONE

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Pavian: Interactive analysis of metagenomics data for microbiomics and pathogen identification – Florian P Breitwieser – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

‘Living buildings’ could use bacteria for heat, electricity and repairs – Helen Massy-Beresford – Horizon Magazine

Bacteria can’t get a grip on self-healing, slippery surface
Inspired by nature, a high-tech, low-adhesive coating for medical devices could help prevent infection – EurekAlert

Biocement from genetically modified bacteria could react to changes in environment – Brian Wang – Next Big Future

Purple bacteria shine path to super-efficient light harvesting – University of Queensland

Microbes on the marketplace

uBiome Announces World’s First Sequencing-Based Clinical Microbiome Test – PR Web
uBiome launches gut microbiome sequencing test, reels in Series B – FierceBiotech

The ultimate guide to DIY DNA testing kits – April Long – Elle

Microbiome Study Suggests an Opportunity to Reduce Healthcare Facility Costs by 30%. Poor Indoor Air Quality and Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) as Key Burdens – Digital Journal

 

October 29, 2016

Posted on by

Laryngeal microbiome, nitrogen fixation by bivalve symbionts, subalpine snow in California, sequence data compression tools. Flying back to Cali today, blogging from Phoenix.

Human respiratory microbiome

The human laryngeal microbiome: effects of cigarette smoke and reflux – Marie E. Jetté – Scientific Reports

Animal microbiome

This is pretty cool: Nitrogen fixation in a chemoautotrophic lucinid symbiosis – Sten König – Nature Microbiology

Fecal Bacterial Composition of Sichuan Snub-Nosed Monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) – Chen Su – International Journal of Primatology

Lesion recovery and the bacterial microbiome in two Caribbean gorgonian corals – Kartick P. Shirur – Marine Biology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Isolation and Identification of Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) from the Rhizosphere of Sugarcane in Saline and Non-Saline Soil – Elham Lamizadeh – International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Science

Different responses of rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil microbial communities to consecutive Piper nigrum L. monoculture – Zhigang Li – Scientific Reports

Note: 16S rRNA amplicon study, not metagenomics. Proceed with caution. Looking for Rhizobacterial Ecological Indicators in Agricultural Soils Using 16S rRNA metagenomic Amplicon Data – José R. Valverde – PLOS ONE

Comparison of Microbial Community Composition and Diversity in Native Coastal Wetlands and Wetlands that Have Undergone Long-Term Agricultural Reclamation – Shiqi Xu – Wetlands

Review: Biology and evolution of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis in the light of genomics – Laurent Kamel – New Phytologist

Review: Plant microbiomes and sustainable agriculture – Philip Hunter – EMBO press

Water and extremophile microbiome

Microbial community structure of subalpine snow in the Sierra Nevada, California – Chelsea J. Carey – Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

Unique community structure of viruses in a glacier soil of the Tianshan Mountains, China – Li-Li Han – Journal of Soils and Sediments

Composition and distribution of microbial communities in natural river wetlands and corresponding constructed wetlands – Qingqing Ca – Ecological Engineering

The culturable mycobiota of a Mediterranean marine site after an oil spill: Isolation, identification and potential application in bioremediation – Elena Bovio – Science of the Total Environment

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

proGenomes: a resource for consistent functional and taxonomic annotations of prokaryotic genomes – Daniel R. Mende – Nucleic Acids Research

Comparison of high-throughput sequencing data compression tools – Ibrahim Numanagić – Nature Methods

Phages and ecology

Ecological conditions determine extinction risk in co-evolving bacteria-phagepopulations – Rosanna C. T. Wright – BMC Evolutionary Biology

Microbes in the news

‘Rare’ and ‘unusual’ bacteria discovered on Muni by SFSU researchers – Alyssa Pereira – SF Gate

How lack of oxygen makes bacteria cause acne and how to stop it – Andy Coghlan – New Scientist

Necrotizing Fasciitis: A Profound Mystery In Medical Microbiology – Alex Berezow – American Council on Science and Health

Doctors warn of bacteria in salt water after Jacksonville officer almost dies – Letisha Bereola – Action News Jax

Healdsburg company makes ‘food’ for the gut’s bacteria – Press Democrat

October 24, 2016

Posted on by

Strain-level associations of gut microbes, symbiosis in a coral reef sponge, halophilic microbiota of table salt, and microbiota of the red snapper.

Pregnancy and early life

Studying vertical microbiome transmission from mothers to infants by strain-level metagenomic profiling – Francesco Asnicar – bioRxiv Preprint

Human oral microbiome

Salivary microbiota and caries occurrence in Mutans Streptococci-positive school children – M. ElSalhy – European Journal of Paediatric Dentistry

Microbiological and bioinformatics analysis of primary Sjögren’s syndrome patients with normal salivation – Huma Siddiqui – Journal of Oral Microbiology

Evaluation of buccal cell samples for studies of oral microbiota – Guoqin Yu – Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention

Human gut microbiome

Unusual sub-genus associations of faecal Prevotella and Bacteroides with specific dietary patterns – Francesca De Filippis – Microbiome

Review: The role of the commensal microbiota in adaptive and maladaptive stressor-induced immunomodulation – Amy R. Mackos – Hormones and Behavior

Review: Health Disparities and the Microbiome – Keisha Findley – Trends in Microbiology

Review: Emerging Technologies for Gut Microbiome Research – Jason W. Arnold – Trends in Microbiology

Review: Tiny microbes, enormous impacts: what matters in gut microbiome studies? – Justine Debelius – Genome Biology

Animal models

Illumina Miseq platform analysis caecum bacterial communities of rex rabbits fed with different antibiotics – Fuqin Zou – AMB Express

Animal microbiome

Draft Genomes Shed Light on the Dual Bacterial Symbiosis that Dominates the Microbiome of the Coral Reef Sponge Amphimedon queenslandica – Marie-Emilie A. Gauthier – Frontiers in Marine Science

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Assessing the role of endophytic bacteria in the halophyte Arthrocnemum macrostachyum salt tolerance – S. Navarro-Torre – Plant Biology

Control of Cortaderia selloana with a glyphosate-based herbicide led to a short-term stimulation of soil fungal communities – M. Anza – Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

Water and extremophile microbiome

Trade-off between taxon diversity and functional diversity in European lake ecosystems
– Lars Grossmann – Molecular Ecology

Diversity of retrievable heterotrophic bacteria in Kongsfjorden, an Arctic fjord –
Rupesh Kumar Sinha – Brazilian Journal of Microbiology

Atmospheric aerosol deposition influences marine microbial communities in oligotrophic surface waters of the western Pacific Ocean – Teruya Maki – Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers

Long-term dynamics in microbial eukaryotes communities: a paleolimnological view based on sedimentary DNA – Eric Capo – Molecular Ecology

Shifts in bacterial community structure during succession in a glacier foreland of the High Arctic – Mincheol Kim – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Food microbiology

Microbial culturomics unravels the halophilic microbiota repertoire of table salt: Description of Gracilibacillus massiliensis sp. nov. – Awa Diop – Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease

Microbiota of wild-caught Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus – Andrea M. Tarnecki – BMC Microbiology

Archaea

Archaea in Natural and Impacted Brazilian Environments – Thiago Rodrigues – Archaea

Fungi

Sequence-based classification and identification of Fungi – David Hibbett – Mycologia

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Filtration and Normalization of Sequencing Read Data in Whole-Metagenome Shotgun Samples – Philippe Chouvarine – PLOS ONE

Review: Genomic and functional techniques to mine the microbiome for novel antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance genes – Boahemaa Adu-Oppong – Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Review: Translational metagenomics and the human resistome: confronting the menace of the new millennium – Matthias Willmann – Journal of Molecular Medicine

Metabolomics

Review: The Human Microbiome and Metabolomics: Current Concepts and Applications – Eric Banan-Mwine Daliri – Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition

Microbes in the news

Post publication peer review of mSystems migraine paper – Jonathan Eisen – Storify

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Teams Up on Coral Study – Cape Cod

Costly detox programmes slammed by nutrition experts – Susan Strongman – NZ Herald

The Nose Knows Beneficial Bacteria – Lindsey Bomar – ASM blog

Ph.D. student creates new way to treat antibiotic resistance – CCTV America

‘My father’s poo saved my life’: Woman who could not leave her bed due to her agonising chronic constipation reveals how a VERY personal transplant saved her life – Sophie Haslett – Daily Mail

 

October 19, 2016

Posted on by

Blogging from SJC today on my way to Vancouver. Oral microbes correlated with food-triggered migraines, spinal cord injuries, comparison of 8 DNA extraction kits on 3 sample types, mockrobiota.

Jobs and Events

Flying to Vancouver today to give a short talk at DNA Genotek’s Microbiome Breakfast Session at #ASHG2016

Fall Mid-Atlantic Microbiome Meetup (M3) – November 1-2, University of Maryland

Human oral microbiome

Migraines Are Correlated with Higher Levels of Nitrate-, Nitrite-, and Nitric Oxide-Reducing Oral Microbes in the American Gut Project Cohort – Antonio Gonzalez – mSystems

Press: Migraines could be caused by gut bacteria, study suggests – Hannah Devlin – The Guardian
Scientists think they’ve found why chocolates and wine cause migraines for some very unlucky people – Katherine Ellen Foley – Quartz

Human skin microbiome

The skin is a significant but overlooked anatomical reservoir for vector-borne African trypanosomes – Paul Capewell – eLife

Human respiratory microbiome
The Prevalence of Antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Nasal Carriage among Industrial Hog Operation Workers, Community Residents, and Children Living in their Households: North Carolina, USA – Sarah M. Hatcher – Environmental Health Perspectives

Press: Drug-resistant staph bacteria prevalence higher in young children living with hog workers – EurekAlert

Animal models

Gut dysbiosis impairs recovery after spinal cord injury – Kristina A. Kigerl – Journal of Experimental Medicine

Press: Researchers show how spinal cord injury causes profound changes in gut microbiota – News-Medical Net
Gut bacteria can aid recovery from spinal cord injury, study suggests – Science Daily

Techniques

Eight commercial kits, 16 procedures, 3 sample types: Impact of Sample Type and DNA Isolation Procedure on Genomic Inference of Microbiome Composition – Berith E. Knudsen – mSystems

mockrobiota: a Public Resource for Microbiome Bioinformatics Benchmarking – Nicholas A. Bokulich – mSystems

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

An integrated metagenomics pipeline for strain profiling reveals novel patterns of bacterial transmission and biogeography – Stephen Nayfach – Genome Research

Press: From Genome Research: Strain-level profiling yields new insights into mother-infant microbiomes – EurekAlert

The single-species metagenome: subtyping Staphylococcus aureus core genome sequences from shotgun metagenomic data – Sandeep J. Joseph – PeerJ

Microbes in the news

Tapping the Human Gut Microbiome, Part 1: The Next Frontier for Novel Therapeutics – Christian Furlan Freguia – GenEngNews
Tapping the Human Gut Microbiome, Part 2: From the Bottom Up – Christian Furlan Freguia – GenEngNews

The microbiome: Looking at microbes as more than pathogens – Ryan T. Ranallo – Healio

Harnessing The Plant Microbiome For Cleaner, Pesticide-Free Agriculture – Ben Schiller – FastCoexist

Bacteria named in Mighty Taco outbreak; chain denies fault – Food Safety News

Clemson students get bacteria named after them. New strain of Legionella named for students who studied it – Carla Field – Wyff4

Bacteria ‘alarm clock’ may cause repeat infections in patients – Kate Wighton – Imperial.ac.uk

Microbes and Money

Igniting a Microbiome Revolution: Era7 Bioinformatics Syncs with Capital Cell – Erin Hobey – CrowdFundInsider
Igenbio Inc offers metagenome analysis services for clinical and industrial applications – Reuters

October 18, 2016

Posted on by

Vaginal probiotics, forensic analysis of skin bacteria on fabrics, Wolbachia in nematodes, ivy phyllosphere, microbial life in two polar extremes, how to improve the indoor environment, and mass spec analysis of human habitat molecules.

Pregnancy and early life

Vaginal Probiotic Administration in the Management of Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes – Daskalakis G.J. – Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy

General human microbiome

Review: Health Disparities and the Microbiome – Keisha Findley – Trends in Microbiology

Human respiratory microbiome

Review: Host–Bacterial Crosstalk Determines Staphylococcus aureus Nasal Colonization – Michelle E. Mulcahy – Trends in Microbiology

Human skin and tissue microbiome

Forensic analysis using microbial community between skin bacteria and fabrics – So-Yeon Lee – Toxicology and Environmental Health Sciences

Not a word about extraction controls, so proceed with caution: Bacterial Communities Associated with Atherosclerotic Plaques from Russian Individuals with Atherosclerosis – Elvira E. Ziganshina – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Construction and Analysis of Functional Networks in the Gut Microbiome of Type 2 Diabetes Patients – Lianshuo Li – Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics

Review: Metabolite and Microbiome Interplay in Cancer Immunotherapy – Caroline H. Johnson – Cancer Research

Review: The gut microbiota and gastrointestinal surgery – Kristina Guyton – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Review: Gut Microbiota and Risk of Developing Celiac Disease – Cenit, Maria C. – Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology

Editorial: What’s in Your GI Microbiome? – Martin H. Floch – Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology

Animal and in vitro models

Study of the Ability of Bifidobacteria of Human Origin to Prevent and Treat Rotavirus Infection Using Colonic Cell and Mouse Models – Mélanie Gagnon – PLOS ONE

Farnesoid X Receptor Signaling Shapes the Gut Microbiota and Controls Hepatic Lipid Metabolism – Limin Zhang – mSystems

A mixture of milk and vegetable lipids in infant formula changes gut digestion, mucosal immunity and microbiota composition in neonatal piglets – Isabelle Le Huërou-Luron – European Journal of Nutrition

An Advanced In Vitro Technology Platform to Study the Mechanism of Action of Prebiotics and Probiotics in the Gastrointestinal Tract – Marzorati, Massimo – Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology

Animal microbiome

Sea lions: Protein and RNA extraction from mucosal swabs: a minimally invasive source of ecological data for studies of natural populations – W Espinosa-de Aquino – Methods in Ecology and Evolution

Mycobacteria in aquarium fish: results of a 3-year survey indicate caution required in handling pet-shop fish – D Kušar – Journal of Fish Diseases

Genomic evidence for plant-parasitic nematodes as the earliest Wolbachia hosts – Amanda M. V. Brown – Scientific Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Disentangling interactions between microbial communities and roots in deep subsoil – Martina I. Gocke – Science of the Total Environment

Reconstructing a hydrogen-driven microbial metabolic network in Opalinus Clay rock – Alexandre Bagnoud – Nature Communications

Diversity and hydrocarbon-degrading potential of epiphytic microbial communities on Platanus x acerifolia leaves in an urban area – Isabella Gandolfi – Environmental Pollution

Response of soil bacterial communities to lead and zinc pollution revealed by Illumina MiSeq sequencing investigation – Xihui Xu – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Impact of urban land use on the bacterial phyllosphere of ivy (Hedera sp.) – Wenke Smets – Atmospheric Environment

Water and extremophile microbiome

Periodic change in coastal microbial community structure associated with submarine groundwater discharge and tidal fluctuation – Eunhee Lee – Limnology and Oceanography

Microbial Community Dynamics in Two Polar Extremes: The Lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys and the West Antarctic Peninsula Marine Ecosystem – Jeff S. Bowman – BioScience

Diversity and physiological and biochemical properties of heterotrophic bacteria isolated from Lake Baikal neuston – A. D. Galach’yants – Microbiology

Phylogenetic and functional prokaryotic diversity in the Hoito-Gol mesothermal mineral spring (Eastern Sayan Mountains, Buryat Republic) – E.S. Kashkak – Microbiology

Metagenomic Insights into Effects of Chemical Pollutants on Microbial Community Composition and Function in Estuarine Sediments Receiving Polluted River Water – Xiao-Ming Lu – Microbial Ecology

Built environment microbiome

How do we make indoor environments and healthcare settings healthier? – Jack A. Gilbert – Microbial Biotechnology

Mass Spectrometry-Based Visualization of Molecules Associated with Human Habitats – Daniel Petras – Analytical Chemistry

Food microbiology

Raw Ready-to-Eat Seafood Safety: Microbiological Quality of the Various Seafood Species Available at Fishery, Hyper, and Online Market – H.W. Kim – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

MIxS-HCR: a MIxS extension defining a minimal information standard for sequence data from environments pertaining to hydrocarbon resources – Nicolas Tsesmetzis – Standards in Genomic Sciences

IMG/M: integrated genome and metagenome comparative data analysis system
I-Min A. Chen – Nucleic Acids Research

Review: The present and future of de novo whole-genome assembly – Jang-il Sohn – Briefings in Bioinformatics

Microbes in the news

Soaking A Bunch Of Toads In Their Own Bacteria Could Save Their Lives – Krista Langlois – Five Thirty Eight

Bacteria Hysteria

Why your office could be making you sick: Keyboards ‘contain 20,000 MORE bacteria than a toilet bowl’– Stephen Matthews – Daily Mail

How to clean and disinfect your keyboard and mouse – Ed Rhee – CNET

Science, publishing, and career

A Tale of Two Women and Their Careers in Science – Anna Katie – YouTube

Promoting Responsible Scientific Research – American Society for Microbiology

October 15, 2016

Posted on by

Bacteria in wounds, Oxalobacter and kidney stones, harbor seals, sables, leeches, response to afforestation, subglacial lake, polluted river water.

Human skin and wound microbiome

Bacterial Contribution in Chronicity of Wounds – Kashif Rahim – Microbial Ecology

Human gut microbiome

The fecal microbiota as a biomarker for disease activity in Crohn’s disease – Danyta. I. Tedjo – Scientific Reports

Review: Fungi in the healthy human gastrointestinal tract – Heather E. Hallen-Adams – Virulence

Animal and other experiments

Anti-obese effects of two lactobacilli and two bifidobacteria on ICR mice fed on a high fat diet – Zhipeng Li – Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications

Skin microbiome promotes mast cell maturation by triggering stem cell factor (SCF) production in keratinocytes – Zhenping Wang – Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Diet-related gut bacterial dysbiosis correlates with impaired development, increased mortality and Nosema disease in the honeybee (Apis mellifera) – Patrick W. Maes – Molecular Ecology

Oxalobacter formigenes–Derived Bioactive Factors Stimulate Oxalate Transport by Intestinal Epithelial Cells – Donna Arvans – Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

Press: Factors secreted by gut bacteria may help combat kidney stones – Science Daily

Protein- and zinc-deficient diets modulate the murine microbiome and metabolic phenotype – Jordi Mayneris-Perxachs – The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Animal microbiome

Comparative analysis of the fecal bacterial community of five harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) – Daniela Numberger – MicrobiologyOpen

Comparison of the bacterial communities in feces from wild versus housed sables (Martes zibellina) by high-throughput sequence analysis of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene – Yu Guan – AMB Express

Host Matters: Medicinal Leech Digestive-Tract Symbionts and Their Pathogenic Potential – Jeremiah N. Marden – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Interkingdom Responses to Bacterial Quorum Sensing Signals Regulate Frequency and Rate of Nodulation in Legume–Rhizobia Symbiosis – Andrew G. Palmer – ChemBioChem

Development of Soil Bacterial Communities in Volcanic Ash Microcosms in a Range of Climates – Dorsaf Kerfahi – Microbial Ecology

Response of soil microbial community to afforestation with pure and mixed species – Anna Gunina – Plant and Soil

Experimental Climate Change Modifies Degradative Succession in Boreal Peatland Fungal Communities – Asma Asemaninejad – Microbial Ecology

The role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in grain production and nutrition of sorghum genotypes: Enhancing sustainability through plant-microbial partnership – Adam B. Cobb – Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal assemblages in biological crusts from a Neotropical savanna are not related to the dominant perennial Trachypogon – R.M. Hernández-Hernández – Science of the Total Environment

Review: Belowground nitrogen transfer from legumes to non-legumes under managed herbaceous cropping systems. A review – Malinda S. Thilakarathna – Agronomy for Sustainable Development

Water and extremophile microbiome

Virulence and biodegradation potential of dynamic microbial communities associated with decaying Cladophora in Great Lakes – Chan Lan Chun – Science of The Total Environment

A monotonically declining elevational pattern of bacterial diversity in freshwater lake sediments – Jin Zeng – Environmental Microbiology

Grazers structure the bacterial and algal diversity of aquatic metacommunities – Julia Birtel – Ecology

Changes of the bacterial abundance and communities in shallow ice cores from Dunde and Muztagata glaciers, Tibetan Plateau – Yong Chen – Frontiers in Microbiology

Physiological ecology of microorganisms in Subglacial Lake Whillans – Trista J. Vick-Majors – Frontiers in Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Microorganisms in Confined Habitats: Microbial Monitoring and Control of Intensive Care Units, Operating Rooms, Cleanrooms and the International Space Station – Maximilian Mora – Frontiers in Microbiology

Waste and pollution microbiology

Environmental Drivers of Differences in Microbial Community Structure in Crude Oil Reservoirs across a Methanogenic Gradient – Jenna L. Shelton – Frontiers in Microbiology

Metagenomic Insights into Effects of Chemical Pollutants on Microbial Community Composition and Function in Estuarine Sediments Receiving Polluted River Water – Xiao-Ming Lu – Microbial Ecology

Response of Core Microbial Consortia to Chronic Hydrocarbon Contaminations in Coastal Sediment Habitats – Mathilde Jeanbille – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Bacterial human virulence genes across diverse habitats as assessed by in silico analysis of environmental metagenomes – Ditte A. Søborg – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Reflections on 1500 blog posts at #microbenet – David Coil – Microbe.net

Staff Pick: ‘I Contain Multitudes’ by Ed Yong – Publishers Weekly

Mapping the Subway’s Microbiome – Grégory Fléchet – CNRS News

Your child’s microbiome, and why its health matters – Jennifer Graham – Statesboro Herald

Enquiring About Tolerance (EAT) study: Second Genome, King’s College London study eczema, food allergies in infants – Healio

The ‘Swiss Agent’: Long-forgotten research unearths new mystery about Lyme disease – Charles Piller – STAT News

What radiation-resistant space fungus can do for drug discovery – Shayla Love – STAT News

3 New Vaccines Against ‘Black Death’ Plague Bacteria Show Promise – Rachael Rettner – Live Science

Scientists engineer ‘glow in the dark’ bacteria – to help spot the bugs that cause food poisoning – Lizzie Parry – The Sun

If you want to make bacteria glow, give it a virus – Ben Coxworth – New Atlas

How the Gut Microbiome May Help Us Prevent IBD – Science Blog