October 14, 2016

The pubic hair microbiome, lung transplant virome, IBS microbiome signature, coprolites, antibacterial molecules for babies the Tasmanian Devil pouch, Archaea in Mars simulation, white pudding, functional mapping pipeline,

Human oral microbiome

Clinical, Immune, and Microbiome Traits of Gingivitis and Peri-implant Mucositis – G.P. Schincaglia – Journal of Dental Research

The microbial community shifts of subgingival plaque in patients with generalized aggressive periodontitis following non-surgical periodontal therapy: a pilot study – Jing Hang – Oncotarget

ReviewThe Autoimmunity-Oral Microbiome Connection – N Nikitakis – Oral Diseases

Human respiratory microbiome

The Perioperative Lung Transplant Virome: Torque Teno Viruses are Elevated in Donor Lungs and Show Divergent Dynamics In Primary Graft Dysfunction – A. A. Abbas – American Journal of Transplantation

Composition and immunological significance of the upper respiratory tract microbiota – L. Patrick Schenck – FEBS Letters

Human skin and hair microbiome

Individualization of pubic hair bacterial communities and the effects of storage time and temperature – Diana W. Williams – Forensic Science International: Genetics

Gram-positive anaerobe cocci (GPAC) are underrepresented in the microbiome of filaggrin-deficient human skin – Patrick L.J.M. Zeeuwen – The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Review: Microbiome in healthy skin, update for dermatologists – B. Dréno – Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology

Human reproductive tract microbiome

Challenging dogma: the endometrium has a microbiome with functional consequences! – Linda C. Giudice – American Journal of Obstetics & Gynecology

Human gut microbiome

Intestinal microbiota in adult patients with Short Bowel Syndrome: Preliminary results from a pilot study – Stefania Boccia – Clinical Nutrition

Identification of an Intestinal Microbiota Signature Associated With Severity of Irritable Bowel Syndrome – Julien Tap – Gastroenterology

The dual role of Escherichia coli in the course of ulcerative colitis – Magdalena Pilarczyk-Zurek – BMC Gastroenterology

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

Review: Dysbiosis in the ICU: Microbiome science coming to the bedside – Georgios D Kitsios – Journal of Critical Care

Review: Parasites, microbiota and metabolic disease – Sonakshi Bhattacharjee – Parasite Immunology

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

Review: Human Coprolites as a Source for Paleomicrobiology – Sandra Appelt – Microbiology Spectrum

Animal models

Behavioural and Neurochemical Consequences of Chronic Gut Microbiota Depletion during Adulthood in the Rat – A.E. Hoban – Neuroscience

Changes in the rumen microbiome and metabolites reveal the effect of host genetics on hybrid crosses – Zhipeng Li – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Microbial community mapping in intestinal tract of broiler chicken – Yingping Xiao – Poultry Science

Animal microbiome

Comparative Assessment of Mediterranean Gorgonian-Associated Microbial Communities Reveals Conserved Core and Locally Variant Bacteria – Jeroen A. J. M. van de Water – Microbial Ecology

Cathelicidins in the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) – E. Peel – Scientific Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Ecology of the forest microbiome: Highlights of temperate and boreal ecosystems – S. Uroz – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Forest plant community as a driver of soil biodiversity: experimental evidence from collembolan assemblages through large-scale and long-term removal of oak canopy trees Quercus petraea – Ludovic Henneron – Oikos

Microbiome and Exudates of the Root and Rhizosphere of Brachypodium distachyon, a Model for Wheat – Akitomo Kawasaki – PLOS ONE

Review: Recent Developments in Systems Biology and Metabolic Engineering of Plant–Microbe Interactions – Vishal Kumar – Frontiers in Plant Science

Water microbiome

Microbial eukaryote communities exhibit robust biogeographical patterns along a gradient of Patagonian and Antarctic lakes – M. Romina Schiaffino – Environmental Microbiology

Microbial community diversity and composition varies with habitat characteristics and biofilm function in macrophyte-rich streams – Peter S. Levi – Oikos

Phylotype Dynamics of Bacterial P Utilization Genes in Microbialites and Bacterioplankton of a Monomictic Endorheic Lake – Patricia M. Valdespino-Castillo – Microbial Ecology

Consistent responses of the microbial community structure to organic farming along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River – Wenhui Wang – Scientific Reports

Microbes in space

Survivability and Growth Kinetics of Methanogenic Archaea at various pHs and Pressures: Implications for Deep Subsurface Life on Mars – Navita Sinha – Planetary and Space Science

Food microbiology

The use of 16S rRNA gene metagenetic monitoring of refrigerated food products for understanding the kinetics of microbial subpopulations at different storage temperatures: The example of white pudding – Emilie Cauchie – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Microbial diversity in pitted sweet cherries (Prunus avium L.) as affected by high-hydrostatic pressure treatment – Julia Toledo del Árbol – Food Research International

Built environment microbiology

Bioaerosol assessment in the library of Istanbul University and fungal flora associated with paper deterioration – Duygu Göksay Kadaifciler – Aerobiologia

Techniques / Fungi

Accurate Estimation of Fungal Diversity and Abundance Through Improved Lineage-Specific Primers Optimized for Illumina Amplicon Sequencing – D. Lee Taylor – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Multi-omics integration accurately predicts cellular state in unexplored conditions for Escherichia coli – Minseung Kim – Nature Communications

FMAP: Functional Mapping and Analysis Pipeline for metagenomics and metatranscriptomics studies – Jiwoong Kim – BMC Bioinformatics

A critical evaluation of ecological indices for the comparative analysis of microbial communities based on molecular datasets – Rico Lucas – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Microbes in the news

Extremophiles found in a lake, and this is great news for biotech – Colm Gorey – Silicon Republic

‘I want my teeth back’: Kids infected with jaw-eating bacteria after dental treatment – Katie Mettler – Sacramento Bee

Microbiome biotech joins Peter Thiel’s Breakout Labs project – Fierce Biotech

Science, publishing, and career

Book:  Fungible Life: Experiment in the Asian City of Life – Aihwa Ong – Amazon

October 12, 2016

Infants with bronchiolitis, vitamin D receptor GWAS study, long-term effects of stool transplants, genome reduction in insect endosymbionts, San Francisco Bay denitrifying communities, resistomes in metagenomic datasets, Picodroplet WGA for metagenomics.

Jobs and events

Scientist/Senior Scientist opening at WholeBiome

Upcoming mothur and R workshops – Pat Schloss – Mothur

Pregnancy and early life

Rapid change of fecal microbiome and disappearance of Clostridium difficile in a colonized infant after transition from breast milk to cow milk – Manli Y. Davis – Microbiome

Human general and multisite microbiome

Multi-Body-Site Microbiome and Culture Profiling of Military Trainees Suffering from Skin and Soft Tissue Infections at Fort Benning, Georgia – Jatinder Singh – mSphere

Review: The human gastrointestinal tract and oral microbiota in inflammatory bowel disease: a state of the science review – Rosario Lucas López – APMIS

Human oral microbiome

Does obesity influence the subgingival microbiota composition in periodontal health and disease? – Suellen da Silva Maciel – Journal of Clinical Periodontology

Human respiratory microbiome

Throat Swabs and Sputum Culture as Predictors of P. aeruginosa or S. aureus Lung Colonization in Adult Cystic Fibrosis Patients – Darius Seidler – PLOS ONE

Association of nasopharyngeal microbiota profiles with bronchiolitis severity in infants hospitalised for bronchiolitis – Kohei Hasegawa – European Respiratory Journal

Human urinary tract microbiome

Changes in Urinary Microbiome Populations Correlate in Kidney Transplants With Interstitial Fibrosis and Tubular Atrophy Documented in Early Surveillance Biopsies
B. D. Modena – American Journal of Transplantation

Human reproductive tract microbiome

Evidence that the endometrial microbiota has an effect on implantation success or failure – Immaculada Moreno – American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology

Human gut microbiome

Integrated multi-omics of the human gut microbiome in a case study of familial type 1 diabetes – Anna Heintz-Buschart – Nature Microbiology

Genome-wide association analysis identifies variation in vitamin D receptor and other host factors influencing the gut microbiota – Jun Wang – Nature Genetics

A Pair of Identical Twins Discordant for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Differ in Physiological Parameters and Gut Microbiome Composition – Ludovic Giloteaux – American Journal of Case Reports

Unique Features of Ethnic Mongolian Gut Microbiome revealed by metagenomic analysis – Wenjun Liu – Scientific Reports

Long-term effects on luminal and mucosal microbiota and commonly acquired taxa in faecal microbiota transplantation for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection – Jonna Jalanka – BMC Medicine

Press: Healing effect of fecal microbiota transplantation lasts for long – Science Daily

Integrity of the Human Faecal Microbiota following Long-Term Sample Storage – Elahe Kia – PLOS ONE

Review: Signals from the gut microbiota to distant organs in physiology and disease -Bjoern O Schroeder – Nature Medicine

Review: The Gut Microbiome as Therapeutic Target in Central Nervous System Diseases: Implications for Stroke – Katarzyna Winek – Neurotherapeutics

Review: The Multibiome: The Intestinal Ecosystem’s Influence on Immune Homeostasis, Health, and Disease – Heather A Filyk – EBioMedicine

Commentary: Microbiome: Should we diversify from diversity? – Katerina V.-A. Johnson – Gut Microbes

Review: I-Cubed (Infection, Immunity, and Inflammation) and the Human Microbiome – David S. Younger – Neurologic Clinics

Animal models

Microbiota of the Small Intestine Is Selectively Engulfed by Phagocytes of the Lamina Propria and Peyer’s Patches – Masatoshi Morikawa – PLOS ONE

Spatial and Temporal Shifts in Bacterial Biogeography and Gland Occupation during the Development of a Chronic Infection – Daniela Keilberg – mBio

Altered gut microbiota in female mice with persistent low body weights following removal of post-weaning chronic dietary restriction – Jun Chen – Genome Medicine

Animal microbiome

Mosquitoes host communities of bacteria that are essential for development but vary greatly between local habitats – Kerri L. Coon – Molecular Ecology

Review: Dissecting genome reduction and trait loss in insect endosymbionts – Amparo Latorre – Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Review: Beneficial microorganisms for honey bees: problems and progresses – Daniele Alberoni – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

The interplay between soil structure, roots, and microbiota as a determinant of plant–soil feedback – Joana Bergmann – Ecology and Evolution

Soil type determines the distribution of nutrient mobilizing bacterial communities in the rhizosphere of beech trees – O. Nicolitch – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Bacterial selection for biological control of plant disease: criterion determination and validation – Monalize Salete Mota – Brazilian Journal of Microbiology

Killing two birds with one stone: Natural rice rhizospheric microbes reduce arsenic uptake and blast infections in rice – Venkatachalam Laksmanan – Frontiers in Plant Science

Bioenergy cropping systems that incorporate native grasses stimulate growth of plant-associated soil microbes in the absence of nitrogen fertilization – Lawrence G. Oates – Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

Microbiome and Exudates of the Root and Rhizosphere of Brachypodium distachyon, a Model for Wheat – Akitomo Kawasaki – PLOS ONE

Review: Chatting With a Tiny Belowground Member of the Holobiome: Communication Between Plants and Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria – R. Sharifi – Advances in Botanical Research

Water and extremophile microbiome

Spatiotemporal Characterization of San Francisco Bay Denitrifying Communities: a Comparison of nirK and nirS Diversity and Abundance – Jessica A. Lee – Microbial Ecology

Molecular diversity of plankton in a tropical crater lake switching from hyposaline to subsaline conditions: Lake Oloidien, Kenya – Wei Luo – Hydrobiologia

Distinct biogeographical patterns of marine bacterial taxonomy and functional genes – John Matthew Haggerty – Global Ecology and Biogeography

Waste and pollution microbiology

The shift of microbial communities and their roles in sulfur and iron cycling in a copper ore bioleaching system – Jiaojiao Niu – Scientific Reports

Comparison of the microbial community composition of pristine rock cores and technical influenced well fluids from the Ketzin pilot site for CO2 storage – Linda Pellizzari – Environmental Earth Sciences

Food microbiology

Microbial Succession and Flavor Production in the Fermented Dairy Beverage Kefir – Aaron M. Walsh – mSystems

Spatial and compositional variation in the fungal communities of organic and conventionally grown apple fruit at the consumer point-of-purchase – Ahmed Abdelfattah – Horticulture Research

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Picodroplet partitioned whole genome amplification of low biomass samples preserves genomic diversity for metagenomic analysis – Maria Hammond – Microbiome

The structure and diversity of human, animal and environmental resistomes – Chandan Pal – Microbiome

 

TreeScaper: Visualizing and Extracting Phylogenetic Signal from Sets of Trees – Wen Huang – Molecular Biology and Evolution

 

Proteomics

Mining gut microbiome oligopeptides by functional metaproteome display – Jonas Zantow – Scientific Reports

More microbiology

Multiple Signals Govern Utilization of a Polysaccharide in the Gut Bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron – Nathan D. Schwalm III – mBio

Living together in biofilms: the microbial cell factory and its biotechnological implications – Mercedes Berlanga – Microbial Cell Factories

Microbes in the news

The Virus With Spider DNA. How did part of a black-widow venom gene end up in a virus that infects one of the world’s most successful bacteria? – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

The Human Microbiome – ASM Cultures microbiome special featuring top scientists and biotech companies

The superhero in your vagina – Kendall Powell – Mosaic Science

Legionella Bacteria Detected at 4 American Airlines Hangars – ABC News

Study Sees Link Between Allergies and the Infant Gut – Robert Lee Hotz – Wall Street Journal

Breasts have their own microbiome – and it could influence your cancer risk
Your breast has its own unique ecosystem – Bec Crew – Science Alert

Researchers restored a colony of microbes in the gut – Ian Graber-Stiehl – Popular Science

Microbes and money

Second Genome Partners with King’s College London to Evaluate the Influence of the Microbiome in Landmark EAT Study – PR Newswire

MicroBiome Therapeutics’ NM504 For Improving Blood Glucose Regulation Is First Microbiome Modulator to Receive U.S. Patent Allowance – PR Web

Seres’s pioneering microbiome drug fails mid-stage trial – Mark Ratner

Farmers Are Manipulating Microbiomes to Help Crops Grow – Sarah Zhang – Wired

October 3, 2016

Gut microbiota in a Belgian nursing home,  aspirin and antibiotics, and Enterococcus in fecal samples of wild marine species. Please note that the next couple of days won’t leave me much time to run literature searches after work-hours. I might publish less and shorter posts, but I hope to be back soon!

Pregnancy and birth

Review: Impact of Maternal Nutrition in Pregnancy and Lactation on Offspring Gut Microbial Composition and Function – Derrick M Chu – Gut Microbes

Human oral microbiome

Microbiome in the Apical Root Canal System of Teeth with Post-Treatment Apical Periodontitis – José F. Siqueira Jr, – PLOS ONE

Bacterial community of saliva in adults with and without periodontitis – Jianye Zhou – Int J Clin Exp Med

Human gut microbiome

Longitudinal survey of Clostridium difficile presence and gut microbiota composition in a Belgian nursing home – Cristina Rodriguez – BMC Microbiology

Dysbiosis of small intestinal microbiota in liver cirrhosis and its association with etiology – Yanfei Chen – Scientific Reports

Editorial: Disease-Associated Microbial Communities in Healthy Relatives: A Bacteria-Filled Crystal Ball? – Mark R. Frey – CMGH Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Review: The association between the gut microbiota and the inflammatory bowel disease activity: a systematic review and meta-analysis – Michelle Prosberg – Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology

Animal models

Reduced metabolic activity of gut microbiota by antibiotics can potentiate the antithrombotic effect of aspirin – In Sook Kim – Biochemical Pharmacology

Bacterial Abscess Formation Is Controlled by the Stringent Stress Response and Can Be Targeted Therapeutically – Sarah C. Mansour – EBioMedicine

Press: New weapon for hard-to-treat bacterial infections – Science Daily

Animal microbiome

Enterococcus species diversity in fecal samples of wild marine species by real-time PCR – Aline Weber Medeiros – Canadian Journal of Microbiology

A Metabarcoding Survey on the Fungal Microbiota Associated to the Olive Fruit Fly – Antonino Malacrinò – Microbial Ecology
Drosophila Adaptation to Viral Infection through Defensive Symbiont Evolution – Vitor G. Faria – PLOS Genetics

Press: Evolution of a species also involves the bacteria it carries – Science Daily

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Assemblages of fungi associated with cork oak forests in northwestern Tunisia – Mourad Ben Hassine Ben Ali – Nova Hedwigia

Nutrient enrichment induces dormancy and decreases diversity of active bacteria in salt marsh sediments – Patrick J. Kearns – Nature Communications

Book chapter: Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria: A Good Source for Phytoremediation of Metal-Contaminated Soil – Iqra Munir – Phytoremediation

Water and extremophile microbiome

Differences in the Composition of Archaeal Communities in Sediments from Contrasting Zones of Lake Taihu – Xianfang Fan – Frontiers in Microbiology

Seasonal Variation in an Acid Mine Drainage Microbial Community – Ryan Richard Auld – Canadian Journal of Microbiology

Distribution and Diversity of Microbial Eukaryotes in Bathypelagic Waters of the South China Sea – Dapeng Xu – Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Annotating public fungal ITS sequences from the built environment according to the MIxS-Built Environment standard – a report from a May 23-24, 2016 workshop (Gothenburg, Sweden) – Kessy Abarenkov – MycoKeys

Bioaerosols in the Barcelona subway system – X. Triadó-Margarit – Indoor Air

Metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and bioinformatics

Validation of picogram- and femtogram-input DNA libraries for microscale metagenomics – Christian Rinke – PeerJ

SAMSA: a comprehensive metatranscriptome analysis pipeline – Samuel T. Westreich – BMC Bioinformatics

More microbiology

Resveratrol suppresses NTHi-induced inflammation via up-regulation of the negative regulator MyD88 short – Carla S. Andrews – Scientific Reports

Press: Does red wine have health benefits? – Tim Sandle – Digital Journal
Resveratrol can help to reduce inflammation, study finds – Medical Xpress

Microbes in the news

Does gum disease have a link to cancer, dementia, stroke? – Suzanne Allard Levingston – Washington Post

From smart socks for diabetes to hand rehab: Health 2.0’s most interesting startups. DayTwo seeks to use insights from evaluating users’ microbiome to guide their diet choices – Stephanie Baum – MedCityNews

Graceleigh, Inc. Recalls Sammy’s Milk Baby Food Because of Possible Health Risk – FDA

October 1, 2016

Microbiome of tonsils in kidney disease, poisonous salamanders,  Kruger National Park, drought tolerance of plants, and human milk microbiota.

Pregnancy and birth

Distinct patterns in human milk microbiota and fatty acid profiles across specific geographic locations – Himanshu Kumar – Frontiers in Microbiology

ReviewSystematic Review of the Human Milk Microbiota – John L. Fitzstevens – Nutrition in Clinical Practice

Human respiratory microbiome

Comprehensive microbiome analysis of tonsillar crypts in IgA nephropathy – Hirofumi Watanabe – Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation

Human skin microbiome

Microbiota is a primary cause of pathogenesis of chronic wounds – R. Wolcott – Journal of Wound Care

Animal and in vitro models

Transient and Prolonged Response of Chicken Cecum Mucosa to Colonization with Different Gut Microbiota – Jiri Volf – PLOS ONE

Effect of flow and peristaltic mixing on bacterial growth in a gut-like channel – Jonas Cremer – PNAS

Animal microbiome

Cutaneous Bacterial Communities of a Poisonous Salamander: a Perspective from Life Stages, Body Parts and Environmental Conditions – Eugenia Sanchez – Microbial Ecology

Characterization of the Cutaneous Bacterial Communities of Two Giant Salamander Subspecies – Obed Hernández-Gómez – Microbial Ecology

Host-specific functional significance of Caenorhabditis gut commensals – Maureen Berg – Frontiers in Microbiology

Sexual variation of bacterial microbiota of Dendroctonus valens guts and frass in relation to verbenone production – Letian Xu – Journal of Insect Physiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Comparative Metagenomics Reveal Phylum Level Temporal and Spatial Changes in Mycobiome of Belowground Parts of Crocus sativus – Sheetal Ambardar – PLOS ONE

Community composition and abundance of nitrifiers and total bacterial and archaeal populations in savanna soils on contrasting bedrock material in Kruger National Park, South Africa – Saskia Rughoeft – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbial Mat Compositional and Functional Sensitivity to Environmental Disturbance – Eva C. Preisner – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant Drought Tolerance Enhancement by Trehalose Production of Desiccation-Tolerant Microorganisms – Juan I. Vílchez – Frontiers in Microbiology

Associations between an Invasive Plant (Taeniatherum caput-medusae, Medusahead) and Soil Microbial Communities – Elise S. Gornish – PLOS ONE

Temporal dynamics of hot desert microbial communities reveal structural and functional responses to water input – Alacia Armstrong – Scientific Reports

Annual Removal of Aboveground Plant Biomass Alters Soil Microbial Responses to Warming – Kai Xue – mBio

Impact of Cropping Systems, Soil Inoculum, and Plant Species Identity on Soil Bacterial Community Structure – Suzanne L. Ishaq – Microbial Ecology

Extremophiles

Metagenomics of Thermophiles with a Focus on Discovery of Novel Thermozymes – María-Eugenia DeCastro – Frontiers in Microbiology

Food microbiology

Kimchi and Other Widely Consumed Traditional Fermented Foods of Korea: A Review – Jayanta Kumar Patra – Frontiers in Microbiology

Biofilms

Fungal Super Glue: The Biofilm Matrix and Its Composition, Assembly, and Functions – Kaitlin F. Mitchell – PLOS Pathogens

Microbes in the news

Dr. Rob Knight, co-founder of American Gut, Discusses the Microbiota and Microbiota testing – Dr Ruscio

Flesh-Eating Bacteria Like It Hot – Hannah Gavin – Discover Magazine

September 23, 2016

Microbial dysbiosis in familial Crohn’s Disease, probiotic treatment of captive Colorado Toads, microbiome forecasting in the ocean, a new r package for phylogenetic trees, and MacArthur winner Dianne Newman.

General microbiome

Classic Spotlight: 16S rRNA Redefines Microbiology – Igor B. Zhulin – Journal of Bacteriology

Human vaginal microbiome

Microbiome Composition and Function Drives Wound-Healing Impairment in the Female Genital Tract – Alexander S. Zevin – PLOS Pathogens

Human respiratory microbiome

Clinical implications of microbial biofilms in chronic rhinosinusitis and orbital cellulitis – Niranjan Nayak – BMC Ophthalmology

Human gut microbiome

Bacteriome and Mycobiome Interactions Underscore Microbial Dysbiosis in Familial Crohn’s Disease – G. Hoarau – mBio

Prebiotic Effects of Xylooligosaccharides on the Improvement of Microbiota Balance in Human Subjects – Shyh-Hsiang Lin – Gastroenterology Research and Practice

Metformin and the Gut Microbiome in Diabetes – Sridevi Devaraj – Clinical Chemistry

Classic Spotlight: Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, Starch Utilization, and the Birth of the Microbiome Era – George A. O’Toole – Journal of Bacteriology

Review: The human microbiome and juvenile idiopathic arthritis – Anouk Verwoerd – Pediatric Rheumatology

Animal experiments

A secreted bacterial peptidoglycan hydrolase enhances tolerance to enteric pathogens – Kavita J. Rangan – Science

Animal microbiome

Probiotic treatment restores protection against lethal fungal infection lost during amphibian captivity – Jordan G. Kueneman – Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Press: Probiotic treatment protects endangered Colorado toads from lethal fungal infection – University of Colorado Boulder

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Microbial nitrification in throughfall of a Japanese cedar associated with archaea from the tree canopy – Keiji Watanabe – Springer Plus

Spatial heterogeneity of physicochemical properties explains differences in microbial composition in arid soils from Cuatro Cienegas, Mexico – Silvia Pajares – PeerJ

Taxonomic resolution is a determinant of biodiversity effects in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities – Haishui Yang – Journal of Ecology

Water microbiome

Integrating biogeochemistry with multiomic sequence information in a model oxygen minimum zone – Stilianos Louca – PNAS

New model could point way to microbiome forecasting in the ocean – Science Daily

Built environment microbiome

Buzz Off! An Evaluation of Ultrasonic Acoustic Vibration for the Disruption of Marine Microorganisms on Sensor Housing Materials – Jonathan S. McQuillan – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

MetaMLST: multi-locus strain-level bacterial typing from metagenomic samples – Moreno Zolfo – Nucleic Acids Resarch

ggtree: an r package for visualization and annotation of phylogenetic trees with their covariates and other associated data – Guangchuang Yu – Methods in Ecology and Evolution

Techniques

This article is not about primer barcodes, but compares 16S rRNA V6 PCR/454 sequencing to V4 PCR/Illumina sequencing:
Choice of molecular barcode will affect species prevalence but not bacterial community composition – Karen Lebret – Marine Genomics

Webinar | Combating the “garbage-in-garbage-out” paradigm: The importance of library prep in next-gen sequencing workflows – Maura Costello – Science

Microbes in the news

Bacteria have sculpted the world we live in, and that’s why MacArthur winner Dianne Newman studies them – Deborah Netburn – LA Times

Book Review: “Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World” provides suggestions for a microbially rich and healthy childhood – Anne Estes – Mostly Microbes

Professionally printed version of Gut Check:The Microbiome Game available for a limited time from MOBIO. See below for a chance to win a free copy! – Anne Estes – Mostly Microbes

New Research Collaboration Explores Microbiome of the Space Station – Astrobiology Magazine

Swarms of magnetic bacteria could be used to deliver drugs to tumors – Science Daily

How do antibiotic-resistant bacteria get into the environment? – Suzanne Young and Valerie Harwood – The Conversation

Using bacteria to clean up oil – Anmar Frangoul – CNBC

Penn: Plant-made Antimicrobial Peptide Targets Dental Plaque and Gum Tissues – Penn News

Bacteria Hysteria

Note: little science here other than a 1997 paper, but lots of promotion for a certain manufacturer of stainless steel coffee mugs. Proceed with caution:
You should be washing your coffee mug way more than you think – Melia Robinson – Business Insider

And this one quotes a study from 1994, which looked at plant-based, not plastic sponges that were deliberately inoculated with pathogens. Proceed with caution:
Loofahs Have More Bacteria Than You Think — In Fact, You Should Probably Throw Yours Out – Lily Feinn – Bustle

Science, publishing, and career

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan announce $3 billion effort aimed at curing disease – Shayla Love – STAT News

With some of my tweets!
A future without women – no female Future Prize nominees – Carla Bleiker – Deutsche Welle

September 21, 2016

Secretor status of mother affects infant’s gut microbiota development, differences between lean and obese kids, effect of ozone levels on plant microbiomes.

Pregnancy and early life

Mothers Secretor Status Affects Development of Childrens Microbiota Composition and Function: A Pilot Study – Paula Smith-Brown – PLOS ONE

Press: Research reveals importance of breast milk gene for toddler gut bacteria – University of Queensland

Human vaginal microbiome

Evaluation of Lysis Methods for the Extraction of Bacterial DNA for Analysis of the Vaginal Microbiota – Christina Gill – PLOS ONE

Human urinary tract microbiome

Review: Urinary incontinence: Making sense of the urinary microbiota in clinical urology – Gregor Reid – Nature Reviews Urology

Human gut microbiome

Bacteriome and Mycobiome Interactions Underscore Microbial Dysbiosis in Familial Crohn’s Disease – G. Hoarau – mBio

Role of Gut Microbiota and Short Chain Fatty Acids in Modulating Energy Harvest and Fat Partitioning in Youth – Martina Goffredo – Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism

Press: Gut bacteria differ between obese and lean youth – MedicalXpress
Fat Flora? Gut Bacteria Differ in Obese Kids – Christopher Wanjek – LiveScience

Conference poster: Unique Gut Microbiome Triggers Ankylosing Spondylitis, Research Hints – Nancy A. Melville – Medscape

Review: The Microbiome: a Revolution in Treatment for Rheumatic Diseases? – James T. Rosenbaum – Current Rheumatology Reports

Review: Gut Instincts: microbiota as a key regulator of brain development, ageing and neurodegeneration – Timothy G. Dinan – The Journal of Physiology

Animal models

Interleukin-15 promotes intestinal dysbiosis with butyrate deficiency associated with increased susceptibility to colitis – Marlies Meisel – The ISME Journal

Animal microbiome

In situ visualization of bacterial populations in coral tissues: pitfalls and solutions – Naohisa Wada – PeerJ

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Effects of Elevated Tropospheric Ozone Concentration on the Bacterial Community in the Phyllosphere and Rhizoplane of Rice – Yoshiaki Ueda – PLOS ONE

Rhizospheric Bacterial Community of Endemic Rhododendron arboreum Sm. Ssp. delavayi along Eastern Himalayan Slope in Tawang – Rajal Debnath – Frontiers in Plant Science

Does cryptic microbiota mitigate pine resistance to an invasive beetle-fungus complex? Implications for invasion potential – Chihang Cheng – Scientific Reports

Microbial Community Dynamics and Response to Plant Growth-Promoting Microorganisms in the Rhizosphere of Four Common Food Crops Cultivated in Hydroponics – C. Sheridan – Microbial Ecology

ReviewThe Plant Microbiota: Systems-Level Insights and Perspectives – Daniel B. Müller – Annual Review of Genetics

Water microbiome

Revealing the relationship between microbial community structure in natural biofilms and the pollution level in urban rivers: a case study in the Qinhuai River basin, Yangtze River Delta – Wei Cai – Wter Science & Technology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Metagenomics as a preliminary screen for antimicrobial bioprospecting – Soha Al-Amoudi – Gene

TreeScaper: visualizing and extracting phylogenetic signal from sets of trees – Wen Huang – Molecular Biology and Evolution

Techniques

Microbial community analysis using MiSeq sequencing in a novel configuration fluidized bed reactor for effective denitrification – Phatchariya Rungkitwatananukul – Bioresource Technology

A method for high precision sequencing of near full-length 16S rRNA genes on an Illumina MiSeq – Catherine M. Burke – PeerJ

More microbiology

A Comprehensive Study of Cyanobacterial Morphological and Ecological Evolutionary Dynamics through Deep Geologic Time – Josef C. Uyeda – PLOS ONE

Microbes in the news

The Perks of Manipulating the Microbiome: Probiotics, poop pills and … – Lynne Peeples – Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News

About paper that came out in June: The Breast Has Its Own Microbiome—and the Mix of Bacteria could Prevent or Encourage Cancer – Knvul Sheikh – Scientific American

Plants take it all in to deal with bacteria – Science Daily

Purdue scientists have bright idea for detecting harmful bacteria in food products – Purdue University

UCR professor discovers bacterial connection between wild bees and flowers – Som Chaturvedi – The Highlander (belongs to this paper)

Microbes and money

Skin Microbiome Company Mother Dirt Launches First-Ever Biome-Friendly Moisturizer
AOBiome’s consumer division expands skin product line to complement signature AO+Mist – PR Newswire

Science, publishing, and career

Sad outcome of survey: “Although the majority of department chairs value educational scholarship, only a minority perceive value in faculty blogging effort”. Does Academic Blogging Enhance Promotion and Tenure? A Survey of US and Canadian Medicine and Pediatric Department Chairs – Christian Blake Cameron

September 20, 2016

A review of antibiotics’ effect on the human microbiome, the pig gut microbiome, microbiome of Green Design, expanding Unifrac, and GutCheck, the Microbiome Game.

General human microbiome

Review: Antibiotic use and microbiome function – Manuel Ferrer – Biochemical Pharmacology

Human respiratory microbiome

Taxa of the Nasal Microbiome Are Associated with Influenza-Specific IgA Response to Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine – Hannah M. Salk – PLOS ONE

Changes in the bacterial microbiome of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis after endoscopic sinus surgery – Ravi Jain – International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology

Human gut microbiome

Gastric microbiota in the functional dyspepsia patients treated with probiotic yogurt – Hirohiko Nakae – BMJ Open Gastroenterology

Animal microbiome

A reference gene catalogue of the pig gut microbiome – Liang Xiao – Nature Microbiology

Press: Gut Microbial Genes Profiled in Pigs From Diverse Breeds, Locations – Genome Web

The Prevalence of Canine Oral Protozoa and Their Association with Periodontal Disease – Niran Patel – The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology

Functional diversity of ant-associated bacterial communities – A. A. Dymova – Biology Bulletin

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Can inoculation with living soil standardize microbial communities in soilless potting substrates? – Petra Bukovská – Applied Soil Ecology

Effects of saline water irrigation and fertilization regimes on soil microbial metabolic activity – Li -Juan Chen – Journal of Soils and Sediments

More on the Centralia coal mine fire (see yesterday’s post): Diversity and mechanisms of arsenic resistance among soil bacteria impacted by the ongoing Centralia coal mine fire – Taylor K Dunivin – PeerJ Preprint

Water and extremophile microbiome

Metagenomics as a preliminary screen for antimicrobial bioprospecting – Soha Al-Amoudi – Gene

Built environment microbiome

The Microbiome of Green Design: Sustainable building practices may have unforeseen consequences for microbial communities and human health – Carolyn Beans – BioScience

More microbiology

Cat-Scratch Disease in the United States, 2005–2013 – Christina A. Nelson – Emerging Infectious Diseases

Press: Don’t Kiss That Kitty: Cat-Scratch Fever Is Making People Sicker – Erin Ross – NPR

Bioinformatics and proteomics

Strategies to improve usability and preserve accuracy in biological sequence databases – Johan Bengtsson-Palme – Proteomics

Expanding the UniFrac Toolbox – Ruth G. Wong – PLOS ONE

MetaStorm: A Public Resource for Customizable Metagenomics Annotation – Gustavo Arango-Argoty – PLOS ONE

Microbes in the news

Gut Check: The Microbiome Game – MoBio
Gut Check: The Microbiome Game now available for purchase – David Coil – MicroBEnet

Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria and the World’s Peril: The U.N. General Assembly is taking on a danger that threatens the health of our entire species – Laurie Garrett – Scientific American

Scientists uncover a clever ranking strategy bacteria use to fight off viruses – NewsWire Rockefeller

Oetzi Iceman Update: Bacteria Found In Mummy’s Stomach May Lead To Cancer Research – Janice Williams – International Business News

Stone Age mummy still revealing secrets, 25 years on – Simon Sturdee – Phys.org

Lake Arrowhead Microbial Genomics #LAMG16 Report: Day 1 – David Coil – MicroBEnet

September 13, 2016

Infant gut microbiome and allergy risk, gut microbiome in mice and susceptibility to Plasmodium, microbiome of a stranded striped dolphin, cadavers in Canada, rRNA operon copy numbers.

Events

(repeat posting) 4th Microbiome R&D Business collaboration Forum & Probiotics Congress, October 3-4, 2016, La Jolla,San Diego, USA. Use discount code: ALLONG for a special rate of $399.

Pregnancy and birth

Neonatal gut microbiota associates with childhood multisensitized atopy and T cell differentiation – Kei E Fujimura – Nature Medicine

Press: Infant gut microbiome appears to shape allergy risk by altering immune responses – EurekAlert
Newborn gut microbiome predicts later allergy and asthma, study finds. Microbial byproducts link particular early-life gut microbes to immune dysfunction – Science Daily
Clues in microbiome of infants point to future allergies and asthma – Yvette Brazier – Medical News Today
Neonatal Gut Bacteria Might Promote Asthma. Byproducts of gut microbes in some 1-month–old babies trigger inflammation that is linked to later asthma development, researchers find. – Anna Azvolinsky – The Scientist

Human urinary tract microbiome

Urinary microbiome of kidney transplant patients reveals dysbiosis with potential for antibiotic resistance – Asha Rani – Translational Research

Human gut microbiome

Gut bacterial microbiota in psoriasis: A case control study – Doaa Masallat – African Journal of Microbiology Research

Review: Cognitive Function and the Microbiome – M.G. Gareau – International Review of Neurobiology

Review: Advances in Gut Microbiome Research and Relevance to Pediatric Diseases – Lindsey Albenberg – The Journal of Pediatrics

Animal experiments

Monitoring perinatal gut microbiota in mouse models by mass spectrometry approaches: parental genetic background and breastfeeding effects – Stefano Levi Mortera – Frontiers in Microbiology

Functional characteristics of the gut microbiome in C57BL/6 mice differentially susceptible to Plasmodium yoelii – Joshua M. Stough – Frontiers in Microbiology

Modulation of the bifidobacterial communities of the dog microbiota by zeolite – Alberto Sabbioni – Frontiers in Microbiology

Animal microbiome

The microbiome of a striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) stranded in Portugal – Filipa Godoy-Vitorino – Research in Microbiology

Book Chapter: Microbial Interactions on Coral Surfaces and Within the Coral Holobiont – Max Teplitski – The Cnidaria, Past, Present and Future

Book Chapter: Association of Coral-Microbes, and the Ecological Roles of Microbial Symbionts in Corals – Wei Sun – The Cnidaria, Past, Present and Future

Human Lice in Paleoentomology and Paleomicrobiology – Rezak Drali – ASM Microbiology Spectrum

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Resource partitioning between bacteria, fungi and protists in the detritusphere of an agricultural soil – Susanne Kramer – Frontiers in Microbiology

Composition and activity of soil microbial communities in different types of temperate forests – Marcin Chodak – Biology and Fertility of Soils

The effect of the Falcon 460 EC fungicide on soil microbial communities, enzyme activities and plant growth – Małgorzata Baćmaga – Ecotoxicology

Review: Plant microbe interactions in post genomic era: perspectives and applications – Jahangir Imam – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water microbiome

Quantification of viral and prokaryotic production rates in benthic ecosystems: a methods comparison – Eugenio Rastelli – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbiome of death

Cadavers in Canada: Book Chapter: Changes in Soil Microbial Activity Following Cadaver Decomposition During Spring and Summer Months in Southern Ontario – Heloise A. Breton – Soil in Criminal and Environmental Forensics

Wastewater and pollution microbiology

Poster: MiDAS: A curated database for the microorganisms of activated sludge and anaerobic digesters – Simon Jon McIlroy – Water Engineering and Biofilm IWA Specialist Conference, 2016

Probiotics

Layer-by-Layer Encapsulation of Probiotics for Delivery to the Microbiome – Aaron C. Anselmo – Advanced Materials

Food microbiology

Book: Functional Nucleic Acids Detection in Food Safety: Theories and Applications – Wentao Xu – Springer

Microbial ecology

Aligning the Measurement of Microbial Diversity with Macroecological Theory – James C. Stegen – Frontiers in Microbiology

Editorial: Insights into microbe-microbe interactions in human microbial ecosystems: strategies to be competitive – Nuria Salazar – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Exploiting rRNA operon copy number to investigate bacterial reproductive strategies – Benjamin R.K. Roller – Nature Microbiology

Diversity in a Polymicrobial Community Revealed by Analysis of Viromes, Endolysins and CRISPR Spacers – Michelle Davison – PLOS ONE

SnpFilt: A pipeline for reference-free assembly-based identification of SNPs in bacterial genomes – Carmen H.S. Chan – Computational Biology and Chemistry

Review: Advances in biodiversity: metagenomics and the unveiling of biological dark matter – Robert J. Robbins – Standards in Genomic Sciences

Microbes in the news

What we have in common with corals and their unexplored microbial world – Alejandra Hernandez – The Conversation

September 10, 2016

Bifidobacteria and ulcerative colitis, the pollen microbiome, busting the 5-second rule, resistance genes in 23,000 microbial genomes, and a cool video of evolution of bacterial resistance.

Events

Gut health, microbiota & probiotics throughout the lifespan – Metabolic & Brain function 2016 – Sept 15-16, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Human oral microbiome

Deep sequencing reveals microbiota dysbiosis of tongue coat in patients with liver carcinoma – Haifeng Lu – Scientific Reports

Human respiratory microbiome

Review: The microbiome in asthma – Magali Noval Rivas – Current Opinion Pediatrics

Human gut microbiome

Elucidating the gut microbiome of ulcerative colitis: bifidobacteria as novel microbial biomarkers – Sabrina Duranti – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Review: Gut Microbiota, Inflammation, and Colorectal Cancer – Caitlin A. Brennan – Annual Review of Microbiology

Review: Microbiota—myeloid cell crosstalk beyond the gut – Sayeh Gorjifard – Journal of Leukocyte Biology

Four reviews in Current Pharmaceutical Design in the category “Could the gut microbiota perhaps be involved in disease X?” – with 4 different X’s. 

Animal models

Antibiotic Treatment Induces Long-lasting Changes in the Fecal Microbiota that Protect Against Colitis – Naomi L. Ward – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Differences In CD8αα And Cecal Microbiome Community During Proliferation And Late Cytolytic Phases Of Marek’s Disease Virus (MDV) Infection Are Associated With Genetic Resistance To Marek’s Disease – Sudeep Perumbakkam – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Bacterial microbiota associated with flower pollen is influenced by pollination type, and shows a high degree of diversity and species-specificity – Binoy Ambika Manirajan – Environmental Microbiology

Land use intensification in the humid tropics increased both alpha and beta diversity of soil bacteria – Teotonio Soares de Carvalho – Ecology

Small-scale spatial heterogeneity of ecosystem properties, microbial community composition and microbial activities in a temperate mountain forest soil – Martina Štursová – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Extremophile microbiome

Seasonal dynamics of extremely halophilic microbial communities in three Argentinian salterns – Leonardo Di Meglio – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Built environment microbiome

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Christin Lola / Fotolia (via Science Direct)

Longer Contact Times Increase Cross-Contamination of Enterobacter aerogenes from Surfaces to Food – Robyn C. Miranda – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Researchers debunk ‘five-second rule’: Eating food off the floor isn’t safe. Sometimes bacteria transfer in less than a second – Science Daily

Forget the ‘five-second rule’: Food dropped on the floor picks up bacteria in just ONE second – David Gardner – Daily Mail

Antimicrobial Chemicals Are Associated with Elevated Antibiotic Resistance Genes in the Indoor Dust Microbiome – Erica M. Hartmann – Environmental Science & Technology

Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Indoor Dust – Technology Networks

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

The transfer network of bacterial mobile resistome connecting animal and human microbiome – Yongfei Hu – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Catalog of Mobile Antibiotic Resistance Genes Helps Explain Transfer to Human Pathogens – Genome Web

Chinese investigators characterize the world of resistance gene exchange among bacteria – Phys.org

Phages and viruses

Bacteriophages in clinical samples can interfere with microbiological diagnostic tools – Maryury Brown-Jaque – Scientific Reports

Techniques

Absolute quantification of microbial taxon abundances – Ruben Props – The ISME Journal

Microbes in the news

Jo Handelsman of White House Office of Science and Technology to Speak Monday – University of Tennessee

WATCH: Bacteria Invade Antibiotics And Transform Into Superbugs – Angus Chen – NPR
This might be the coolest visualization of evolution ever. Watch these bacteria evolve antibiotic resistance in just 12 days – Brian Resnick – Vox

These researchers would like you to mail them your gut bacteria – Katherine Lindemann – Research Gate Blog

Hepatitis A Outbreak Linked to Strawberries at Smoothie Chain – Daniel Victor – New York Times

Bacteria Hysteria

M&S becomes first supermarket to offer anti-bacterial shopping bags to banish bugs such as E. coli –  Katie Morley – The Telegraph

Bik’s non-microbiology Picks

Microbiome analysis, please! Giraffes aren’t just giraffes. Turns out there are four species – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

Flatworm parasite named after Barack Obama: Is that a compliment? – Rowena Lindsay Christian Science Monitor

 

September 8, 2016

Geese in wintering areas, Hirschsprung’s disease, and extreme metagenomics.

Jobs and Events

Assistant Professor in Microbiome Research – University of Maryland Baltimore County

Virtual Conference: Microbiology & Immunology 2016 interactive online conference, latest Research on Microscopic Organisms and How They Impact the Human Body – September 7-8, 2016

EPA Webinar and Discussion: What Have We Learned about the Microbiomes of Indoor Environments? – Brent Stephens – September 22, 2016

SMi’s 6th annual Pharmaceutical Microbiology conference – January 18-19, London, UK

Human gut microbiome

screen-shot-2016-09-08-at-7-35-07-amCharacterization of Intestinal Microbiomes of Hirschsprung’s Disease Patients with or without Enterocolitis Using Illumina-MiSeq High-Throughput Sequencing – Yuqing Li – PLOS ONE

Preview: Harnessing Genes and Diet to Fine-Tune the Gut Microbial Fitness – Patrice D. Cani – Cell Metabolism

Animal microbiome

GeeseCharacterising the interspecific variations and convergence of gut microbiota in Anseriformes herbivores at wintering areas – Yuzhan Yang – Scientific Report

Water and extremophile microbiome

Extreme metagenomics using nanopore DNA sequencing: a field report from Svalbard, 78 N – Arwyn Edwards – bioRxiv

Bacterial community succession in a high altitude sub-arctic glacier foreland is a three-stage process – Sina Kazemi – Molecular Ecology

Communities that thrive in extreme conditions captured from a freshwater lake – Etienne Low-Décarie – Biology Letters

Review: Substratum-Associated Microbiota – Paula C. Furey – Water Environment Research

Food microbiology

Mungo bean sprout microbiome and changes associated with culture based enrichment protocols used in detection of Gram-negative foodborne pathogens – Heike Margot – Microbiome

Bioinformatics and metagenomes

De novo extraction of microbial strains from metagenomes reveals intra-species niche partitioning – Christopher Quince – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

Captive Komodo Dragons Share Their Teeming Microbiome with Their Environment, Just Like Us – Naomi Shavin – Smithsonian Magazine

OSTP call to action on saving soil – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBEnet

IIT-Bombay team finds bacteria responsible for neonatal deaths – Priyanka Sahoo – The Indian Express

Scientists discover link between bacteria and supposedly non-infectious diseases – BBSRC

Life on Mars? Martian Meteorites, Martian Microbes – Julie Taylor – uBiome blog

New website (with a link to my blog, so it’s all good): The Microbiome, sponsored by Era7 Bioinformatics Inc.

Science integrity

Macchiarini scandal is a valuable lesson for the Karolinska Institute – Nature