Category Archives: Metagenomics & Bioinformatics

December 15, 2015

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Self-tracking the microbiome (quantified self), a human gut-on-a-chip model, indoor air bacteria in residences in the San Francisco Bay Area, and using probiotics on corals during oil spills.

General microbiome

Biometrics’ new identity—measuring more physical and biological traits: Research into the characteristics that are unique to an individual is addressing the need to correctly identify people in a variety of medical, social and security contexts – Andrea Rinaldi – EMBO Reports

Commentary: Self-tracking the microbiome: where do we go from here? – Carine Gimbert – Microbiome

Conference abstracts: 3th ISM World Congress on Targeting Microbiota – Journal of International Society of Microbiota Volume 1 No. 1

Pregnancy and birth

Buccal administration of human colostrum: impact on the oral microbiota of premature infants – K Sohn – Journal of Perinatology

Human mouth/ear microbiome

Pathophysiology of sinusitis of odontogenic origin – Silvio Taschieri – Journal of Investigative and Clinical Dentistry

Human gut microbiome

Different sub-type strains of Akkermansia muciniphila abundantly colonize in southern China – Xianfeng Guo – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Simultaneous fecal microbial and metabolite profiling enables accurate classification of pediatric irritable bowel syndrome – Vijay Shankar – Microbiome

Mucosal Barrier Depletion And Loss Of Bacterial Diversity Are Primary Abnormalities In Paediatric Ulcerative Colitis – Misagh Alipour – Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis

Systematic review with meta-analysis: long-term outcomes of faecal microbiota transplantation for Clostridium difficile infection – Y.-T. Li – Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Microbiome models

Contributions of microbiome and mechanical deformation to intestinal bacterial overgrowth and inflammation in a human gut-on-a-chip – Hyun Jung Kim – PNAS

Effects of antibiotics (oxytetracycline, florfenicol or tulathromycin) on neonatal calves’ faecal microbial diversity – J. Oultram – Veterinary Record

Animal microbiome

Metagenomic Assembly Reveals Hosts of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and the Shared Resistome in Pig, Chicken and Human Feces – Liping Ma – Environmental Science & Technology

The impact of rearing environment on the development of gut microbiota in tilapia larvae – Christos Giatsis – Scientific Reports

The characterization and manipulation of the bacterial microbiome of the Rocky Mountain wood tick, Dermacentor andersoni – Katie A. Clayton – Parasites & Vectors

Impact of oil spills on coral reefs can be reduced by bioremediation using probiotic microbiota – Henrique Fragoso ados Santos – Scientific Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Stronger warming effects on microbial abundances in colder regions – Ji Chen – Scientific Reports

Seasonal dynamics of the microbiome of chernozems of the long-term agrochemical experiment in Kamennaya Steppe – T. I. Chernov – Eurasian Soil Science

Water and extremophile microbiome

Metagenome-assembled genomes uncover a global brackish microbiome – Luisa W. Hugerth – Genome Biology

Similar microbial communities found on two distant seafloor basalts – Esther Singer – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbial communities on seafloor basalts at Dorado Outcrop reflect level of alteration and highlight global lithic clades – Michael D. Lee – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bacterioplankton dynamics within a large anthropogenically impacted urban estuary – Thomas C. Jeffries – Frontiers in Microbiology

Marine microbial community structure assessed from combined metagenomic analysis and ribosomal amplicon deep-sequencing – Savvas Genitsaris – Marine Biology Research

Groundwater isolation governs chemistry and microbial community structure along hydrologic flowpaths – Sarah Ben Maamar – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Forged Under the Sun: Life and Art of Extremophiles from Andean Lakes – Virginia Helena Albarracín – Photochemistry and Photobiology

Food microbiology

Comparative genomics Lactobacillus reuteri from sourdough reveals adaptation of an intestinal symbiont to food fermentations – Jinshui Zheng – Scientific Reports

Built environment microbiology

Relative and contextual contribution of different sources to the composition and abundance of indoor air bacteria in residences – Marzia Miletto – Microbiome

Review: Antibiotic resistance in urban aquatic environments: can it be controlled? – Célia M. Manaia – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Metagenomics, phages, and bioinformatics

Computational approaches to predict bacteriophage–host relationships – Robert A. Edwards – FEMS Microbiology Reviews

Partial least squares regression can aid in detecting differential abundance of multiple features in sets of metagenomic samples – Ondrej Libiger – Frontiers in Genetics

Techniques

A new fungal large subunit ribosomal RNA primer for high throughput sequencing surveys – Rebecca C Mueller – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Biofilms

Classic Spotlight: Before They Were Biofilms – George A. O’Toole – Journal of Bacteriology

Microbes in the news

How Bacteria and Brown Fat Can Spur Weight Loss – Mandy Oaklander – Time

A cultural revolution in the study of the gut microbiome – Medical Xpress

Why Your Body Is Like A Rainforest… Micro-Macro Exhibition at Eden features artwork from students at local secondary schools – PirateFM

Italian olive trees are withering from this deadly bacteria – PBS Newshour

Behind the scenes: Microbial biogeography of a university campus – Ashley Ross – MicroBEnet

Irish company makes biggest breakthrough for microbiology testing in dairy industry in 100 years – Independent Ireland

Bacteria, Archaea – Some Methane In Hydraulic Fracturing Is Even More Natural Than Assumed – Science 2.0

Sweet and sticky: Bacteria use sugars to bind to human cells – Phys.org

Science, publishing, and career

The Unwritten Code of Conduct: Each day this week, my supervisor has walked into my office and made verbal demands that I remove content from my beloved blog – The Research Whisperer

A lesson on misleading graphs from the National Review – Lenny Teytelman – The Spectroscope

Women in STEM research: Better Data and Information Sharing Could Improve Oversight of Federal Grant-making and Title IX Compliance – US Government Accountability Office

Why do scientists like anonymity? Lenny Teytelman – Protocols

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December 14, 2015

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Not a lot of papers today; NCBI’s PubMed alerts has not come out for a couple of days (I will probably get an email tomorrow with 200 new papers…..). Today’s main paper is a not-very microbiological paper on the human gut metagenome.

Human gut microbiome

Synthetic long-read sequencing reveals intraspecies diversity in the human microbiome – Volodymyr Kuleshov – Nature Biotechnology

Review: Microbiota–mitochondria inter-talk: consequence for microbiota–host interaction – Yann Saint-Georges-Chaumet – Pathogens and Disease

Animal microbiome

Toward a better understanding of mechanisms of probiotics and prebiotics action in poultry species – K. M. Ajuwon – Journal of Applied Poultry Research

Microbes in the news

Not sure what is stunning about the diversity they found but: Stunning diversity of gut bacteria uncovered by new approach to gene sequencing devised at Stanford – Jennie Dusheck – Stanford Medicine News Center

Bacteriophage: The Microscopic Black Market – Stefan Rollnick – Huffington Post

Intestinal bacteria are in command – Gemma K. Alderton – Nature Reviews Immunology

The bacteria among us – Jeffrey Perkel – Biotechniques

Antibiotic Use in Food Animals Continues to Rise: Soaring levels of drug use in livestock fuels concern about resistant bacteria, human health – Tom Polansek – Scientific American

Cambridge’s Seres targets ulcerative colitis with new drug based on gut bacteria – Don Seiffert – Boston Business Journal

Altered microbiome burns fewer calories – Study links changes in gut bacteria to lower resting metabolic rate and weight gain in mice – EurekAlert

“How microbial communities interact. It’s kind of like in economics”
Economies of Ail: How Bacteria Flourish – Jo Craven McGinty – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Shorter version here that does not require subscription:
Can economics explain our gut microbiome? – Genetic Literacy Project

World’s First Microbiome Fund Swells to €160M With Major Pharma Also Chipping In – LabioTech

Science, publishing, and career

Law ignored, patients at risk: failure to report results of human studies to ClinicalTrials.gov database – Charles Piller – STAT news
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December 13, 2015

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Apple juice or almond consumption, lessons from animal studies, distinguishing between live and dead methanogens.

Human gut microbiome

Comparative study of fecal microbiota in patients with type II diabetes after consumption of apple juice for 4 weeks – Gyu-Sung Cho – Food Science and Biotechnology

Diet quality improves for parents and children when almonds are incorporated into their daily diet: a randomized, crossover study – Alyssa M. Burns – Nutrition Research

Review: Diagnosis and treatment of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth – Francesca Romana Ponziania – Expert Review of Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Review: The enteric microbiome in hepatobiliary health and disease – James H. Tabibian – Liver International

Animal models

Review: The influence of the young microbiome on inflammatory diseases—Lessons from animal studies – Katja M. Bendtsen – Birth Defects Research Part C: Embryo Today: Reviews

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Interaction between lithification and resource availability in the microbialites of Río Mesquites, Cuatro Ciénegas, México – J. R. Corman – Geobiology

The diversity and abundance of phytase genes (BPP) in bacterial communities of the maize rhizosphere – Simone Raposo Cotta – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Bring on the wheelbarrow: Transplanting soil microbiomes leads to lasting effects on willow growth, but not on the rhizosphere microbiome – Etienne Yergeau – Frontiers in Microbiology

Differential responses of soil bacterial taxa to long-term P, N, and organic manure application – Ying Wang – Journal of Soils and Sediments

Water and extremophile microbiome

Thermal and geochemical influences on microbial biogeography in the hydrothermal sediments of Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California – Luke McKay – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Oceanic fronts: transition zones for bacterioplankton community composition – Federico Baltar – Environmental Microbiology Reports

PhD thesis: Hydrothermal Habitats: Measurements of Bulk Microbial Elemental Composition, and Models of Hydrothermal Influences on the Evolution of Dwarf Planets – Marc Francois Luarent Neveu – Arizona State University

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Network construction and structure detection with metagenomic count data – Zhenqiu Liu – BioData Mining

A simple algorithm for identifying integrons and gene cassettes in bacteria on next generation sequencing data – Guan-Jie Hua – International Journal of Data Mining and Bioinformatics (no access for me)

Techniques

Fluorescent in situ hybridization for the localization of viruses, bacteria and other microorganisms in insect and plant tissues – Adi Kliot – Methods

Propidium monoazide treatment to distinguish between live and dead methanogens in pure cultures and environmental samples – Janine Heise – Journal of Microbiological Methods

Microbes in the news

You’re Surrounded by Bacteria That Are Waiting for You to Die – Erika Engelhaupt – National Geographic

Does That Wine Smell Good? Bacteria in Your Saliva Deserve Some of the Credit
Study shows some wine aromatics aren’t released until they meet the bacteria in our mouths – Kasey Carpenter – Wine Spectator

San Jose: Hospital nurse had tuberculosis; hundreds of babies, moms need treatment or tests – Tracy Seipel – Mercury News

Based on a 2006 paper: This Weed Takes Out Other Plants by Attacking Their “Gut Bacteria” – Esther Inglis-Arkell – Gizmodo

Bacteria Hysteria

Could your child’s teddy give them a stomach bug? Wash youngsters’ favourite toys… and other tips to keep your family lurgy-free this Christmas – The Sun

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December 11, 2015

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Mammalian corpse decomposition – beautiful work by Jessica Metcalf.

Microbiome of death

Microbial community assembly and metabolic function during mammalian corpse decomposition – Jessica L. Metcalf – Science

Human oral microbiome

Review: Oral microbiome, periodontitis and risk of head and neck cancer – Leonardo Victor Galvão-Moreira – Oral Oncology

Review: The emerging landscape of salivary diagnostics – Yong Zhang – Periodontology 2000

Review: Influence of saliva on the oral microbiota – Philip D. Marsh – Periodontology 2000

Human skin microbiome

OK, not microbial, but entertaining: A comparative clinical study of different hair removal procedures and their impact on axillary odor reduction in men – Anthony Lanzalaco – Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology

Human respiratory microbiome

Correspondence: Potential roles of disordered airway microbiota in patients with severe asthma – Zongxin Ling – Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Human gut microbiome

Stress and the Microbiota–Gut–Brain Axis in Visceral Pain: Relevance to Irritable Bowel Syndrome – Rachel D. Moloney – CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics

Review: SLE: Another Autoimmune Disorder Influenced by Microbes and Diet? – Qinghui Mu – Frontiers in Immunology

Review: The Intestinal Microbiome and the Liver Transplant Recipient: What We Know
and What We Need to Know – Iliana Doycheva

Microbiome models

Vancomycin treatment and butyrate supplementation modulate gut microbe composition and severity of neointimal hyperplasia after arterial injury – Karen J. Ho – Physiological Reports

Can closed artificial ecosystem have an impact on insect microbial community? A case study of yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor L.) – Leyuan Li – Ecological Engineering

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Increasing aridity reduces soil microbial diversity and abundance in global drylands – Fernando T. Maestre – PNAS

The interaction between iron nutrition, plant species and soil type shapes the rhizosphere microbiome – Youry Pii – Plant Physiology and Biochemistry

Nitrification and Nitrifying Bacteria in a Coastal Microbial Mat – Haoxin Fan – Frontiers in Microbiology

Diversity of Phytophthora Species from Declining Mediterranean Maquis Vegetation, including Two New Species, Phytophthora crassamura and P. ornamentata sp. nov. – Bruno Scanu – PLOS ONE

Algae–bacteria interactions: Evolution, ecology and emerging applications – Rishiram Ramanan – Biotechnology Advances

Water microbiome

Particle-Associated Differ from Free-Living Bacteria in Surface Waters of the Baltic Sea – Angelika Rieck – Frontiers in Microbiology

The global ocean microbiome – Mary Ann Moran – Science

Hypothesis: Fractal Hypothesis of the Pelagic Microbial Ecosystem—Can Simple Ecological Principles Lead to Self-Similar Complexity in the Pelagic Microbial Food Web? – Selina Våge – Frontiers in Microbiology

Food microbiology

Microbiome profiling in fresh-cut products – Chiara Gorni – Trends in Food Science & Technology

FoodMicrobionet: A database for the visualisation and exploration of food bacterial communities based on network analysis – Eugenio Parente – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

The MG-RAST metagenomics database and portal in 2015 – Andreas Wilke – Nucleic Acids Research

Infection and transplantation

The Interplay of Host Microbiota and Parasitic Protozoans at Mucosal Interfaces: Implications for the Outcomes of Infections and Diseases – Ann-Katrein Bär – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Viruses and phages

The role of viruses in the evolution of cyanobacteria – S. V. Shestakov – Biology Bulletin Reviews

Microbes in the news

Thousands of unexpected microbes break down our bodies after death – Elizabeth Pennisi – Science
Meet the Necrobiome: The Waves of Microbes That Will Eat Your Corpse – Ed Yong – The Atlantic
Tiny Witnesses: Microbes Can Tell When A Murder Victim Died – Rob Stein – NPR

New Superbug Resistant To All Antibiotics Linked To Imported Meat – Judy Stone – Forbes

Chipotle, E. coli, and more: The surprising truths about food-borne illnesses – Sheila Kaplan – STAT news

What Your Microbiome Wants for Dinner – David R Montgomery and Anne Bikle

Bacteria engineered with synthetic circadian clocks – EurekAlert

Melanoma Meets Microbiome – Kenneth Y. Tsai – NEJM Journal Watch

Can the health of a pregnant woman’s gut influence her baby? – Massey University

Science, publishing, and career

Making the most of the postdoc experience – Lorena Escudero – Frontiers Blog

Should post-publication peer review be anonymous? The PubPeer organisers and two other scholars debate the merits and pitfalls of anonymity in peer review – Times Higher Education

No evidence that gender contributes to personal research funding success in The Netherlands: A reaction to van der Lee and Ellemers – PNAS

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December 10, 2015

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The microbiome quality control project, proton pump inhibitors, microbiome models are useful, and Cryoconites in glaciers.

General microbiome

The microbiome quality control project: baseline study design and future directions – Rashmi Sinha – Genome Biology

Human gut microbiome

Proton pump inhibitors affect the gut microbiome – Floris Imhann – Gut

Microbiome models

Your gut microbiome, deconstructed: Probing microbiome functions through simple models – Dylan Dodd, Carolina Tropini & Justin L Sonnenburg – Nature Biotechnology

Baby, It’s Cold Outside: Host-Microbiota Relationships Drive Temperature Adaptations –
Sol Gomez de la Torre Canny, John F. Rawls – Cell Host & Microbe

N-Acetyl-l-cysteine effects on multi-species oral biofilm formation and bacterial ecology –
K. Rasmussen – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

The molecular diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the arsenic mining impacted sites in Hunan province of China – Yuqing Sun – Journal of Environmental Sciences

Incorporating biotic factors in species distribution modeling: are interactions with soil microbes important? – Clifton P. Bueno de Mesquita – Ecography

Water and extremophile microbiome

Temperature and trophic structure are driving microbial productivity along a biogeographical gradient – Sarah M. Gray – Ecography

Review: Cryoconite: The dark biological secret of the cryosphere – Joseph Cook – Progress in Physical Geography

Infection and transplantation microbiology

Review: The Microbiome, Systemic Immune Function, and Allotransplantation – Anoma Nellore – Clinical Microbiology Reviews

Built environment microbiology

Microbiological testing of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics in Egypt – Hend Zeitoun – BMC Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Influence of tree shape and evolutionary time-scale on phylogenetic diversity metrics – Florent Mazel – Ecography

Microbes in the news
Germ Warfare: Turns out that, sometimes, Mr. Microbe is your friend – Christianna McCausland – Baltimore

A gut feeling: there’s a connection between your intestines and your health – Carrie Dennett – Seattle Times

Agilent Technologies Presents Thought Leader Award to Human Microbiome Expert Jeffrey Gordon – Business Wire

Getting the Hologenome Concept Right – Seth Bordenstein – Symbionticism

A microbiologist reveals what would go wrong if all bacteria disappeared – with Jack Gilbert – Tech Insider

Microorganism Devours Its Prey in Award-Winning Video – Carl Engelking – Discover

Illumina Invests in Four Startups Through Accelerator Program – Genome Web

Phage Hunters: New biology course transforms Virginia Tech students into young scientists, research contributors – Augusta Free Press

Lab staple agar hit by seaweed shortage: Dwindling algae harvest imperils reagent essential for culturing microbes – Ewen Callaway – Nature

Lab ‘NERD’ receives $1M funding from Taiwan ministry for microbiome research – Michelle Yeomans – Cosmetics Design

uBiome Releases Predictive Engine for Over 100 Metabolic Functions Based on Microbiome Data – Virtual Strategy

Science, publishing, and career

Blog, tweet, and avoid the pitfalls – Sharon Ann Holgate – Science
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December 8, 2015

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The CF microbiome, microbes attaching to glycoproteins in sweat, gut bacteria make cockroach poop smell attractive for other cockroaches, mycobiome of South African Cabernet vines, and seasonality of Japanese cherry orchard soil fungi.

General microbiome

Perspective: Behavioral Microbiomics: A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Microbial Influence on Behavior – Adam C.-N. Wong – Frontiers in Microbiology

Research highlight: Microbiota-based nutrition plans – Cláudio Nunes-Alves – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Pregnancy and birth

Maternal risk factors for abnormal vaginal flora during pregnancy – Cecilia Tibaldi – International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics

Human respiratory microbiome

MiniReview: The cystic fibrosis microbiome in an ecological perspective and its impact in antibiotic therapy – Andreia P. Magalhães – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Human oral microbiome

Oral Microbiota and Risk for Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in a High-Risk Area of China – Xingdong Chen – PLOS ONE

Human skin microbiome

Sweating the small stuff: Glycoproteins in human sweat and their unexplored potential for microbial adhesion – Robyn A Peterson – Glycobiology

Human gut microbiome

Gut microbiota manipulation with prebiotics in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a randomized controlled trial protocol – BMC Gastroenterology

Review: Current roles of specific bacteria in the pathogenesis of inflammatory
bowel disease – Lucy McMullen – Microbiology

Animal and bioreactor models

Intestinal microbiota contributes to individual susceptibility to alcoholic liver disease – M Llopis – Gut

Development of a Laboratory Model of a Phototroph-Heterotroph Mixed-Species Biofilm at the Stone/Air Interface – Federica Villa – Frontiers in Microbiology

Animal microbiome

Gut bacteria mediate aggregation in the German cockroach – Ayako Wada-Katsumata – PNAS

The deep-sea glass sponge Lophophysema eversa harbors potential symbionts responsible for the nutrient conversions of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur – Ren-Mao Tian – Environmental Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

The Anti-Phytophthora Effect of Selected Potato-Associated Pseudomonas Strains: From the Laboratory to the Field – Anouk Guyer – Frontiers in Microbiology

Defoliation reduces soil biota – and modifies stimulating effects of elevated CO2 – Marie Dam – Ecology and Evolution

Sequence-based Analysis of the Vitis vinifera L. cv Cabernet Sauvignon Grape Must Mycobiome in Three South African Vineyards Employing Distinct Agronomic Systems – Mathabatha E. Setati – Frontiers in Microbiology

Paradox of plant growth promotion potential of rhizobacteria and their actual promotion effect on growth of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) under salt stress – Massimiliano Cardinale – Microbiological Research

Survey of Annual and Seasonal Fungal Communities in Japanese Prunus mume Orchard Soil by Next-Generation Sequencing – Yoshinao Aoki – Advances in Microbiology

Actinobacterial Diversity in the Sediments of Five Cold Springs on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau – Jian Yang – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bacterial diversity assessment of pristine mangrove microbial community from dhulibhashani, sundarban using 16S rRNA gene tag sequencing – Pijush Basak – Genomics Data

Microbialites in the shallow-water marine environments of the Holy Cross Mountains (Poland) in the aftermath of the Frasnian–Famennian biotic crisis – Michał Rakociński – Global and Planetary Change

No tillage combined with crop rotation improves soil microbial community composition and metabolic activity – Bingjie Sun – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Assessing the contribution of fallen autumn leaves to airborne fungi in an urban environment – Peter J. Irga – Urban Ecosystems

Water and extremophile microbiome

Weak Coherence in Abundance Patterns Between Bacterial Classes and Their Constituent OTUs Along a Regulated River – Clara Ruiz-González – Frontiers in Microbiology

Combined Culture-Based and Culture-Independent Approaches Provide Insights into Diversity of Jakobids, an Extremely Plesiomorphic Eukaryotic Lineage – Tomáš Pánek – Frontiers in Microbiology

Metabolic characteristics of dominant microbes and key rare species from an acidic hot spring in Taiwan revealed by metagenomics – Kuei-Han Lin – BMC Genomics

Waste treatment

Microbial community structure associated with the high loading anaerobic codigestion of olive mill and abattoir wastewaters – Hana Gannoun – Bioresource Technology

Microbial analysis of in situ biofilm formation in drinking water distribution systems: implications for monitoring and control of drinking water quality – Isabel Douterelo – Environmental Biotechnology

Food microbiology

Pyrosequencing reveals bacterial diversity in Korean traditional wheat-based nuruk – Jyotiranjan Bal – Journal of Microbiology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Hunting Down Frame Shifts: Ecological Analysis of Diverse Functional Gene Sequences – Michal Strejcek – Frontiers in Microbiology

GenomeTester4: a toolkit for performing basic set operations – union, intersection and complement on k-mer lists – Lauris Kaplinski – GigaScience

Microbes in the news

Cockroaches communicate via bacteria in their feces – Elizabeth Pennisi – Science Magzine

MSU professor trekking to the Amazon to study bacteria of insects that spread disease
– Anne Cantrell, MSU News Service – Bozeman Daily

Bacterial Biofilms: A Charged Environment – Kathryn Calkins – Biomedical Beat

Maintaining Wellness, Starting From Your Gut – Julie Chen – Huffington Post

Fall into Fungi – Alex Alexiev – MicroBEnet

Caps can play a part in cleaning water, not just bottling it – Jim Johnson – Plastic News

Dirty Yamuna water harbours drug-resistant bacteria – Neetu Chandra Sharma – Daily Mail India

Cooperating bacteria isolate cheaters – Phys.org

What you should know about this ‘new’ STD: interview with Raquel Dardik – Kristine Thomason – CNN

Bacteria Hysteria

Bacteria tests: What’s growing beneath your feet? – Alex Osiadacz – KLTV

Science, publication, and career

Five selfish reasons to work reproducibly – Florian Markowetz – Genome Biology

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December 2, 2015

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General microbiome

Microbiology: Microbiome studies need local leaders – Victor S. Pylro – Nature

Human skin microbiome

Conclusions not strongly supported by data: Chitosan Coated Textiles May Improve Atopic Dermatitis Severity by Modulating Skin Staphylococcal Profile: A Randomized Controlled Trial – Cristina Lopes – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory microbiome

Microbial, host and xenobiotic diversity in the cystic fibrosis sputum metabolome – Robert A Quinn – The ISME Journal

Perspective: In the name of ventilator-associated pneumonia prevention: lung microbiota blown away by colistin! – Saad Nseir – European Respiratory Journal

Human gut microbiome

Better link than yesterday: Disentangling type 2 diabetes and metformin treatment signatures in the human gut microbiota – Kristoffer Forslund – Nature

Animal microbiome

Human Staphylococcus aureus lineages among Zoological Park residents in
Greece – E. Drougka – Open Veterinary Journal

Fecal Bacterial Composition of the Endangered Yangtze Finless Porpoises Living Under Captive and Semi-natural Conditions – Xiaoling Wan – Current Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Commentary: Microbiomes: Curating communities from plants – Gwyn A. Beattie – Nature

Better link than yesterday: Functional overlap of the Arabidopsis leaf and root microbiota – Yang Bai – Nature

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

A New Approach for Scalable Analysis of Microbial Communities – Ehsaneddin Asgari – ArXiv

Microbial ecology

Networks of energetic and metabolic interactions define dynamics in microbial communities – Mallory Embree

Adaptive immunity increases the pace and predictability of evolutionary change in commensal gut bacteria – João Barroso-Batista – Nature Communications

Social dynamics within decomposer communities lead to nitrogen retention and organic matter build-up in soils – Christina Kaiser – Nature Communications

Proteomics

Enhancing Metaproteomics – The value of models and defined environmental microbial systems – Florian-Alexander Herbst – Proteomics

Infection microbiology

Nature Supplement: Expanding the role of diagnostic and prognostic tools for infectious diseases in resource-poor settings – Azra C. Ghani – Nature

Microbes in the news

Bacteriophage therapy: an alternative to antibiotics? An interview with Professor Martha Clokie – April Cashin-Garbutt – News Medical

Friends for Life: How Good Bugs Keep You Healthy (Op-Ed) – Jeremy Taylor – LiveScience

Science, publishing, and career

How to build a better PhD: There are too many PhD students for too few academic jobs — but with imagination, the problem could be solved – Julie Gould – Nature

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December 1, 2015

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African gut microbiota and Entamoeba colonization, cuticular bacteria in social spiders, Arabidopsis leaf and root microbiota, the mineralosphere, bacteria in operating rooms and on a university campus.

Pregnancy and birth

The role of gut microbiota in fetal methylmercury exposure: insights from a pilot study – Sarah E. Rothenberg – Toxicology Letters

Human respiratory microbiome

Corticosteroid therapy and airflow obstruction influence the bronchial microbiome, which is distinct from that of bronchoalveolar lavage in asthmatic airways – Darcy R. Denner – The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Human gut microbiome

Variation in Rural African Gut Microbiota Is Strongly Correlated with Colonization by Entamoeba and Subsistence – Elise R. Morton – PLOS Genetics

Not yet on Nature website: Disentangling type 2 diabetes and metformin treatment signatures in the human gut microbiota – Forslund K – Nature

Gut microbiome in health and disease: Linking the microbiome-gut-brain axis and environmental factors in the pathogenesis of systemic and neurodegenerative diseases – Shivani Ghaisas – Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Book Chapter: Microbiome in the Critically Ill – Meredith Barrett – Nutrition Support for the Critically Ill

Review: The gut microbiome, diet, and links to cardiometabolic and chronic disorders – Judith Aron-Wisnewsky & Karine Clément – Nature Reviews Nephrology

Microbiome and bioreactor models

A distributed cell division counter reveals growth dynamics in the gut microbiota –
Cameron Myhrvold – Nature Communications

Polymicrobial Oral Infection with Four Periodontal Bacteria Orchestrates a Distinct Inflammatory Response and Atherosclerosis in ApoEnull Mice – Sasanka S. Chukkapalli – PLOS ONE

Aflatoxin B1 induced compositional changes in gut microbial communities of male F344 rats – Jincheng Wang – Toxicological Sciences

PhD thesis: Advanced Computational Tools for Analyzing Microbial Communities for Energy Production Environments – Adam Robbins-Pianka – University of Colorado at Boulder

Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 enhances bioavailability of serotonin in gut tissues through modulation of synthesis and clearance – Jonathan Nzakizwanayo – Scientific Reports

Animal microbiome

Cuticular bacteria appear lethal to social spiders in mixed but not monoculture inoculations – Carl N. Keiser – Current Zoology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Not yet on Nature website: Functional overlap of the Arabidopsis leaf and root microbiota – Bai Y – Nature

The Mineralosphere Concept: Mineralogical Control of the Distribution and Function of Mineral-associated Bacterial Communities – Stephane Uroz – Trends in Microbiology

Impact of lowland rainforest transformation on diversity and composition of soil prokaryotic communities in Sumatra (Indonesia) – Dominik Schneider – Frontiers in Microbiology

The assessment of epiphytic yeast diversity in sugarcane phyllosphere in Thailand by culture-independent method – Rujikan Nasanit – Fungal Biology

Changes in soil physicochemical and microbial properties along elevation gradients in two forest soils – Lei Hu – Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research

Influence of Cadmium and Glucose on Soil Microbial Communities – Aliya Gilmullina – American Journal of Applied Sciences

Convergence of microbial assimilations of soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur in terrestrial ecosystems – Xiaofeng Xu – Scientific Reports

Water microbiome

Reverse transcriptase genes are highly abundant and transcriptionally active in marine plankton assemblages – Magali Lescot – ISME Journal

Impact of a wastewater treatment plant on microbial community composition and function in a hyporheic zone of a eutrophic river – Siavash Atashgahi – Scientific Reports

Built environment microbiology

The first microbial environment of infants born by C-section: the operating room microbes – Hakdong Shin – Microbiome

Microbial biogeography of a university campus – Ashley A. Ross and Josh D. Neufeld – Microbiome

Only on Pubmed as of now: Biofilms in churches built in grottoes – Cennamo P – Science of the Total Environment

Molecular Analysis of Microbial Community Structures in Nigerian Oil Production and Processing Facilities in order to Access Souring Corrosion and Methanogenesis – Chuma Okoro – Corrosion Science

Water heater temperature set point and water use patterns influence Legionella pneumophila and associated microorganisms at the tap – William J. Rhoads – Microbiome

Food microbiology

Selection of aroma compounds for the differentiation of wines obtained by fermenting musts with starter cultures of commercial yeast strains – Florin Vararu – Food Chemistry

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

MetaQUAST: evaluation of metagenome assemblies – Alla Mikheenko – Bioinformatics

Phenotypic differentiation of gastrointestinal microbes is reflected in their encoded metabolic repertoires – Eugen Bauer – Microbiome

Book Chapter: Predicting the Metagenomics Content with Multiple CART Trees – Dante Travisany – Mathematical Models in Biology

Enhanced virome sequencing using targeted sequence capture – Todd N. Wylie – Genome Research

Biofilms and infection

Multi-species biofilms in ecology, medicine, and biotechnology – A. N. Nozhevnikova – Microbiology

Bacterial infection remodels the DNA methylation landscape of human dendritic cells –
Alain Pacis – Genome Research

Survival with a Helping Hand: Campylobacter and Microbiota – Ivana Indikova – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Microbiome Startup uBiome Will Sequence Poop for the CDC – Sarah Zhang – Wired

Dr. Elizabeth Lindsey, gastroenterologist: FACES of Nashville – Liza Graves – Style

Microbiome Monday: The Bacteria and “The Guinea Pig Doctor” – American Museum of Natural History

The beloved pioneer bread that smells like feet and breaks food safety rules – Natalie Zarrelli – Atlas Obscura

Peer review

Want me to review your manuscript for free? Then be polite… – Ian M Mackay – Virology Down Under
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November 30, 2015

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Red algae growing in sea otter fur, noroviruses in a Thai river, virus dispersal by hand drying, and the dark side of salad.

Jobs and events

Postdoctoral Position, Evolutionary Genomics, University of California, Davis – Gregory Lanzaro – Phylogenomics

“The Dark Side of Salad: Internalization & Movement of Human Pathogenic Bacteria in Plants,” Guest Speaker: Dr. Amanda Deering – December 2, 2015, Purdue University

General microbiome

Review: Functions of innate immune cells and commensal bacteria in gut homeostasis – Hisako Kayama – Journal of Biochemistry

Human stomach microbiome

Identification of low abundance microbiome in clinical samples using whole genome sequencing – Chao Zhang – Genome Biology

Human gut microbiome

Review: The antimicrobial effects of rifaximin on the gut microbiota – H. L. DuPont – Part of a special issue: “Understanding mechanisms of the actions of rifaximin in selected gastrointestinal diseases “- Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Animal models

Influence of Flaxseed Oil on Fecal Microbiota, Egg Quality and Fatty Acid Composition of Egg Yolks in Laying Hens – Jun-Yeong Lee – Current Microbiology

Duodenojejunal Bypass Leads to Altered Gut Microbiota and Strengthened Epithelial Barriers in Rats – Po-Jen Yang – Obesity Surgery

Animal microbiome

Characterization of the putatively introduced red alga Acrochaetium secundatum (Acrochaetiales, Rhodophyta) growing epizoically on the pelage of southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) – Gena B. Bentall – Marine Mammal Science

The mechanism for microsporidian parasite suppression of the hindgut bacteria of the migratory locust Locusta migratoria manilensis – Shu-qian Tan – Scientific Reports

Comparative Analysis of Microbial Diversity in Termite Gut and Termite Nest Using Ion Sequencing – Arumugam Manjula – Current Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiology

Seasonal dynamics of the soil microbial community: assimilation of old and young carbon sources in a long-term field experiment as revealed by natural 13C abundance – G. Börjesson – European Journal of Soil Science

Aboveground litter quality is a better predictor than belowground microbial communities when estimating carbon mineralization along a land-use gradient – Nicolas Fanin – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Effect of rice straw application on microbial community and activity in paddy soil under different water status – Fuxia Pan – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Determinants of the biodiversity patterns of ammonia-oxidizing archaea community in two contrasting forest stands – Jie Chen – Journal of Soils and Sediments

Water and extremophile microbiome

Assessment of bacterial species present in Pasig River and Marikina River soil using 16S rDNA phylogenetic analysis – Maria Constancia O. Carrillo – International Journal of Philippine Science and Technology

Environmental switching during biofilm development in a cold seep system and functional determinants of species sorting – Weipeng Zhang – Molecular Ecology

Molecular detection and characterization of noroviruses in river water near Thailand – K. Inoue – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Biogeochemistry and microbial diversity in the marine cavity beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica – Trista J. Vick-Majors – Limnology and Oceanography

Waste microbiology

New insights into the genetic and metabolic diversity of thiocyanate-degrading microbial consortia – Mathew P. Watts – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Diversity and Distribution of Arsenic-Related Genes Along a Pollution Gradient in a River Affected by Acid Mine Drainage – Angélique Desoeuvre – Microbial Ecology

Seasonal variations of microbial community in a full scale oil field produced water treatment plant – Q. Xie – Global Journal of Environmental Science and Management

Built environment microbiology

Microbial dynamics in mixed culture biofilms of bacteria surviving sanitation of conveyor belts in salmon processing plants – Solveig Langsrud – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Evaluation of the potential for virus dispersal during hand drying: a comparison of three methods – Patrick T. Kimmitt – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Metabolomics

Review: Genome-scale modelling of microbial metabolism with temporal and spatial resolution – Michael A. Henson – Biochemical Society Transactions

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Assessing the Unseen Bacterial Diversity in Microbial Communities – Alejandro Caro-Quintero – Genome Biology Evolution

Finding New Order in Biological Functions from the Network Structure of Gene Annotations – Kimberly Glass – PLOS Computational Biology

Microbes in the news

Bacteria on the Brain: A brilliant surgeon offered an untested treatment to dying patients. Was it innovation or overreach? – Emily Eakin – The New Yorker

Legionnaires’ Disease Bacteria Found In Minneapolis Hospital Water Samples – Angela Laguipo – Tech Times

The four bugs that protect us from asthma – Elizabeth Finkel – Cosmos Magazine
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November 28, 2015

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Events

2nd Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Congress – Early registration ends Monday – February/March 2016, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Human oral microbiome

Decreased Diversity of the Oral Microbiota of Patients with Hepatitis B Virus-Induced Chronic Liver Disease: A Pilot Project – Zongxin Ling – Scientific Reports

Human gut microbiome

Altered Fecal Microbiota in Paediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease – Johanna Maukonen – Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis

Microbiome models

Perspective: Could microbial therapy boost cancer immunotherapy? – Alexandra Snyder – Science

Chronic Zinc Deficiency Alters Chick Gut Microbiota Composition and Function – Spenser Reed – Nutrients

Microbiota is an essential element for mice to initiate a protective immunity against Vaccinia virus – Maurício T. Lima – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Impacts of Extended Laboratory Rearing on Female Fitness in Florida Colonies of the Parasitoid Spalangia cameroni (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) With an Analysis of Wolbachia Strains – E.T. Machtinger – Annals of the Entomological Society of America

Animal microbiome

Fish: Increased diversity of egg-associated bacteria on brown trout (Salmo trutta) at elevated temperatures – Laetitia G. E. Wilkins – Scientific Reports

Termites: Metagenomic analysis of the microbiota in the highly compartmented hindguts of six wood- or soil-feeding higher termites – Karen Rossmassler – Microbiome

Ticks: Emerging horizons for tick-borne pathogens: from the ‘one pathogen–one disease’ vision to the pathobiome paradigm – Muriel Vayssier-Taussat – Future Microbiology

Beetles: Surveying the endomicrobiome and ectomicrobiome of bark beetles: The case of Dendroctonus simplex – Audrey-Anne Durand – Scientific Reports

Coral: Bacterial predation in a marine host-associated microbiome – Rory M Welsh – The ISME Journal

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Illumina High-Throughput Sequencing and Comparative Analysis of Bacterial Communities in Cherry Orchard Soil – Lingzhi Liu – Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry

Water microbiome

Interannual and cyclone-driven variability in phytoplankton communities of a tropical coastal lagoon – Suchismita Srichandan – Marine Pollution Bulletin

New insights into relationships between active and dormant organisms, phylogenetic diversity and ecosystem productivity – Jacob A. Cram – Molecular Ecology

Metagenomic Analysis of Upwelling-Affected Brazilian Coastal Seawater Reveals Sequence Domains of Type I PKS and Modular NRPS – Rafael R. C. Cuadrat – International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Assessment of bacterial species present in Pasig River and Marikina River soil using 16S rDNA phylogenetic analysis – Maria Constancia O. Carrillo – International Journal of Philippine Science and Technology

Bacterial community composition of an urban river in the North West Province, South Africa, in relation to physico-chemical water quality – K. Jordaan – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Extremophile microbiome

The impact of temperature on microbial diversity and AOA activity in the Tengchong Geothermal Field, China – Haizhou Li – Scientific Reports

Built environment microbiome

Characterizing the Bacterial Communities in Retail Stores in the United States – A Hoisington – Indoor Air

Viruses and phages

A New Zamilon-like Virophage Partial Genome Assembled from a Bioreactor Metagenome – Meriem Bekliz – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Bayesian identification of bacterial strains from sequencing data – Aravind Sankar – ArXiv

Microbial Ecology

Resource limitation drives spatial organization in microbial groups – Sara Mitri – The ISME Journal

Genome-scale modelling of microbial metabolism with temporal and spatial resolution – Michael A. Henson – Biochemical Society Transactions

Biofilms / Infection microbiology

Microbial biofilms associated with intravascular catheter-related bloodstream infections in adult intensive care patients – L. Zhang – European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases

Review: The limitations of in vitro experimentation in understanding biofilms and chronic infection – Aled E L Roberts – BioRxiv

Review: The Application of Metagenomic Approaches in the Management of Infectious
Diseases – Jinhua Wu – Tropical Medicine & Surgery

Food microbiology

Sourdough microbial community dynamics: An analysis during French organic bread-making processes – Emilie Lhomme – Food Microbiology

Bacteria in the news

Woolly rhino bacteria cleans up oil spills – Energy Global

A personal touch to wine microbiology – Kyanah Lawson – Food Magazine

Arizona inspectors find Theranos lab issues – AZ Central

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