January 7, 2022

Posted on January 7, 2022 by Kara

Today’s digest covers a range of topics including a duplex qPCR assay to detect lung infections, an investigation into sand fly symbionts, and a characterization of a fermented soybean food (Pe poke). If you want to end the week on a good note, I’d suggest reading the two articles I’ve highlighted below. One demonstrates that flooding and ecological restoration of former cranberry farmland also restores wetland microbial communities and soil function. The second provides a new barcoding strategy for the phenotypic screening of mosquitos that can be applied towards malaria research.

Happy reading!

General microbiome

Controlled spatial organization of bacterial growth reveals key role of cell filamentation preceding Xylella fastidiosa biofilm formation – Anbumani et al. – npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

Bacteria can be selected to help beneficial plasmids spread – Dimitriu et al. – PLOS Biology

Genome-wide gene expression noise in Escherichia coli is condition-dependent and determined by propagation of noise through the regulatory network – Urchueguía et al. – PLOS Biology

Human respiratory microbiome

Detection of Pneumocystis jirovecii and Toxoplasma gondii in patients with lung infections by a duplex qPCR assay – Wu et al. – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Animal experiments

***Barcoded Asaia bacteria enable mosquito in vivo screens and identify novel systemic insecticides and inhibitors of malaria transmission – Sturm et al. – PLOS Biology

Molecular phylogeny of heritable symbionts and microbiota diversity analysis in phlebotominae sand flies and Culex nigripalpus from Colombia – Vivero-Gomez – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Shotgun sequence-based metataxonomic and predictive functional profiles of Pe poke, a naturally fermented soybean food of Myanmar – Tamang et al. – PLOS One

***Flooding and ecological restoration promote wetland microbial communities and soil functions on former cranberry farmland – Rubin et al. – PLOS One

Water and extremophile microbiome

Coral reef biofilm bacterial diversity and successional trajectories are structured by reef benthic organisms and shift under chronic nutrient enrichment – Remple et al. – npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

December 20, 2021

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Kara

Today’s digest is a grab bag that includes research articles on the vaginal microbiota, the gut microbiota of dairy calves, microbial loads in medical waste, and more! I’ve also highlighted a non-microbiology article that found that pet dog owners were significantly less depressed than non-pet owners during the pandemic. So if you’re looking for more reasons to adopt a new furry friend, you can add this one to the list!

General microbiome

Genomic comparison and phenotypic profiling of small colony variants of Burkholderia pseudomallei – Zulkefli et al. – PLOS One

Human vaginal microbiome

Vaginal microbiota of American Indian women and associations with measures of psychosocial stress – Borgogna et al. – PLOS One

Human gut microbiome

Gut microbiota features associated with Clostridioides difficile colonization in dairy calves – Redding et al. – PLOS One

Animal microbiome

Culicoides Latreille (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) as potential vectors for Leishmania martiniquensis and Trypanosoma sp. in northern Thailand – Sunantaraporn et al. – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Migratory wild birds carrying multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli as potential transmitters of antimicrobial resistance in China – Yuan et al. – PLOS One

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Characterization of soils conducive and non-conducive to Prunus replant disease – Khan et al. – Plos One

Built environment

Disposal habits and microbial load of solid medical waste in sub-district healthcare facilities and households in Yilo-Krobo municipality, Ghana – Egbenyah et al. – PLOS One

Phages and viruses

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the potential non-human animal reservoirs and arthropod vectors of the Mayaro virus – Celone et al. – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Bioinformatics

Genomic prediction using low-coverage portable Nanopore sequencing – Lamb et al. – PLOS One

Development of an efficient Sanger sequencing-based assay for detecting SARS-CoV-2 spike mutations – Lim et al. – PLOS One

Kara’s non-microbiology pick

***Depression, anxiety, and happiness in dog owners and potential dog owners during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States – Martin et al. – PLOS One

November 15, 2021

Posted on November 15, 2021 by Kara

Today’s digest contains an article about the effect of shale flowback fluid on the polluted soil microbiome. It also includes multiple preprints on topics such as long-read sequencing on the Oxford Nanopore, arctic marine protists, rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing for mixed infections, and more.

Happy reading!

General microbiome

Preprint: Rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing and species identification for mixed infections – Kandavalli et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Bacterial quorum sensing allows graded and bimodal cellular responses to variations in population density – Rattray et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint – Phage-encoded sigma factors alter bacterial dormancy – Schwartz et al. – bioRxiv

Human respiratory microbiome

Preprint: Aspergillus fumigatus drives tissue damage via iterative assaults upon mucosal integrity and immune homeostasis – Okaa et al. – bioRxiv

Human skin microbiome

Preprint: Cobamide sharing drives skin microbiome dynamics – Swaney et al. – bioRxiv

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Toxic effects of shale gas fracturing flowback fluid on microbial communities in polluted soil – Zudong Mei et al. – Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

Water and extremophile microbiome

Preprint: Colonial choanoflagellate isolated from Mono Lake harbors a microbiome – Hake et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Linking extreme seasonality and gene expression in arctic marine protists – Wutkowska et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Biosorption potential and molecular characterization of metal resistant autochthonous microbes from tannery solid waste – Younas et al. – bioRxiv

Techniques

Preprint: Oxford Nanopore R10.4 long-read sequencing enables near-perfect bacterial genomes from pure cultures and metagenomes without short-read or reference polishing – Sereika et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Going through phages: A Computational approach to Revealing the role of prophage in Staphylococcus aureus – Sweet et al. – bioRxiv

October 22, 2021

Posted on October 22, 2021 by Kara

Happy Friday!

Today’s digest includes an article on the role of age in the human intestinal microbiome, research on the role of a novel Acidobacteriota in seafloor sulfur cycling, work demonstrating the use of machine learning to predict camplyobacter source data, and much more! I also included the link to a page on “The Secret World Inside You”, a science exhibit focused on the human microbiome that is at the Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas from now until April 10, 2022. If anyone ends up checking it out, I’d love to hear about it!

Events

A microbiome science exhibit, “The Secret World Inside You,” is at The Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas from October 16, 2021 to April 10, 2022 .

Human gut microbiome

Bile acid-independent protection against Clostridioides difficile infection – Aguirre et al. – PLOS PATHOGENS

The importance of age in compositional and functional profiling of the human intestinal microbiome – Herzog et al. – PLOS ONE

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

The chosen few—variations in common and rare soil bacteria across biomes – Bickel & Or – The ISME Journal

The fungus Kalmusia longispora is able to cause vascular necrosis on Vitis vinifera – Karácsony et al. – PLOS ONE

Water and extremophile microbiome

Novel taxa of Acidobacteriota implicated in seafloor sulfur cycling – Flieder et al. – The ISME Journal

Beach sand oil spills select for generalist microbial populations – Heritier-Robbins et al. – The ISME Journal

Preprint: Influence of DNA extraction kits on the fungal DNA metabarcoding for freshwater environmental DNA – Matsuoka et al. – bioRxiv

Marine signature taxa and core microbial community stability along latitudinal and vertical gradients in sediments of the deepest freshwater lake – Reboul et al. – The ISME Journal

Phages and viruses

Review: Community context matters for bacteria-phage ecology and evolution – Blazanin & Turner – The ISME Journal

Bioinformatics

Machine learning to predict the source of campylobacteriosis using whole genome data – Arning et al. – PLOS GENETICS

September 30, 2021

Posted on September 30, 2021 by Kara

Today’s digest includes a quantification of bacterial strains after fecal microbiota transplantation, a network analysis of the strawberry greenhouse soil microbiome after soil amendments, and an article about enhanced copper-resistance genes in Alteromonas macleodii. Also included are multiple preprints on topics such as denitrification pathways present in tunda soil metagenomes as well as the response of Endozoicomonas, a core coral bacterial group, to heat stress and host lysates.

General microbiome

Genomic population structure associated with repeated escape of Salmonella enterica ATCC14028s from the laboratory into nature – Achtman et al. – PLOS Genetics

Preprint: Role of the mobilome in the global dissemination of the carbapenem resistance gene blaNDM – Acman et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Existence of log-phase Escherichia coli persisters and lasting memory of a starvation pulse – Svenningsen et al. – bioRxiv

Human gut microbiome

Precise quantification of bacterial strains after fecal microbiota transplantation delineates long-term engraftment and explains outcomes – Aggarwala et al. – Nature Microbiology

Animal microbiome

A role for arthropods as vectors of multidrug-resistant Enterobacterales in surgical site infections from South Asia – Hassan et al. – Nature Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Response of soil microbiome structure and its network profiles to four soil amendments in monocropping strawberry greenhouse – Liu et al. – PLOS One

Preprint: Truncated denitrifiers dominate the denitrification pathway in tundra soil metagenomes – Pessi et al. – bioRxiv

Water and extremophile microbiome

Preprint: Response of Endozoicomonas montiporae to heat stress and coral host lysates – Chan et al. – bioRxiv

Enhanced copper-resistance gene repertoire in Alteromonas macleodii strains isolated from copper-treated marine coatings – Cusick et al. – PLOS One

Bacterial community structure of early-stage biofilms is dictated by temporal succession rather than substrate types in the southern coastal seawater of India – Sushmitha et al. – PLOS One

Preprint: Ecological stochasticity and phage induction diversify bacterioplankton communities at the microscale – Szabo et al. – bioRxiv

July 23, 2021

Posted on July 23, 2021 by Kara

Happy Friday!

It’s an exciting day here because I’m packing for fieldwork! In just a few short days I’ll be sampling from a saline aquifer in Illinois. For those of you who aren’t lucky enough to be going into the field, today’s digest is packed with a wide range of articles. Topics covered include the wild spider gut microbiome, the presence of antibiotic resistance genes in an Ohio river, the mosquito virome, the plant rhizosphere, and more.

Happy reading!

Human gut microbiome

Preprint: Phenotypic and genomic diversification in complex carbohydrate degrading human gut bacteria – Pudlo et al. – bioRxiv

Animal experiments

Effect of biochanin A on the rumen microbial community of Holstein steers consuming a high fiber diet and subjected to a subacute acidosis challenge – Harlow et al. – PLOS ONE

Ear wound healing in MRL/MpJ mice is associated with gut microbiome composition and is transferable to non-healer mice via microbiome transplantation – Velasco et al. – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

Preprint: Increased microbial diversity and decreased prevalence of common pathogens in the gut microbiomes of wild turkeys compared to domestic turkeys – Craft et al. – bioRxiv

Interspecific variation and functional traits of the gut microbiome in spiders from the wild: The largest effort so far – Tyagi et al. – PLOS ONE

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Preprint: Tillage intensity and plant rhizosphere selection shape bacterial-archaeal assemblage diversity and nitrogen cycling genes – Cloutier et al. – bioRxiv

Water and extremophile microbiome

Preprint: An Ohio State Scenic River Shows Elevated Antibiotic Resistance Genes, Including Acinetobacter Tetracycline and Macrolide Resistance, Downstream of Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluent – Murphy – bioRxiv

Biogeochemistry of the Antrim Shale Natural Gas Reservoir – Stemple et al. – ACS Earth and Space Chemistry

Built environment

Preprint: Novel municipal sewage-associated bacterial genomes and their potential in source tracking – Linder et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Structure of bacterial communities in Japanese-style bathrooms: Comparative sequencing of bacteria in shower water and showerhead biofilms using a portable nanopore sequencer – Fujiyoshi et al. – bioRxiv

Phages and viruses

Preprint: Dynamic surveillance of mosquitoes and their viromes in Wuhan during 2020 – Ren et al. – bioRxiv

Techniques

Simple mapping-based quantification of a mock microbial community using total RNA-seq data – Moriya – PLOS ONE

Preprint: Evaluation of DNA extraction protocols from liquid-based cytology specimens for studying cervical microbiota – Shibata et al. – bioRxiv

June 23, 2021

Posted on June 23, 2021 by Kara

Happy Wednesday!

Today’s digest includes a review on the microbial transformations of human bile acids as well as research articles focused on extremophiles including Arthrobacter, Acidithiobacillus, and Atribacteria. Also included are a wide variety of preprints on topics such as CRISPR-Cas, the vaginal microbiome, immunocompetence in pigs, the evaluation of RNAlater for preserving field samples for metaproteomics, and more!

Happy reading!

General microbiome

Preprint: CRISPR-Cas systems are widespread accessory elements across bacterial and archaeal plasmids – Pinilla-Redondo et al. – bioRxiv

Human respiratory microbiome

Indoor bacterial, fungal and viral species and functional genes in urban and rural schools in Shanxi Province, China–association with asthma, rhinitis and rhinoconjunctivitis in high school students – Fu et al. – Microbiome

Human vaginal microbiome

Preprint: Insight into the ecology of vaginal bacteria through integrative analyses of metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data – France et al. – bioRxiv

Human gut microbiome

Review: Microbial transformations of human bile acids – Guzior & Quinn – Microbiome

Preprint: Targeted high-resolution taxonomic identification of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis using human milk oligosaccharide metabolizing genes – Tso et al. – bioRxiv

An integrated gene catalog and over 10,000 metagenome-assembled genomes from the gastrointestinal microbiome of ruminants – Xie et al. – Microbiome

Animal experiments

Preprint: Leveraging host-genetics and gut microbiota to determine immunocompetence in pigs – Ramayo-Caldas et al. – bioRxiv

Joint contributions of the gut microbiota and host genetics to feed efficiency in chickens – Wen et al. – Microbiome

Animal microbiome

Holobiont nitrogen control and its potential for eutrophication resistance in an obligate photosymbiotic jellyfish – Röthig et al. – Microbiome

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Preprint: Microbial metabolism and adaptations in Atribacteria-dominated methane hydrate sediments – Glass et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Seed microbiota revealed by a large-scale meta-analysis including 50 plant species – Simonin et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: The activity and functions of subarctic soil microbial communities vary across vegetation types – Viitamäki et al. – bioRxiv

Water and extremophile microbiome

Preprint: Revealing the full biosphere structure and versatile metabolic functions in the deepest ocean sediment of the Challenger Deep – Chen et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Mechanistic insights into the success of xenobiotic degraders resolved from metagenomes of microbial enrichment cultures – Li et al. – bioRxiv

Low shifts in salinity determined assembly processes and network stability of microeukaryotic plankton communities in a subtropical urban reservoir – Mo et al. – Microbiome

Linking genomic and physiological characteristics of psychrophilic Arthrobacter to metagenomic data to explain global environmental distribution – Shen et al. – Microbiome

Genomic adaptations enabling Acidithiobacillus distribution across wide-ranging hot spring temperatures and pHs – Sriaporn et al. – Microbiome

Built environment

Preprint: Metagenome-based comparisons of decay rates and host-specificity of fecal microbial communities for improved microbial source tracking – Suttner et al. – bioRxiv

Phages and viruses

Preprint: Expanding clinical phage microbiology: Simulating phage inhalation for respiratory tract infections – Porat et al. – bioRxiv

Techniques

Ultra-accurate microbial amplicon sequencing with synthetic long reads – Callahan et al. – Microbiome

Preprint: Evaluation of RNAlater as a field-compatible preservation method for metaproteomic analyses of bacteria-animal symbioses – Jensen et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Predicting microbiome compositions through deep learning – Michel-Mata et al. – bioRxiv

June 6th, 2021

Posted on June 6, 2021 by Alise Ponsero

Hyvää Päivää from Helsinki, Finland ! Today’s digest contains a variety of interesting papers,in particular for people interested in viromes. The digest contains a really interesting preprint on the diversity of four new Antarctic sea ice bacteriophages, demonstrating their uniqueness and novelty compared to previoulsy characterized phages.

For people interested in bacterial microbiome, this digest contains a lot of very interesting pieces, in particular a very interesting review on the hopes and current limitation of Fecal Microbial Transplants in clinical settings.

Finally, today’s non-microbiology pick is a piece exploring the social impacts of naming diseases using strong-held but flawed names like German measles,

Have a great Weekend!

Human gut microbiome

Impact of the Gut Microbiota Balance on the Health–DiseaseRelationship: The Importance of Consuming Probioticsand Prebiotics – Olvera-Rosales et al. – Foods

Review: Fecal microbiota transplantationin human metabolic diseases:From a murky past to a bright future? – Hanssen et al. – Cell

Animal experiments

Short- and long-term effects of amoxicillin/clavulanic acid or doxycycline on the gastrointestinal microbiome of growing cats – Stavroulaki et al. – BioRxiv

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Preprint: Deep-rooted plant species recruit distinct bacterial communities in 3 m deep subsoil – Bak et al. – BioRxiV

Preprint: Single seed microbiota: assembly and transmission from parent plant to seedling – Chesneau et al. – BioRxiV

Built environment

Reconstruction of metagenome-assembled genomes from aquaria – Ettinger et al. – BiorXiV

Phages and viruses

Viruses roam the wheat phyllosphere – Forero-Junco et al. – BioRxiV

Characteristics of genetically diverse Antarctic sea ice bacteriophages allow adaptation to changing environmental conditions – Demina et al. – BioRxiv

Bioinformatics

Preprint: PGfinder, a novel analysis pipeline for the consistent, reproducible and high-resolution structural analysis of bacterial peptidoglycans – Patel et al. – BioRxiV

Perspective: Computational Viromics: Applications of the Computational Biology in Viromics Studies – Lu and Peng – Virologica Sinica

Preprint: Detecting the hosts of bacteriophages using GCN-Based semi-supervised learning – Shang and Sun – ArxiV

My non-microbiology picks

Preprint: Naming of human diseases on the wrong side of history – Hu – BioRxiV

June 4, 2021

Posted on June 4, 2021 by Kara

Greetings from Pittsburgh!

Today’s digest includes a review about the digestibility of adult dog diets, several articles about the human gut microbiome, an article about the spinach phyllosphere, and research about the effect of fertilizer and continuous garlic cultivation on the soil microbiome. It also includes topics such as microorganisms in ancient Siberian permafrost, the use of a probiotic consortium as an alternative to chemical remediation of oil spills, and much more!

If you want a lighter read, I’ve also included a fun Smithsonian Magazine article about the use of bacteria in art restoration.

Happy Friday!

General microbiome

Review: An evolving view on biogeochemical cycling of iron – Kappler et al. – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Review: Beyond horizontal gene transfer: the role of plasmids in bacterial evolution – Rodríguez-Beltrán et al. – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Review: Cells within cells: Rickettsiales and the obligate intracellular bacterial lifestyle – Salje – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Reviews: Microbial volatile organic compounds in intra-kingdom and inter-kingdom interactions – Weisskopf et al. – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Human skin microbiome

Apple cider vinegar soaks do not alter the skin bacterial microbiome in atopic dermatitis – Luu et al. – PLOS One

Human gut microbiome

Metabolomic profiling identifies complex lipid species and amino acid analogues associated with response to weight loss interventions – Bihlmeyer et al. – PLOS One

Gut microbiome differences among Mexican Americans with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus – Kitten et al. – PLOS One

Enlightening the taxonomy darkness of human gut microbiomes with a cultured biobank – Liu et al. – Microbiome

Gut microbiota profiles of young South Indian children: Child sex-specific relations with growth – Shivakumar et al. – PLOS One

Animal experiments

Review: Soybean meal and poultry offal meal effects on digestibility of adult dogs diets – Vanelli et al. – PLOS One

Animal microbiome

A survey of mosquito-borne and insect-specific viruses in hospitals and livestock markets in western Kenya – Chiuya et al. – PLOS One

Microbiomes of clownfish and their symbiotic host anemone converge before their first physical contact – Émie et al. – Microbiome

Characterization of oral and cloacal microbial communities in cold-stunned Kemp’s ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) during the time course of rehabilitation – McNally et al. – PLOS One

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Influence of seasonal changes and salinity on spinach phyllosphere bacterial functional assemblage – Ibekwe et al. – PLOS One

Comparison of bacterial and archaeal communities in two fertilizer doses and soil compartments under continuous cultivation system of garlic – Zhou et al. – PLOS One

Water and extremophile microbiome

Meanders as a scaling motif for understanding of floodplain soil microbiome and biogeochemical potential at the watershed scale – Carnevali et al. – Microbiome

Urban wastewater bacterial communities assemble into seasonal steady states – LaMartina et al. – Microbiome

Genomic reconstruction of fossil and living microorganisms in ancient Siberian permafrost – Liang et al. – Microbiome

Genomic and immunogenic changes of Piscine novirhabdovirus (Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia Virus) over its evolutionary history in the Laurentian Great Lakes – Niner et al. – PLOS One

Built environment

Multi-domain probiotic consortium as an alternative to chemical remediation of oil spills at coral reefs and adjacent sites – Silva et al. – Microbiome

Microbes in the news

Italian Art Restorers Used Bacteria to Clean Michelangelo Masterpieces – Davis-Marks – Smithsonian Magazine

May 17, 2021

Posted on May 17, 2021 by Kara

Good morning from Pittsburgh.

Today’s digest is preprint-heavy and has quite a few articles focused on soil, plants, and agriculture. If you aren’t interested in those areas of research, we also have articles with topics spanning the 1918 pandemic to multi-donor fecal transplants to carbohydrate utilization by marine fungi.

Happy reading!

General microbiome

Fresh extension of Vibrio cholerae competence type IV pili predisposes them for motor-independent retraction – Chlebek et al. – Appl Environ Microbiol

Preprint: Coordination of gene expression with cell size enables Escherichia coli to efficiently maintain motility across conditions – Honda et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Archival influenza virus genomes from Europe reveal genomic and phenotypic variability during the 1918 pandemic – Patrono et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Fluorescent protein expression as a proxy of bacterial fitness in a high throughput assay – Schlechter et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Nanopore sequencing provides rapid and reliable insight into microbial profiles of Intensive Care Units – Viana de Siqueira et al. – bioRxiv

Human skin microbiome

Preprint: Anatomy promotes neutral coexistence of strains in the human skin microbiome – Conwill et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Gene- and genome-centric dynamics shape the diversity of oral bacterial populations – Utter et al. – bioRxiv

Human gut microbiome

Preprint: Two microbiota subtypes identified in Irritable Bowel Syndrome with distinct responses to the low-FODMAP diet – Vervier et al. – bioRxiv