June 15, 2015

Just a quick post tonight – I have been busy all day doing lab work. Which was fun! I really missed it. I did not have time yet to completely catch up, so these are mainly papers that I found on Friday/Saturday. More tomorrow!

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Skin Barrier Function and Staphylococcus aureus Colonization in Vestibulum Nasi and Fauces in Healthy Infants and Infants with Eczema: A Population-Based Cohort Study – Teresa Løvold Berents – PLOS ONE

Linear growth faltering in infants is associated with Acidaminococcus sp. and community-level changes in the gut microbiota – Ethan K. Gough – Microbiome Journal

Human gut microbiome

Infection with Soil-Transmitted Helminths Is Associated with Increased Insulin Sensitivity –  Aprilianto E. Wiria – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

New Insights into the Evolution of the Human Diet from Faecal Biomarker Analysis in Wild Chimpanzee and Gorilla Faeces – Ainara Sistiaga – PLOS ONE

Cadaver and soil microbiome
Functional and Structural Succession of Soil Microbial Communities below Decomposing Human Cadavers – Kelly L. Cobaugh – PLOS ONE

Insights into Diversity and Imputed Metabolic Potential of Bacterial Communities in the Continental Shelf of Agatti Island – Shreyas V. Kumbhare – PLOS ONE

Water microbiome

A Survey of Escherichia coli and Salmonella in the Hyporheic Zone of a Subtropical Stream: Their Bacteriological, Physicochemical and Environmental Relationships – Riccardo Mugnai – PLOS ONE

Air microbiome
Survival and ice nucleation activity of bacteria as aerosols in a cloud simulation chamber – P. Amato – Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

Built environment microbiome

Impact of disinfectant wipes on the risk of Campylobacter jejuni infection during raw chicken preparation in domestic kitchens – G.U. Lopez – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Other microbiology

Battling Phages: How Bacteria Defend against Viral Attack – Kimberley D. Seed – PLOS Pathogens

Techniques

Monkey on a rope: Optimization of a Novel Non-invasive Oral Sampling Technique for Zoonotic Pathogen Surveillance in Nonhuman Primates – Tierra Smiley Evans – PLOS NTD

Microbes in the news

The inside story of the microbiome – Clive Cookson – Financial Times

What Microbiome Studies Would You Like To See Happen? – Alexandra Carmichael – uBiome

Amy Murtha Seeks to Understand Preterm Birth: Research to help physicians reduce the dangers of preterm births – Angela Spivey – Duke Today

Microbiome startup Seres bags a ‘breakthrough’ tag on the way to a $100M IPO – FierceBiotech

Mighty Farming Microbes: Companies Harness Bacteria To Give Crops A Boost – Dan Charles – NPR the Salt

Oil-consuming microbes: work with Dr. Brett Baker on hydrocarbon-degrading microbes in oil-contaminated water

The Microbiology Weekly – Cesar Sanchez

Bik’s Picks

Awakened Philae lander could be working on comet surface again next week – Eric Mack – CNET

Green Spaces at School May Help Kids’ Brains – Justin Worland – Time

Average American woman now weighs as much as average 1960s man – CDC

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June 12, 2015

Effects of drinking donkey milk, archaea and fungi on humans,  microbiomes of olives, spoilt wine, cold deserts, indoor air, strawberry soil, and more.

General microbiome

Review: Combining metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and viromics to explore novel microbial interactions: Towards a systems-level understanding of human microbiomes – Bikel Shirley – Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

Review: Mycobiota: Micro-Eukaryotes Inhabiting Our Body as Commensals or
Opportunistic Pathogens – Lisa Rizzetto – Fungal Genomics & Biology

Review: Archaea in and on the Human Body: Health Implications and Future Directions – Mor N. Lurie-Weinberger, Uri Gophna – PLOS Pathogens

Human skin microbiome

Antimicrobial Efficacy of Preservatives used in Skin Care Products on Skin Micro Biota – Chintha Lalitha – International Journal of Science and Research

Review: Beneficial and deleterious bacterial–host interactions in chronic wound pathophysiology – C. Watters – Chronic Wound Care Management and Research

Human gut microbiome

Influence of Proton-Pump Inhibitors on the Luminal Microbiota in the Gastrointestinal Tract – Ayumi Tsuda – Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology

Microbiome models

A host-microbiome interaction mediates the opposing effects of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids on metabolic endotoxemia – Kanakaraju Kaliannan – Scientific Reports

In rats: Human, donkey and cow milk differently affects energy efficiency and inflammatory state by modulating mitochondrial function and gut microbiota – Giovanna Trinchese – The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry

Fish: A multiple endpoint analysis of the effects of chronic exposure to sediment contaminated with Deepwater Horizon oil on juvenile Southern flounder and their associated microbiomes – Nancy J. Brown-Peterson – Aquatic Toxicology

Hops β-acids and zinc bacitracin affect the performance and intestinal microbiota of broilers challenged with Eimeria acervulina and Eimeria tenella – C. Bortoluzzi – Animal Feed Science and Technology

Staphylococcus aureus nasal isolates: The effects of spatial structure, frequency dependence and resistance evolution on the dynamics of toxin-mediated microbial invasions – Ben Libberton – Evolutionary Applications

Animal microbiome

Biodiversity of the Symbiotic Bacteria Associated with Toxic Marine Dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense – Xiaoling Zhang – Journal of Biosciences and Medicines

Plant microbiome

Wild trees in the Amazon basin harbor a great diversity of beneficial endosymbiotic fungi: is this evidence of protective mutualism? – Romina Gazis – Fungal Ecology

A Legume Genetic Framework Controls Infection of Nodules by Symbiotic and Endophytic Bacteria – Rafal Zgadzaj – PLOS Genetics

Diversity and spatial distribution of endophytes community composition in noni (Morinda citrifolia L.) – Liu Yang – Journal of Hill Agriculture

Comparisons of microbial abundance and community among different plant species in constructed wetlands in summer – Jian Zhang – Ecological Engineering

Soil (and plant root) microbiome

Impact of cover crop in pre-plant of apple orchards: relationship between crop health, root inhabiting fungi and rhizospheric bacteria – Luisa M. Manici – Journal of Plant Science

Amplicon-based metagenomics identified candidate organisms in soils that caused yield decline in strawberry – Xiangming Xu – Horticulture Research

Positively Frequency-Dependent Interference Competition Maintains Diversity and Pervades a Natural Population of Cooperative Microbes – Olaya Rendueles – Current Biology

A predictive model for microbial counts on beaches where intertidal sand is the primary source – Zhixuan Feng – Marine Pollution Bulletin

Reintroduction of locally extinct vertebrates impacts arid soil fungal communities – Laurence J. Clarke – Molecular Ecology

A simple experimental set-up to disentangle the effects of altered temperature and moisture regimes on soil organisms – Eveline J. Krab – Methods in Ecology and Evolution

Water microbiome

Identifying homogeneity of multivariate dispersions among biofilm-dwelling microbial communities in colonization surveys for marine bioassessment – Guangjian Xu – Ecological Indicators

Bacterial diversity along a 2600 km river continuum – Domenico Savio – Environmental Microbiology

Minireview: Microbial players involved in the decline of filamentous and colonial cyanobacterial blooms with a focus on fungal parasitism – Mélanie Gerphagnon – Environmental Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome

Bacterial diversity of Drass, cold desert in Western Himalaya, and its comparison with Antarctic and Arctic – Puja Gupta – Archives of Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Indoor air bacterial communities in Hong Kong households assemble independently of occupant skin microbiomes – David Wilkins – Environmental Microbiology

Food microbiology

Potential spoilage yeasts in winery environments: Characterization and proteomic analysis of Trigonopsis cantarellii – Cauré Portugal – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Microbiota and Metabolome of Un-started and Started Greek-type Fermentation of Bella di Cerignola Table Olives – Maria De Angelis – Food Microbiology

Functional foods

Probiotic BIFICO cocktail ameliorates Helicobacter pylori induced gastritis – Hong-Jing Yu – World Journal of Gastroenterology

Review: Prebiotics, gut microbiota and metabolic risks: Unveiling the relationship – Adeela Yasmin – Journal of Functional Foods

Review: Current evidence on the use of probiotics in liver diseases – Norberto C. Chávez-Tapia – Journal of Functional Foods

Metagenomics 

Review: Methylotrophs in natural habitats: current insights through metagenomics – Ludmila Chistoserdova – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Metabolomics

Editorial: Microbial metabolite triggers antimicrobial defense – Sky W. Brubaker, Denise M. Monack – Science

Microbes in the news

Soil microbial community variation correlates most strongly with plant species identity – AOB blog

Pew Names 22 Top Scientists as Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences: topics range from microbiome, to mosquito’s preferences – Pew Trusts
andMicrobiology professor becomes UC Merced’s first Pew scholar: Clarissa Nobile receives award for biofilm research – UC Merced

2015 ISCB Overton Prize Awarded to Curtis Huttenhower – Christiana N. Fogg, Diane E. Kovats – PLOS Computational Biology

“Genes in Space” Student Finalists Announced: Tarun Srinivasan, of Houston, TX, plans to examine effects on the gut microbiome of spending time on the ISS – Ricki Lewis – PLOS Blogs

Method reveals what bacteria sense in their surroundings – Leila Gray – UW Health Sciences NewsBeat

“ticks had a microbiome rich in pathogens, including Bartonella”: Ticks’ Migration Linked to Changes in Disease Prevalence – Jacquelyn Gray – HCP Live

Like “kopi luwak” coffee, just bigger: Elephant poop coffee, Thailand’s new delicacy – Doug Powell – BarfBlog

New Tool To Monitor Harmful Bacteria: Scientists offer more accurate health risk prediction model to better inform beach closure decisions – Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science

#EULAR2015: First gut microbiota alterations described in systemic sclerosis patients – Karen Blum – PM360online

Some good information here about bacteria in our gutSix myths about digestion that just won’t die – ITClips

How does Swiss cheese gets its holes?: by carbon-dioxide-burping microbe Propionibacterium freudenreichii – Nicola Twilly – New Yorker

Product candidate to target specific elimination of Streptococcus mutans may alter oral microbiome to provide long-lasting benefits – Dentistry iQ

Fungus among us, but what kind? Typing error spawns retraction for mushroom paper – Retraction Watch

Science, publishing, and career

Business decisions: stories about the entrepreneurial learning curve – Jeffrey Mervis – Science

Bik’s Picks

Polar bear caught eating dolphins and freezing the leftovers – Penny Sarchet – New Scientist

There’s A Link Between Cat Ownership And Schizophrenia – Leigh Weingus – Huffington Post

“Advice to interns: work hard and make your mark.” New planet discovered by 15-year-old intern – Monica Sarkar – CNN

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June 10, 2015

Another load of microbiome reviews, historical responses of microbes to mercury in soil layers, and different pictures of microbial diversity using culture or molecular techniques.

Microbiome of pregnancy and health

Review: Lungs, Microbes and the Developing Neonate – Warner B.B., Hamvas A. – Neonatology

Review: Placentophagy: therapeutic miracle or myth? – Cynthia W. Coyle – Archives of Women’s Mental Health

Review: Preterm delivery and intimacy during pregnancy: interaction between oral, vaginal and intestinal microbiomes – Herrera Morban DA – Medwave

Human gut microbiome

Review: Monitoring host responses to the gut microbiota – Joshua S Lichtman, Justin L Sonnenburg and Joshua E Elias – The ISME Journal

ReviewIntestinal Fucose as a Mediator of Host–Microbe Symbiosis – Joseph M. Pickard and Alexander V. Chervonsky – The Journal of Immunology

Review: Novel players in coeliac disease pathogenesis: role of the gut microbiota – Elena F. Verdu – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Review: Gut Microbiome-Brain Communications Regulate Host Physiology and Behavior – Sun Hye Lee and Claire B. de La Serre – Journal of Nutritional Health & Food Science

Review: Biliary Mucosal Barrier and Microbiome – Verdier J – Viszeralmedizin

ReviewFrom Next-Generation Sequencing to Systematic Modeling of the Gut Microbiome – Boyang Ji and Jens Nielsen – Frontiers in Microbiology

Animal and other models of microbiome research

Bioimage analysis of Shigella infection reveals targeting of colonic crypts – Ellen T. Arena – PNAS

Animal microbiome

Filamentous fungi isolated from the fur microbiota of callitrichids kept in captivity in Brazil – de Freitas RA – J Zoo Wildl Med

Plant root and soil microbiome

Microbial response to simulated global change is phylogenetically conserved and linked with functional potential – Anthony S Amend – The ISME Journal

Microbial and biochemical basis of a Fusarium wilt-suppressive soil – Jae-Yul Cha – The ISME Journal

Microbial DNA records historical delivery of anthropogenic mercury – Alexandre J Poulain – The ISME Journal

Riverbed methanotrophy sustained by high carbon conversion efficiency – Mark Trimmer – The ISME Journal

Culture-Dependent and -Independent Methods Capture Different Microbial Community Fractions in Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Soils – Franck O. P. Stefani – PLOS ONE

Crop monoculture rather than agriculture reduces the spatial turnover of soil bacterial communities at a regional scale – Eva L. M. Figuerola – Environmental Microbiology

Bacteria and fungi associated with isoprene consumption in soil – Christopher M. Gray – Elementa-Science of the Anthropocene

Microbial rRNA:rRNA gene ratios may be unexpectedly low due to extracellular DNA preservation in soils – Glade Dlott – Journal of Microbiological Methods

Differences in microbial community composition between injection and production water samples of water flooding petroleum reservoirs – P. K. Gao – Biogeosciences

Commentary: Scrambled and not-so-tiny genomes of fungal endosymbionts – Chih-Horng Kuo – PNAS

Water microbiome

Sampling the Sea Surface Microlayer – Michael Cunliffe, Oliver Wurl – Springer Protocols
Built environment microbiome

Book chapter: Bacteria and Fungi in Green Roof Ecosystems – Krista L. McGuire – Green Roof Ecosystems

Extremophile microbiome

Application of artificial neural networks as a tool for moisture prediction in microbially colonized halite in the Atacama Desert – K. Wierzchos – Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences

Bioreactor microbiology

Methanobacterium Dominates Biocathodic Archaeal Communities in Methanogenic Microbial Electrolysis Cells – Michael Siegert – ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

ProDeGe: a computational protocol for fully automated decontamination of genomes – Kristin Tennessen – The ISME Journal

RNeXML: a package for reading and writing richly annotated phylogenetic, character, and trait data in R – Carl Boettiger – arXiv

PrimerView: high-throughput primer design and visualization – Damien M. O’Halloran – Source Code for Biology and Medicine

Techniques

Whole genome capture of vector-borne pathogens from mixed DNA samples: a case study of Borrelia burgdorferi – Giovanna Carpi – BMC Genomics

Cultivation of Environmental Bacterial Communities as Multispecies Biofilms – Marc A. Demeter – Springer Protocols Handbook

Microbes in the news

Brits will swab surfers’ butts to understand antibiotic-resistant bacteria – Alexandra Ossola – Popular Science

You’ve been invaded – by your Microbiome! Video with Rob Knight – UCSD TV

Understanding the nasal microbiome – American Microbiome Institute

How gut bacteria affects your health: What we know, what we don’t – Emily Kaiser – MPR News

The Secrets of Ocular Microbiomes – Mark B. Abelson – Review of Ophthalmology

Nice graphics: To the Phyllosphere and Beyond! – Ben Wolfe – Lucky Peach

Meanwhile in the Future: When Antibiotics Stop Working – Rose Eveleth – Gizmodo

Obesity and Microbiota: What’s Hype, What’s Helpful? – Jeannette Y. Wick – HCP Live

Science, publishing, and career

Nobel Prize Winner Tim Hunt Shocks Journalists With Sexist Comments – Cat Ferguson – BuzzFeed Science

Career coaching for scientists – Joanne Kamens – Nature Biotechnology

Intel Capital Creates $125M Fund for Women-, Minority-led Startups – Deborah Gage – Wall Street Journal

UTHealth’s Kevin Morano, microbiologist receives prestigious teaching honor by Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation – EurekAlert

Bik’s Picks

Caffeine acts through neuronal adenosine A2A receptors to prevent mood and memory dysfunction triggered by chronic stress – Manuella P. Kaster – PNAS

Chimps dig palm wine, new study finds: And in case you were wondering, the apes did occasionally get tipsy – Amina Khan – Los Angeles Times

This new Google-backed app will identify a bird just from a photo – Quartz

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June 9, 2015

Job openings for microbiome leaders in Pittsburgh, functional foods and microbial growth, and lots of reviews and editorials.

Jobs

The new Center for Microbiome and Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh is hiring leader(s) in microbiome research

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

ReviewEarly microbial contact, breast milk microbiome and child health – S. Rautava – Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

Human oral microbiome

Screening of Probiotic Candidates in Human Oral Bacteria for the Prevention of Dental Disease – Tomohiko Terai – PLOS ONE

Review: Do oral bacteria alter the regenerative potential of stem cells? A concise review – Kyriaki Chatzivasileiou – Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine

Human gut microbiome

Editorial for David et al.’s cholera recovery paper: A gut instinct for recovery – Naomi Attar – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Letter to the Editor: Altered microbiota in microscopic colitis – Hans Fischer – Gut

Letter to the Editor: Colonisation with multidrug-resistant bacteria is associated with increased mortality in patients with cirrhosis – Oliver Waidmann – Gut

Animal microbiome

Review: The animal gut as a melting pot for horizontal gene transfer – N. Shterzer, I. Mizrahi – Canadian Journal of Microbiology

Plant root and soil microbiome

Assessment of rhizospheric culturable bacteria of Phragmites australis and Juncus effusus from polluted sites – Sofia I.A. Pereira – Journal of Basic Microbiology

Review: Dispersing misconceptions and identifying opportunities for the use of ‘omics’ in soil microbial ecology – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

The effects of different hygiene procedures in reducing bacterial contamination in a model domestic kitchen – Elin Røssvoll – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Functional foods

Pomegranate Ellagitannins Stimulate Growth of Gut Bacteria In Vitro: Implications for Prebiotic and Metabolic Effects – Zhaoping Li – Anaerobe

Prebiotics Modulate the Effects of Antibiotics on Gut Microbial Diversity and Functioning in Vitro – Laura P. Johnson – Nutrients

Microbes in the news

From World Aquaculture 2015: “The gut microbiome of farmed trout is far more complex than previous research has documented” – Alltech highlights latest research in farmed trout – Undercurrent News

How the ‘Microbiome’ Affects Your Baby’s Birth and Health – Penny Simkin – Seattle PI

MicroBiome Therapeutics Presents Clinical Data On Diabetes Drug NM505 At ADA’s 75th Scientific Sessions And Reports Issuance Of NM505 Patent – PR Newswire

Here’s What Happens When You Culture The Bacteria on an Eight Year Old’s Hand – Marissa Fessenden – Smithsonian

MERS Is Not SARS, but Control Was Poor: Seoul ID Docs – Outbreak claims seventh fatality as specialists acknowledge poor infection control – MedPage Today

Bik’s Picks

Massage-like stroking boosts the immune system in mice – Benjamin Major – Scientific Reports

Just add water: Stanford engineers develop a computer that operates on water droplets – Stanford News

A crummy dinosaur fossil turns out to hold 75 million-year-old blood and proteins – Rachel Feltman – The Washington Post

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June 8, 2015

General microbiome

Minireview: The brain’s Geppetto—microbes as puppeteers of neural function and behaviour? – Roman M. Stilling – Journal of NeuroVirology

Thesis: Novel computational approaches to investigate microbial diversity – Qingpeng Zhang – Michigan State University

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Distinctive Intestinal Lactobacillus Communities in Six-Month-Old Infants From Rural Malawi and South-Western Finland – Aakko, Juhani – Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition

Antenatal Microbiome: Potential Contributor to Fetal Programming and Establishment of the Microbiome in Offspring – Michelle L. Wright, Angela R. Starkweather – Nursing Research

Review: Should Abnormal Vaginal Flora in 2 nd Trimester of Pregnancy be Treated to Prevent Preterm Labor – Gunjan Kumari, Anjali Tempe – Journal of Medical Sciences

Human oral microbiome

The oral mucosal and salivary microbial community of Behcet’s syndrome and recurrent aphthous stomatitis – Noha Seoudi – Journal of Oral Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Review: Unraveling the environmental and genetic interactions in atherosclerosis: Central role of the gut microbiota – Elin Org – Atherosclerosis

Review: The Effects of Diet and the Microbiome on Reproduction and Longevity: A Comparative Review Across 5 Continents – Stephanie N. Chilton – Nutrition and Food Sciences

Animal models of microbiome research

Lack of Vitamin D Receptor Causes Dysbiosis and Changes the Functions of the Murine Intestinal Microbiome – Dapeng Jin – Clinical Therapeutics

Animal microbiome

Acromyrmex leaf-cutting ants have simple gut microbiota with nitrogen-fixing potential – Panagiotis Sapountzis – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Anemone: Response of bacterial colonization in Nematostella vectensis to development, environment and biogeography – Benedikt Mortzfeld – Environmental Microbiology

Plant root and soil microbiome

Responses of bacterial communities in seagrass sediments to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-induced stress – Juan Ling – Ecotoxicology

Analyses of microbial biomass and community diversity in kiwifruit orchard soils of different planting ages – Qingxia Fu – Acta Ecologica Sinica

The effects of the presence of Bt-transgenic oilseed rape in wild mustard populations on the rhizosphere nematode and microbial communities – Yongbo Liu – Science of The Total Environment

Long-term conservation tillage influences the soil microbial community and its contribution to soil CO2 emissions in a Mollisol in Northeast China – Shuxia Jia – Journal of Soils and Sediments

Microbial communities inhabiting oil-contaminated soils from two major oilfields in Northern China: Implications for active petroleum-degrading capacity – Weimin Sun – Journal of Microbiology

Differential degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon mixtures by indigenous microbial assemblages in soil – Przemyslaw Sawulski – Letters in Applied Microbiology

A novel salt-tolerant chitobiosidase discovered by genetic screening of a metagenomic library derived from chitin-amended agricultural soil – Mariana Silvia Cretoiu – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Book chapter: Irrigation with Treated Wastewater: Potential Impacts on Microbial Function and Diversity in Agricultural Soils – Ana Rita Lopes – The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry 2015

Water microbiome

Response of bacteria and meiofauna to iron oxide colloids in sediments of freshwater microcosms – Sebastian Höss – Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Response of rare, common and abundant bacterioplankton to anthropogenic perturbations in a Mediterranean coastal site – Federico Baltar – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Book Chapter: Marine Litter as Habitat and Dispersal Vector – Tim Kiessling – Marine Anthropogenic Litter

Thesis: Metagenomic profiling of microbial metal interaction in Red Sea deep-anoxic brine pools – Hanna, Mina Magdy Abdelsayed – American University in Cairo

Built environment microbiome

Microbial community composition of a household sand filter used for arsenic, iron, and manganese removal from groundwater in Vietnam – Katja Sonja Nitzsche – Chemosphere

The role of bacterial communities and carbon dioxide on the corrosion of steel – K.M. Usher – Corrosion Science

Extremophile microbiome

Review: Metagenomics of extreme environments – DA Cowan – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Food microbiology

Review: The impact of climate change on existing and emerging microbial threats across the food chain: An island of Ireland perspective – Linda D. Stewart – Trends in Food Science & Technology

Review: Microbial decontamination of food by electron beam irradiation – Hsiang-Mei Lung – Trends in Food Science & Technology

Bioreactor microbiome

Bioreactor microbial ecosystems for thiocyanate and cyanide degradation unraveled with genome-resolved metagenomics – Rose S. Kantor – Environmental Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

CCLasso: Correlation Inference for Compositional Data through Lasso – Huaying Fang – Bioinformatics

GAML: genome assembly by maximum likelihood: combination of diverse sequencing datasets into a single assembly – Vladimír Boža – Algorithms for Molecular Biology

Effects of library size variance, sparsity, and compositionality on the analysis of microbiome data – Sophie J Weiss – PeerJ

Review: Identification of Viruses and Viroids by Next-Generation Sequencing and Homology-Dependent and Homology-Independent Algorithms – Qingfa Wu – Annual Reviews Phytopathology

Metabolomics

Mapping microbial response metabolomes for induced natural product discovery – Dagmara K. Derewacz – ACS Chemical Biology
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acschembio.5b00001

Techniques

Analysis of microsamples of human faeces: a non-invasive approach to study the bioavailability of fat-soluble bioactive compounds – E. Hernandez-Alvarez – European Journal of Nutrition

Microbes in the news

Say hello to your little friends: Making sense of gut bacteria – Wency Leung – Globe and Mail

Surfers help science in fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria with their poop – Luigi Lugmayer – i4u

Effects of zinc oxide on intestinal microbiota – All About Feed

VideoWaxworm Bacteria Could Recycle Plastic Trash – NBC News

Is That Water Hot Enough to Kill Germs? – C. Claiborne Ray – New York Times

Gut bacteria play a vital role to your health – Sharon Ní Chonchuir – Irish Examiner

New microscope technique could speed identification of deadly bacteria – EurekAlert

Science, publishing, and career

Better advice for ‘Bothered’ – Science Careers Staff – Science Magazine

Retractions and High Profile Journals – Peter Edmonds

Bik’s Picks

Black Hole Hunters – Dennis Overbye – New York Times

Everything You Need to Know About Bill Nye’s Crazy Experimental Spaceship – Jack Linshi – Time

Under the Sea: Google Views for World Oceans Day – Patrick J. Kiger – Discovery

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June 5, 2015

A new test that reveals past viral infections using one drop of blood, subgingival microbiota in HIV-infected adults, and influencing horse behavior through diet.

Human oral microbiome

The oral mucosal and salivary microbial community of Behçet’s syndrome and recurrent aphthous stomatitis – Seoudi N – J Oral Microbiology

Subgingival bacterial community profiles in HIV-infected Brazilian adults with chronic periodontitis – D. C. Ferreira – Journal of Periodontal Research

Human bladder microbiome

Decreased microbiota diversity associated with urinary tract infection in a trial of bacterial interference – Deborah Horwitz – Journal of Infection

Human gut microbiome

Use of T-RFLP and seven restriction enzymes to compare the faecal microbiota of obese and lean Japanese healthy men – T. Kobayashi – Beneficial Microbes

The Gut Microbiome and Childhood Obesity: Connecting the Dots – An interview with Mueller Noel Theodore – Childhood Obesity

Review: Metagenomics of the Human Intestinal tract: From who is there to what is done there – Antonietta Cultrone – Current Opinion in Food Science

Editorial: On the Gut Microbiome-Brain Axis and Altruism – Theoharis C. Theoharides – Clinical Therapeutics

Review: Potential Etiologic Factors of Microbiome Disruption in Autism – Timothy Buie – Clinical Therapeutics

Conference abstract: Dietary supplementation with a type 3 resistant starch induces butyrate producing bacteria within the gut microbiota of human volunteers – J. Kelly – Appetite

Review: Immunogenetic control of the intestinal microbiota – Eric Marietta – Immunology

Book chapter: Fecal Microbiota Transplantation for Clostridium Difficile Infection: A Systematic Review of the Evidence – Dimitri Drekonja – Department of Veterans Affairs

Review: Gut bacteria and cancer – Susan E. Erdman – Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – Reviews on Cancer

Review: The Gut Microbiota and Type 1 Diabetes – Elke Gülden – Clinical Immunology

Animal models of microbiome research

Transmissible microbial and metabolomic remodeling by soluble dietary fiber improves metabolic homeostasis – Baokun He – Scientific Reports

Antibiotics promote inflammation through the translocation of native commensal colonic bacteria – Kathryn A Knoop – Gut

Pyrosequencing reveals shifts in the bacterial epimural community relative to dietary concentrate amount in goats – S.U. Wetzels – Journal of Dairy Science

Programming rumen bacterial communities in newborn Merino lambs – I. De Barbieri – Small Ruminant Research

Changes of the hindgut microbiota due to high-starch diet can be associated with behavioral stress response in horses – Alexandra Destrez – Physiology & Behavior

Animal microbiome

Bats: Phyllostomid bat microbiome composition is associated to host phylogeny and feeding strategies – Mario Carrillo-Araujo – Frontiers in Microbiology

Squirrels: An Invasive Mammal (the Gray Squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis) Commonly Hosts Diverse and Atypical Genotypes of the Zoonotic Pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato
Caroline Millins – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Fish: High diversity of skin-associated bacterial communities of marine fishes is promoted by their high variability among body parts, individuals and species – Marlène Chiarello

Snakes: Phylogenetic Analysis of Bacterial Communities in Different Regions of the Gastrointestinal Tract of Agkistrodon piscivorus, the Cottonmouth Snake – Timothy J. Colston – PLOS ONE

Insects: Leaf-Cutter Ant Fungus Gardens Are Biphasic Mixed Microbial Bioreactors That Convert Plant Biomass to Polyols with Biotechnological Applications – Alexandre F. Somera – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Nematodes: Xenorhabdus bovienii Strain Diversity Impacts Coevolution and Symbiotic Maintenance with Steinernema spp. Nematode Hosts – Kristen E. Murfin – mBio

Coral: Microbial invasion of the Caribbean by an Indo-Pacific coral zooxanthella – D. Tye Pettay – PNAS

Plant root and soil microbiome

Linking jasmonic acid signalling, root exudates and rhizosphere microbiomes – Lilia C Carvalhais – Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions

Changes in microbial communities along redox gradients in polygonized Arctic wet tundra soils – David A. Lipson – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Two decades of warming increases diversity of a potentially lignolytic bacterial community  – Grace Pold – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water microbiome

Patterns and Determinants of Halophilic Archaea (Class Halobacteria) Diversity in Tunisian Endorheic Salt Lakes and Sebkhet Systems – Afef Najjari – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbial community structure and function on sinking particles in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre – Kristina M. Fontanez – Frontiers in Microbiology

Metagenomic resolution of microbial functions in deep-sea hydrothermal plumes across the Eastern Lau Spreading Center – Karthik Anantharaman – The ISME Journal

Built environment microbiome

Inflammatory potential in relation to the microbial content of settled dust samples collected from moisture-damaged and reference schools: results of HITEA study – K. Huttunen

Pyrosequencing analysis of bacterial diversity in dental unit waterlines – Damien Costa – Water Research

Viruses and phages

Comprehensive serological profiling of human populations using a synthetic human virome – George J. Xu – Science

Metagenomics and 16S rRNA sequencing

Viewpoint: Improving the quality of genome, protein sequence, and taxonomy databases: a prerequisite for microbiome meta-omics 2.0 – Olivier Pible and Jean Armengaud – Proteomics

Opinion: Confusion about the species richness of human gut microbiota – E. Avershina, K. Rudi – Beneficial Microbes

Metabolomics

Microbial secondary metabolites in homes in association with moisture damage and asthma – P. V. Kirjavainen – Indoor Air

In Silico Analysis of the Metabolic Potential and Niche Specialization of Candidate Phylum “Latescibacteria” (WS3) – Noha H. Youssef – PLOS ONE

Bioinformatics

BEMOVI, software for extracting behavior and morphology from videos, illustrated with analyses of microbes – Frank Pennekamp – Ecology and Evolution

Techniques

Evaluation of the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine for Gene-Targeted Studies Using Amplicons of the Nitrogenase Gene nifH – Bangzhou Zhang – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Revisiting the Dilution Procedure Used To Manipulate Microbial Biodiversity in Terrestrial Systems – Yan Yan – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbes in the news

How Many Viruses Have Infected You? – Nell GreenfieldBoyce – NPR

A Lifetime of Viruses: Scientists devise an antibody-based test that can generate a person’s complete “viral history” with just one drop of blood. – Amanda B. Keener – The Scientist

Single Test for All Virus Exposure Opens Doors for Researchers – Denise Grady – New York Times

Shielded Microbes Could Spread Life Far Beyond Earth – Elizabeth Howell – Discovery

Unregulated faecal transplants could squander gut-bug promise – New Scientist

Antibiotics affect piglets’ immune system – All About Feed

Good, good, good, good bacteria – Elisabeth Winkler – Sustainable Food Trust

#ASM2015: Many Skin Bacteria Are Dead or Inactive, Study Finds – Health.com

Invasive microbe protects corals from global warming, but at a cost – A’ndrea Elyse Messer, Penn State – Steam Register

Bik’s Picks

India is building millions of toilets. Getting people to use them is a bigger task. – Rama Lakshmi – Washington Post

There Is No Global Warming Hiatus After All – Sarah Zielinski – Smithsonian

New ‘Hellboy’ Dinosaur Unveiled In Scientific Paper With A Romantic Twist – Hilary Hanson – The Huffington Post

Two Newfound Marsupials Do It to Death – Laura Geggel – Discovery

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June 3, 2015

Microbiomes of seahorses, diet and human stool, gut microbes influencing CNS, lichen-associated bacteria, sequencing beer, and news from #ASM2015.

Human gut microbiome

Fecal Microbiota in Healthy Subjects Following Omnivore, Vegetarian and Vegan Diets: Culturable Populations and rRNA DGGE Profiling – Ilario Ferrocino – PLOS ONE

Animal models of microbiome research

Host microbiota constantly control maturation and function of microglia in the CNS – Daniel Erny – Nature Neuroscience

Effects of Dietary Linseed Oil and Propionate Precursors on Ruminal Microbial Community, Composition, and Diversity in Yanbian Yellow Cattle – Xiang Z. Li – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

A Metagenomic Survey of Viral Abundance and Diversity in Mosquitoes from Hubei Province – Chenyan Shi – PLOS ONE

Comparison of the Intestinal Bacterial Flora in Healthy and Intestinal-diseased Seahorses Hippocampus trimaculatus, Hippocampus erectus, and Hippocampus spinosissimus – Feng Li – Journal of the World Aquaculture Society

Plant and soil microbiome

Analysis of the Peltigera membranacea metagenome indicates that lichen-associated bacteria are involved in phosphate solubilization – Margrét Auður Sigurbjörnsdóttir – Microbiology

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Community Structure, Abundance and Species Richness Changes in Soil by Different Levels of Heavy Metal and Metalloid Concentration – Ramasamy Krishnamoorthy – PLOS ONE

Built environment microbiome

Chamber Bioaerosol Study: Outdoor Air and Human Occupants as Sources of Indoor Airborne Microbes – Rachel I. Adams – PLOS ONE

Survey of Microbial Diversity in Flood Areas during Thailand 2011 Flood Crisis Using High-Throughput Tagged Amplicon Pyrosequencing – Wuttichai Mhuantong – PLOS ONE

Metagenomic Insights into the Bioaerosols in the Indoor and Outdoor Environments of Childcare Facilities – Su-Kyoung Shin – PLOS ONE

Food microbiology

PCR-DGGE assessment of the bacterial diversity in Spanish-style green table-olive fermentations – Helena Lucena-Padrós – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Microbial ecology

Perspectives on the context-dependency of stream community responses to contaminants – William H. Clements – Freshwater Biology

Metacommunity speciation models and their implications for diversification theory – Nicolas Hubert – Ecology Letters

The complex relationship between microbial growth rate and yield and its implications for ecosystem processes – David A. Lipson – Frontiers in Microbiology

Techniques

The Effect of Sampling and Storage on the Fecal Microbiota Composition in Healthy and Diseased Subjects – Danyta I. Tedjo – PLOS ONE

Microbes in the news

Sequence your beer: BeerDeCoded: the 1,000 beer genomes

#ASM2015 – Soil microbes ally with plants to fight disease and tolerate stress – Phys.org

#ASM2015 video: A Critical Role of the Plant Microbiome for Immunocompetency – ASM

#ASM2015: Share a Bathroom With Other People? Here’s Something You May or May Not Want to Know About Your Toothbrush – Liz Klimas – The Blaze

All About Flora: How Important Gut Health Really Is. Don’t be grossed out – those little guys living in your guts are your friends – Lacie Glover – US News
Ancient algae found deep in tropical glacier – Biology News

Microbes, biodiversity and the benefits of getting dirty – David Suzuki – National Observer

Former COD Theater Major Researches Microbiology in South Africa – Mitchell11 – Chicago Tribune

Interview with Jessica Richman of uBiome – Tracy Mac – The Power of Poop

Bacteria study may curb antibiotics use – Jeremy Watson – The Times

Could remnants of the earliest life be preserved in volcanic glass? Controversy about microbial “biotextures” – Shalini Saxena – ArsTechnica

Science, publishing, and career

Why we should help people understand our scientific literature – R. W. Abrams – Conservation Biology

Announcing mSystems™: a new ASM open-access journal launching in early 2016 with Jack Gilbert as Founding Editor in Chief – ASM

Scientists Behaving Badly (On Social Media) – Brett Buttliere – PLOS Blogs

Publons and the American Society for Microbiology announce pilot partnership – ASM

Helpful websites for women scientists interested in fellowships, scholarships and funding opportunities – ASM

Bik’s Picks

Chimps Can’t Cook, But Maybe They’d Like To – Michael D. Lemonick – National Geographic

20-year-old invents ingenious system to rid ocean of trash – Olivia Solon – Mirror

Sea lions injured in chlorine attack return to ocean (video) – Chicago Tribune

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June 2, 2015

General human microbiome

The human microbiome in hematopoiesis and hematological disorders – Veronica E. Manzo and Ami S. Bhatt – Blood

Special issue of Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease: Editorial: We all need friends – Jørgen Valeur

Early Factors Leading to Later Obesity: Interactions of the Microbiome, Epigenome, and Nutrition – Lilly Chang, Josef Neu – Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Opportunities to assess factors contributing to the development of the intestinal microbiota in infants living in developing countries – Dennis Lang – Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease

Review: Factors affecting infant gut microbiota and possible consequences for health
Merete Eggesbø – Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease

Human gut microbiome

Draft Genome Sequences of 24 Microbial Strains Assembled from Direct Sequencing from 4 Stool Samples – Patricio Jeraldo – Genome Announcements

Book Chapter: Physiology of Digestion and Absorption: The Functional Interdependence Between Food and the Gut – Stephen J. D. O’Keefe – The Principles and Practice of Nutritional Support

Review: With a little help from my enteric microbial friends – Ben Berkhout – Frontiers in Medicine

Editorial: AI-2 to the rescue against antibiotic-induced intestinal dysbiosis? – Zhongke Sun – Trends in Microbiology

Microbiome models

Evidence from Animal Models: Is a Restricted or Conventional Intestinal Microbiota Composition Predisposing to Risk for High-LET Radiation Injury? – Irene Maier – Radiation Research

Rumen Microbiome from Steers Differing in Feed Efficiency – Phillip R. Myer – PLOS ONE

Changes in the composition of intestinal fungi and their role in mice with dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis – Xinyun Qiu – Scientific Reports

Microbiota prevents cholesterol loss from the body by regulating host gene expression in mice – Chun-Yan Zhong – Scientific Reports

Animal microbiome

Early-life establishment of the swine gut microbiome and impact on host phenotypes – Núria Mach – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Lifestyle Evolution in Cyanobacterial Symbionts of Sponges – Ilia Burgsdorf – mBio

Plant microbiome

Antagonistic interactions between endophytic cultivable bacterial communities isolated from the medicinal plant Echinacea purpurea – Isabel Maida – Environmental Microbiology

Soil microbiome

Distinct soil bacterial communities along a small-scale elevational gradient in alpine tundra – Congcong Shen – Frontiers in Microbiology

Carcass mass has little influence on the structure of gravesoil microbial communities – Sophie Weiss – International Journal of Legal Medicine

Impact of different cropping conditions and tillage practices on the soil fungal abundance of a Phaeozem luvico – Romina P. Gomez – Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research

Biological activity and microbial genetic diversity of bare-fallow and grassland soils – Anna Kot – Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section B — Soil & Plant Science

Masters Thesis: Assessing soil microbial tolerance to salt – Arpita Maheshwari – Lund University

Water microbiome

Microbial metagenomics in the Baltic Sea: Recent advancements and prospects for environmental monitoring – Karolina Ininbergs – AMBIO

Characterizing microbial communities dedicated for conversion of coal to methane in situ and ex situ – Ji Zhang – International Journal of Coal Geology

Dynamics of the bacterial and archaeal communities in the northern South China Sea revealed by 454 pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene – Xia Xiaomin – Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography

Editorial: Microbial symbiosis of marine sessile hosts- diversity and function – Suhelen Egan – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Biodiversity, community structure and function of biofilms in stream ecosystems – Katharina Besemer – Research in Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

pecunia non olet? Screening Currency Notes for Microbial Pathogens and Antibiotic Resistance Genes Using a Shotgun Metagenomic Approach – Saakshi Jalali – PLOS ONE

Phages and viruses

Dark matter of the biosphere: The amazing world of bacteriophage diversity – Graham F. Hatfull – Journal of Virology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

VirSorter: mining viral signal from microbial genomic data – Simon Roux – PeerJ

Denoising DNA deep sequencing data—high-throughput sequencing errors and their correction – David Laehnemann – Briefings in Bioinformatics

FCMM: A comparative metagenomic approach for functional characterization of multiple metagenome samples – Jongin Lee – Journal of Microbiological Methods

PuzzleCluster: A Novel Unsupervised Clustering Algorithm for Binning DNA Fragments in Metagenomics – Current Bioinformatics

Shotgun metagenomes and multiple primer pair-barcode combinations of amplicons reveal biases in metabarcoding analyses of fungi – Leho Tedersoo – MycoKeys

ANCOM: Analysis of composition of microbiomes: a novel method for studying microbial composition – Siddhartha Mandal – Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease

Transcriptomics and Metabolomics

MetabNet: an R package for metabolic association analysis of high-resolution metabolomics data – Karan Uppal – Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

Meta-omics uncover temporal regulation of pathways across oral microbiome genera during in vitro sugar metabolism – Anna Edlund – ISME Journal

Review: Enteric short-chain fatty acids: microbial messengers of metabolism, mitochondria, and mind: implications in autism spectrum disorders – Derrick F. MacFabe – Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease

Techniques

Co-extraction of DNA and PLFA from soil samples – Sheridan Brewer – Journal of Microbial Methods

Microbial ecology

Editorial: Flexible gene pools: hard to interpret the diversity often observed in microbial communities – Michael M. Desai – Science

Fine-scale diversity and extensive recombination in a quasisexual bacterial population occupying a broad niche – Michael J. Rosen – Science

Microbes in the news

Good craft beer can be spoiled by bacteria – Phys.org / American Society for Microbiology

Treating Koala STDs May also Quash Their Essential Gut Microbes – Katherine Harmon Courage – Scientific American

New study: Gut bacteria cooperate when life gets tough – EurekAlert

Metabolic activity and health of the skin microbiome – Medical Xpress / American Society for Microbiology

Is our first line of defense sleeping on the job? – Science Daily / American Society for Microbiology

Growing Up In an UnSterile World –The Importance of a Healthy Gut Through the Lifespan – Sarah Lobisco – Dr. Lobisco

Citizen Scientists Send Microbes Into Space – Science 2.0

Methanogens: Earth organisms survive under low-pressure Martian conditions – Science Daily

Why is the H-pylori bacteria developing a liking for Mumbai police? – Santosh Andhale – DNA India

Book review: The great microbial beauty – Vittorio Capozzi – Trends in Microbiology

Science, publishing, and career

Plagiarism is the most common cause of retractions in BioMed Central journals:
Retractions Often Due to Plagiarism: Study – Kerry Grens – The Scientist

Bik’s Picks: not-microbial science

Giant Sawfish Have Virgin Births, Rewrite Biology Textbooks – Charles Q. Choi – Live Science

These newly discovered marsupials basically sex each other to death – Elahe Izadi – Washington Post

Seals Help Scientists Probe Remote Seas – Discovery

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May 22, 2015

Several special issues this week: Science features results from the Tara ocean plankton biodiversity expedition, Microbes and Infection has a special on the oral microbiome, and Frontiers bundled several papers under the not-so-pretty name The Human Gutome.

General microbiome

The Microbiome and Autoimmune Disease: Report from a Noel R. Rose Colloquium – Jobert G. Barin – Clinical Immunology

New developments providing mechanistic insight into the impact of the microbiota on allergic disease – Kathy D. McCoy – Clinical Immunology

Review: Self or non-self? The multifaceted role of the microbiota in immune-mediated diseases – Martin A. Kriegel – Clinical Immunology

Human oral microbiome

Special issue of Microbes and Infection (7 papers but most have already been posted in this blog). Editorial with links to 7 papersA New Frontier: Oral Microbes without Borders – Özlem Yilmaz
Extracellular DNA in oral microbial biofilms – Nicholas S. Jakubovics

Not microbiome but cool: The Diet of Three Medieval Individuals from Caravate (Varese, Italy). Combined Results of ICP-MS Analysis of Trace Elements and Phytolith Analysis Conducted on Their Dental Calculus – A. M. B. Lazzati – International Journal of Osteoarchaeology

Human gut microbiome

Frontiers Research Topic (papers have been posted previously in this blog): The Human Gutome: Nutrigenomics of Host-Microbiome Interactions

Systematic genome assessment of B-vitamin biosynthesis suggests co-operation among gut microbes – Stefanía Magnúsdóttir – Frontiers in Genetics

Model: Anoxic Conditions Promote Species-Specific Mutualism between Gut Microbes In Silico – Almut Heinken – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Review: Intestinal microbiota and allergic diseases: A systematic review – L.C.F.L. Melli – Allergologia et Immunopathologia

Human urogenital microbiome

Editorial: Cervicovaginal Microbiota: Simple Is Better – Smita Gopinath – Immunity

Cervicovaginal Bacteria Are a Major Modulator of Host Inflammatory Responses in the Female Genital Tract – Melis N. Anahtar – Immunity

The New World of the Urinary Microbiome in Women – Linda Brubaker, Alan J Wolfe – American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Plant and soil microbiome

Root-associated bacterial endophytes from Ralstonia solanacearum resistant and susceptible tomato cultivars and their pathogen antagonistic effects – Reshmi Upreti and Pious Thomas – Frontiers in Microbiology

Distinct Circular Single-Stranded DNA Viruses Exist in Different Soil Types – Brian Reavy – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Water microbiome

Special Science issue: Tara Oceans studies plankton at Planetary Scale – P. Bork- Science

pH levels drive bacterial community structure in sediments of the Qiantang River as determined by 454 pyrosequencing – Shuai Liu – Frontiers in Microbiology

Distribution and diversity of fungi in freshwater sediments on a river catchment scale – Jie Liu – Frontiers in Microbiology

Dynamic Succession of Groundwater Functional Microbial Communities in Response to Emulsified Vegetable Oil Amendment during Sustained In Situ U(VI) Reduction
Ping Zhang – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome

Diel metabolomics analysis of a hot spring chlorophototrophic microbial mat leads to new hypotheses of community member metabolisms – Young-Mo Kim – Frontiers in Microbiology

Abundance and Distribution of Dimethylsulfoniopropionate Degradation Genes and the Corresponding Bacterial Community Structure at Dimethyl Sulfide Hot Spots in the Tropical and Subtropical Pacific Ocean – Yingshun Cui – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Feasibility study involving the search for natural strains of microorganisms capable of degrading graffiti from heritage materials – Patricia Sanmartín – International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation

Bioreactor microbiology

Next-Generation Pyrosequencing Analysis of Microbial Biofilm Communities on Granular Activated Carbon in Treatment of Oil Sands Process-Affected Water – M. Shahinoor Islam – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Metagenomics

Systematic genome assessment of B-vitamin biosynthesis suggests co-operation among gut microbes – Stefanía Magnúsdóttir – Frontiers in Genetics

Metabolomics

Microbial communication leading to the activation of silent fungal secondary metabolite gene clusters – Tina Netzker – Frontiers in Microbiology

Species interactions differ in their genetic robustness – Lon M. Chubiz – Frontiers in Microbiology

Functional foods

Probiotics for Weight Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis – Sunmin Parka, Ji-Hyun Baeb – Nutrition Research

Viruses and phages

Badger, mongoose, otterFecal virome analysis of three carnivores reveals a novel nodavirus and multiple gemycircularviruses – Nádia Conceição-Neto – Virology Journal

Review: The Virome in Host Health and Disease – Ken Cadwell – Immunity

More microbiology

Editorial: recent discoveries in evolutionary and genomic microbiology – Anton G. Kutikhin and Arseniy E. Yuzhalin – Frontiers in Microbiology

Financial evaluations of antibiotic stewardship programs—a systematic review – Jan-Willem H. Dik – Frontiers in Microbiology

Antagonistic interactions are sufficient to explain self-assemblage of bacterial communities in a homogeneous environment: a computational modeling approach – Román Zapién-Campos – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbes in the news

What’s Next for the Microbiome? – Jo Handelsman and Elizabeth R. Stulberg – Whitehouse.gov
The White House wants input on the future of microbiome research (by June 15) – Jonathan Eisen – Microbe.net

Ocean’s microbiome has incredible diversity – and human likeness – Colin Barras – New Scientist
Three-year ocean voyage discovered thousands of new, unfamiliar virusesA study of plankton reveals just how little we know about the ocean – Arielle Duhaime-Ross – The Verge
Scientists Map 5,000 New Ocean Viruses – Carl Zimmer – Quanta Magazine

Help fund koala microbiome study – Andy Fell – Egghead Research at UC Davis

Nurturing a baby’s microbiome, before and after birth – Kate Gammo – Populair Science

Meet the caesarean mums who are ‘seeding their baby’s microbiome’ – Best Daily

Long-gone bacteria blows the whistle on gold deposits – Geology Page

Microbes and money

Why bacteria is becoming big business – Stephen Valdivia – Fortune
Danone’s big bet on tiny bacteria – Erica Fry – Fortune

uBiome Partners with PicnicHealth: Participants diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) will receive a complementary PicnicHealth account as well as a complementary uBiome research kit. – PR Rocket

Science, publishing, and career

(Satire) The Allium Top Tips For Scientists and Engineers – The Allium
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May 16, 2015

Posting might be irregular in the coming days because of international travel, but I will try to keep you all updated as best as I can.

Human oral microbiome

Increased infection with key periodontal pathogens during gestational diabetes mellitus – Himabindu Gogeneni – Journal of Clinical Periodontology

Human respiratory microbiome

Airway microbiota and acute respiratory infection in children – Kohei Hasegawa – Expert Review of Clinical Immunology

Human gut microbiome

Microbiota—implications for immunity and transplantation – Jonathan S. Bromberg – Nature Reviews Nephrology

Poster: Association of classical microbiology and 16S rDNA metagenetic Aanalysis to evaluate the presence of Clostridium difficile ina a belgian nursing home (sic) – Rodriguez Diaz, Cristina – 5th International Human Microbiome Congres

Review: Probiotics, antibiotics and the immune responses to vaccines – Ira Praharaj – Philosophical Transactions B

Microbiome models

Exposure to soil, house dust, and decaying plants increases gut microbial diversity and decreases serum IgE levels in BALB/c mice – Dongrui Zhou – Environmental Microbiology

Water microbiome

Metagenomics reveals the high PAH-degradation potential of abundant uncultured bacteria from chronically-polluted subantarctic and temperate coastal marine environments – Claudia L. Loviso – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Plant root and soil microbiome

Early rhizosphere microbiome composition is related to the growth and Zn uptake of willows introduced to a former landfill – Terrence H. Bell – Environmental Microbiology

Not all are free-living: high-throughput DNA metabarcoding reveals a diverse community of protists parasitizing soil metazoa – S. Geisen – Molecular Ecology

Soil microbial communities vary as much over time as with chronic warming and nitrogen additions – Alexandra R. Contosta – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Soil ecotoxicity assessment of glyphosate use under field conditions: microbial activity and community structure of Eubacteria and ammonia oxidizing bacteria – María C. Zabaloy – Pest Management Science

Changes in soil aggregation and microbial community structure control carbon sequestration after afforestation of semiarid shrublands – N. Garcia-Francoa – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Air microbiome

Challenges and Opportunities of Airborne Metagenomics – Hayedeh Behzad – Genome Biology and Evolution

Food microbiology

Bacteriophages isolated from chicken meat and the horizontal transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes– Amira Shousha – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Techniques

A simple method of normalization of DNA extraction for improving the quantitative detection of soil-borne plant pathogenic oomycetes by real-time PCR – M. Li – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Microbes in the news

The kittybiome Project – background and some plans – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBEnet

Science, publishing, and career

Why Medicine is Plagued with Fake Research – Chloe Della Costa – Business Cheat Sheet

Physics Paper on the Higgs Boson Has Record 5,154 Authors – Softpedia (link to actual pdf)

Bik’s Picks

Giant Squid Lore and Legends Date Back Centuries – Benjamin Radford – Discovery

Cocaine Use Could be Determined by a Fingerprint, New Study – Silvia Fernandez – Pierce Pioneer

New map shows most distinct causes of death by state – Marilyn Malara – UPI

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