April 30, 2015

General human microbiome

Microbiome Analysis: Trends in Cancer Epidemiology, Challenges and Opportunities – Elizabeth F. Hebert – International Journal of Cancer Research and Molecular Mechanisms

Human respiratory microbiome

Still under embargo/technical difficulties: Swine Farming Is a Risk Factor for Infection With and High Prevalence of Carriage of Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus – Shylo E. Wardyn – Clinical Infectious Diseases

The Culturome of the Human Nose Habitats Reveals Individual Bacterial Fingerprint Patterns – Ursula Kaspar – Environmental Microbiome

Human gut microbiome

Determining the Long-term Effect of Antibiotic Administration on the Human Normal Intestinal Microbiota Using Culture and Pyrosequencing Methods – Mamun-Ur Rashid – Clinical Infectious Diseases

Animal models of microbiome research

Modulation of growth performances, survival, digestive enzyme activities and intestinal microbiota in common carp (Cyprinus carpio) larvae using short chain fructooligosaccharide – Seyed Hossein Hoseinifar – Aquaculture Research

Plant microbiome

Simulation of the evolution of the legume-rhizobia symbiosis under the conditions of ecological instability – N. I. Vorobyov – Russian Journal of Genetics: Applied Research

Review: Plant-associated fungal communities in the light of meta’omics – Derek Peršoh – Fungal Diversity

Water microbiome

Editorial : Roles and mechanisms of parasitism in aquatic microbial communities – Télesphore Sime-Ngando – Frontiers in Microbiology

Picoplankton and nanoplankton variability in an Antarctic shallow coastal zone (Admiralty Bay) during the austral summer of 2010/2011 – Mariana Vanzan – Polar Biology

Relationships between Microbial Compositions and Hydrochemical Factors in Nitrate Contaminated Groundwater of Hun River Alluvial Proluvial Fan, China – A.X. Zhou – Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology

Extremophile microbiome

Picoplankton and nanoplankton variability in an Antarctic shallow coastal zone (Admiralty Bay) during the austral summer of 2010/2011 – Mariana Vanzan – Polar Biology

Microbiome of the built environment

Screening of bacteria and concrete compatible protection materials – Yusuf Çağatay Erşan – Construction and Building Materials

Bioreactor microbiology

Metal Oxide Nanoparticles Induce Minimal Phenotypic Changes in a Model Colon Gut Microbiota – Alicia A Taylor – Environmental Engineering Science

Metagenomics

Genome mining: Prediction of lipopeptides and polyketides from Bacillus and related Firmicutes – Gajender Aleti – Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

Book: VIRONOMICS: The Study of Viral Genomics in Human Cancer and Disease – Dirk P. Dittmer – Next Generation Sequencing in Cancer Research, Volume 2

Microbes in the news

An Atlas of the Bacteria and Fungi We Breathe Every Day – Neel V. Patel – Wired

Deadly Gut Bacteria Infections Peak in Spring – Rachael Rettner – Live Science

Study finds swine farming is a risk factor for drug-resistant staph infections – University of Iowa

Turning to Bacteria to Fight the Effects of Climate Change – Esther Ngumbi – Scientific American

Are We Less “Gutsy” Than we Used to Be? New Clues about the Evolution of the Human Microbiome from Research in Apes – Sharon Greenblum – Food Insight

How Fluid Flow Affects Bacteria – Science 2.0

Four Exceptional Contributions to the Advancement of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Recognised at ECCMID – Select Science

Microbiome Hypome (articles that overstate microbiome importance)

The Cure for Brain Diseases Is in Your Gut – David Perlmutter – The Daily Beast

Microbes and money

Irish Microbiome Research Institute Partners With San-Francisco Based Second Genome On Bowel Disease Research – IBD News Today

Bik’s Picks

Low Sunlight Increases Pancreatic Cancer Risk; Why It’s Important To Get Enough Vitamin D – Justin Caba – Medical Daily

Bat Wings Harbor Special Sensory Cells – Stephanie Pappas – Live Science

Sea Lion Pup Waddling Around San Francisco’s Marina District Safely Captured – KPIX / KCBS

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April 28, 2015

Wow, this was a busy day with about 700 new articles for y’all to screen. Here we go:

Events

May 7th Webinar: George Weinstock Ph.D., will present “The Human Microbiome: Impact on Health and Disease.”

May 13th Webcast at 11am EDT – “Innovations in the microbiome” with Annick Mercenier and Enea Rezzonico – Nature Publishing Group

Human oral microbiome

Periodontal disease in a remote Asian population: association between clinical and microbiological parameters – Christine Kvarnvik – Journal of Investigative and Clinical Dentistry

Human gut microbiome

Comparison of the gut microbiota of people in France and Saudi Arabia – M. Yasir – Nutrition and Diabetes

Fecal microbiota characteristics of patients with colorectal adenoma detected by screening: A population-based study – James J. Goedert – EBioMedicine

Review: Archaea associated with human surfaces: not to be underestimated – Corinna Bang , Ruth A. Schmitz – FEMS Microbiology Reviews

Review: Keeping bugs in check: The mucus layer as a critical component in maintaining intestinal homeostasis – Martin Faderl – IUBMB Life

Review: A day in the life of the meta-organism: diurnal rhythms of the intestinal microbiome and its host – Christoph A Thaiss – Gut Microbes

Review: Effect of Helicobacter pylori Infection on the Composition of Gastric Microbiota in the Development of Gastric Cancer – Cao L. · Yu J. – GastroIntestinal Tumors

Review: Immunogenetic control of the Intestinal Microbiota – Eric Marietta – Immunology

Review: Type 2 diabetes and gut microbiome: at the intersection of known and unknown – Smitha Upadhyaya – Gut Microbes

Review: Host-Microbiota Interactions in the Intestine – Elson C.O. – Digestive Diseases

Review: Control of commensal microbiota by the adaptive immune system – Husen Zhang – Gut Microbes

Animal models of microbiome research

Effects of low dietary protein on the metabolites and microbial communities in the caecal digesta of piglets – Zhen Luo – Archives of Animal Nutrition

Perturbation of the intestinal microbiota of mice infected with Cryptosporidium parvum – Refaat Ras – International Journal of Parasitology

Host litter-associated gut dynamics affect Escherichia coli abundance and adhesion genotype in rats – Michaela D. J. Blyton – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Regulation by gut commensal bacteria of carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule expression in the intestinal epithelium – Yasuaki Kitamura – Genes to Cells

Bacteria-Mediated Effects of Antibiotics on Daphnia Nutrition – Elena Gorokhova – Environmental Science & Technology

Role of intestinal microbiota in the generation of polyphenol-derived phenolic acid mediated attenuation of Alzheimer’s disease β-amyloid oligomerization – Dongjie Wang – Molecular Nutrition & Food Research

Animal microbiome

Bacterial symbiont sharing in Megalomyrmex social parasites and their fungus-growing ant hosts – Joanito Liberti – Molecular Ecology

Microbial and sponge loops modify fish production in phase-shifting coral reefs – Cynthia B. Silveira – Environmental Microbiology

Coral symbiotic algae calcify ex hospite in partnership with bacteria – Jörg C. Frommlet – PNAS USA

Plant, plant root and soil microbiome

Yeast nitrogen utilization in the phyllosphere during plant lifespan under regulation of autophagy – Kosuke Shiraishi – Scientific Reports

Role of root microbiota in plant productivity – Andrzej Tkacz and Philip Poole – Journal of Experimental Botany

Seasonal variation of bacterial endophytes in urban trees – Shu Yi Shen – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant polysaccharides initiate underground crosstalk with bacilli by inducing synthesis of the immunogenic lipopeptide surfactin – Delphine Debois – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Banana leaf and glucose mineralization and soil organic matter in microhabitats of banana plantations under long-term pesticide use – Elena Blume – Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Whole-genome comparative analysis of virulence genes unveils similarities and differences between endophytes and other symbiotic bacteria – Sebastian Lòpez-Fernàndez – Frontiers in Microbiology

Decreases in soil moisture and organic matter quality suppress microbial decomposition following a boreal forest fire – Sandra R. Holden – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Soil bacterial community response to sulfadiazine in the soil–root zone – Rüdiger Reichel – Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science

Three-dimensional structure and cyanobacterial activity within a desert biological soil crust – Hagai Raanan – Environmental Microbiology

Contrasting spatial patterns and ecological attributes of soil bacterial and archaeal taxa across a landscape – Florentin Constancias – Microbiology Open

Microbial 16S gene-based composition of a sorghum cropped rhizosphere soil under different fertilization managements – Anna Lavecchia – Biology and Fertility of Soils

Non-symbiotic Bradyrhizobium ecotypes dominate North American forest soils – David VanInsberghe – The ISME Journal

Deforestation fosters bacterial diversity and the cyanobacterial community responsible for carbon fixation processes under semiarid climate: a metaproteomics study – Felipe Bastida – Applied Soil Ecology

Soil pH effects on the interactions between dissolved zinc, non-nano- and nano-ZnO with soil bacterial communities – Daniel S. Read – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Functional diversity of soil microbial communities under Scots pine, Norway spruce, silver birch and mixed boreal forests – Chodak Marcin – Pedobiologia

Water microbiome

Metabolic cascades in marine microbial communities – Andreas F. Haas and Forest Rohwer – PNAS USA

A Rickettsiales Symbiont of Amoebae with Ancient Features – Frederik Schulz – Environmental Microbiology

Bacterial communities of Beijing surface waters as revealed by 454 pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene – Yu-Mei Wei – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Cyanobacterial dynamics in shallow Lake Apopka (Florida, U.S.A.) before and after the shift from a macrophyte-dominated to a phytoplankton-dominated state – Matthew N. Waters – Freshwater Biology

Extremophile microbiome

Open Access: Metabolic and trophic interactions modulate methane production by Arctic peat microbiota in response to warming – Alexander Tøsdal Tveit – PNAS USA

Organic nitrogen cycling microbial communities are abundant in a dry Australian agricultural soil – Lori A. Phillips – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Metagenomic and lipid analyses reveal a diel cycle in a hypersaline microbial ecosystem – Karen Andrade – The ISME Journal

Microbiome of the built environment

From Lab to Field: The Influence of Urban Landscapes on the Invasive Potential of Wolbachia in Brazilian Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes – Heverton Leandro Carneiro Dutra – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Bioreactor microbiology

Deciphering Cyanide-Degrading Potential of Bacterial Community Associated with the Coking Wastewater Treatment Plant with a Novel Draft Genome – Zhiping Wang – Microbial Ecology

Seasonal Patterns in Microbial Community Composition in Denitrifying Bioreactors Treating Subsurface Agricultural Drainage – Matthew D. Porter – Microbial Ecology

Food microbiology

Analysis of Bacterial Diversity During Acetic Acid Fermentation of Tianjin Duliu Aged Vinegar by 454 Pyrosequencing – Qian Peng – Current Microbiology

Microbial Ecology

Field experimental evidence that stochastic processes predominate in the initial assembly of bacterial communities – Yi-Qi Hao – Environmental Microbiology

Effect of audible sound in form of music on microbial growth and production of certain important metabolites – Niral Sarvaiya, Vijay Kothari – Microbiology

Techniques

Optimized DNA extraction and metagenomic sequencing of airborne microbial communities – Wenjun Jiang – Nature Protocols
http://www.nature.com/nprot/journal/v10/n5/full/nprot.2015.046.html

Bioinformatics

phylogeo: an R package for geographic analysis and visualization of microbiome data
Zachary Charlop-Powers and Sean F. Brady – Bioinformatics

PhD thesis: Statistical models for large-scale comparative metagenome analysis – Kathrin Petra Aßhauer – Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Metagenomics

Prokaryotic genes in eukaryotic genome sequences: when to infer horizontal gene transfer and when to suspect an actual microbe – Irena I. Artamonova – Environmental Microbiology

Metagenomic and network analysis reveal wide distribution and co-occurrence of environmental antibiotic resistance genes – Bing Li – The ISME Journal

Metabolomics and proteomics

Review: Microbial metaproteomics for characterizing the range of metabolic functions and activities of human gut microbiota – Weili Xiong – Proteomics

Fate of microbial metabolites of dietary polyphenols in rats: is the brain their target destination? – Mattia Gasperotti – ACS Chemical Neuroscience

Novel Systems Modeling Methodology in Comparative Microbial Metabolomics: Identifying Key Enzymes and Metabolites Implicated in Autism Spectrum Disorders – Colin Heberling – International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Navigating through metaproteomics data: A logbook of database searching –
Thilo Muth – Proteomics

Phages and viruses

Whole genome comparison of a large collection of mycobacteriophages reveals a continuum of phage genetic diversity – Welkin H Pope – eLIFE

Linking environmental prokaryotic viruses and their host through CRISPRs
– Laura Sanguino – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Microbes in the news

The Healthy Birth: Dyad or Triad? Exploring Birth and the Microbiome – Anne Estes – Science & Sensibility

Designing a Hospital to Better Fight Infection (about the Hospital Microbiome Project) – Robert Lee Hotz – Wall Street Journal
and
WSJ article on the Hospital Microbiome Project – Elisabeth Bik – MicroBEnet

Facts About Our Microbial Menagerie – Infection Control Today

Don’t Trust The Goats; Their Ticks Could Make You Sick – Poncie Rutsch – NPR

Tiny Creatures: The World of Microbes – Anne M. Estes – Mostly Microbes

Time-lapse movie of growth and death in bacterial communities – David Esteban – Experiment.com

Altered saliva shows increased risk for hospitalization in patients with cirrhosis, hepatic encephalopathy – Healio

An arms race of microbial proportions: A war between bacteria and bacteriophages is being fought at the genetic level – Jason Tetro – Popular Science

Microbes and money

uBiome Launches Clinical Laboratory: launch of their CLIA-regulated clinical laboratory to provide clinical tests based on its unique microbial assays – Globe News Wire

New report sheds light on the Global human microbiome market – size, share, segments analysis and outlook to 2020 – Whatech.com

Science, publishing and career

Five Non-Academic Careers for which Ph.D. Holders are Uniquely Qualified… – Colin White – Nature Careers

Study: Peer Review Predicts Success – Ruth Williams – The Scientist

Discussion paper: Appearance and Gender Bias in Academia – Tali Regev – Tel Aviv University

Bik’s Picks
Source of Antarctica’s Eerie ‘Bleeding Glacier’ Found – Becky Oskin – Live Science

Video: Watch an Algae Cell Turn Itself Inside Out – Douglas Main – NewsWeek

How do you find a Burmese python in the Everglades? – Michael Casey – CBS News

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April 27, 2015

Events:

Life Science Sunset Mixer and Protocols Hackathon – ZappyLab – Berkeley, CA – Thursday April 30 5:30 pm PDT

Microbiome webinar: can diet can modify GI bacteria? – May 6, 2015 at 1:00pm ET – American Society for Nutrition’s Nutritional Science Council

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

The neonatal gut harbours distinct bifidobacterial strains – Eoin Barrett – Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed

Doctoral thesis: Early Life Intestinal Microbiota in Health and in Atopic Eczema – Lotta Nylund – Turku, Finland

In mice: Cross-fostering immediately after birth induces a permanent microbiota shift that is shaped by the nursing mother – Joseph G Daft – Microbiome

Human gut microbiome

Gut microbiota trajectory in pediatric patients undergoing hematopoietic SCT – E Biagi – Bone Marrow Transplantation

Review: Characterization of the intestinal microbiota and its interaction with probiotics and health impacts – Carine Nunes de Almada – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Commentary: The Gut Microbiome: A New Frontier for Alcohol Investigation – Gail A. Cresci – Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research

Review: The Microbiome for Gastroenterologists – Amit Dutta – Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News

Animal microbiome

Dynamic Distribution of the Gut Microbiota and the Relationship with Apparent Crude Fiber Digestibility and Growth Stages in Pigs – Qing Niu – Scientific Reports

Rumen: A new family of hybrid virophages from an animal gut metagenome – Natalya Yutin – Biology Direct

Rumen: Exploring the sheep rumen microbiome for carbohydrate-active enzymes – Lucas Dantas Lopes – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Fish: Dietary input of microbes and host genetic variation shape among-population differences in stickleback gut microbiota – Chris CR Smith – The ISME Journal

Insects: Characterization of the microbiota in the guts of Triatoma brasiliensis and Triatoma pseudomaculata infected by Trypanosoma cruzi in natural conditions using culture independent methods – Marcia Gumiel – Parasites and Vectors

Plant root and soil microbiome

Link to PDF on Fierer lab website (PNAS link still not working): Continental-scale distributions of dust-associated bacteria and fungi – Albert Barberán – PNAS

Stability and succession of the rhizosphere microbiota depends upon plant type and soil composition – Andrzej Tkacz – The ISME Journal

Forest harvesting reduces the soil metagenomic potential for biomass decomposition – Erick Cardenas – The ISME Journal

Peatland vascular plant functional types affect methane dynamics by altering microbial community structure – Bjorn JM Robroek – Journal of Ecology

Structure and function of rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil microbial community respond differently to elevated ozone in field-planted wheat – Zhan Chen – Journal of Environmental Sciences

Review: Plant-microbe Cross-talk in the Rhizosphere: Insight and Biotechnological Potential – Shyamalina Haldar – The Open Microbiology Journal

Water microbiome

Pyrosequencing analysis of microbial communities reveals dominant cosmopolitan phylotypes in deep-sea sediments of the eastern Mediterranean Sea – Paraskevi N. Polymenakou – Research in Microbiology

Characterization of the Relative Importance of Human- and Infrastructure-Associated Bacteria in Graywater: A Case Study – Scott P. Keely – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Extremophiles

Calcite-accumulating large sulfur bacteria of the genus Achromatium in Sippewissett Salt Marsh – Verena Salman – The ISME Journal

Book: Microbial Evolution under Extreme Conditions – Corien Bakermans – Google Books/Nature

Microbiome of the built environment

Evolutionary dynamics of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus within a healthcare system – Li-Yang Hsu – Genome Biology

Food microbiology

Evolution of microbial counts and chemical and physico-chemical parameters in high-moisture Mozzarella cheese during refrigerated storage – Annamaria Ricciardi – LWT – Food Science and Technology

Phages, viruses, and CRISPRs

CRISPR Immunity Drives Rapid Phage Genome Evolution in Streptococcus thermophilus – David Paez-Espino – mBio

Perspective: Can Plant Viruses Cross the Kingdom Border and Be Pathogenic to Humans?
Fanny Balique – Viruses

Diversity of putative archaeal RNA viruses in metagenomic datasets of a yellowstone acidic hot spring – Hongming Wang – Springer Plus

Metagenomics and Bioinformatics

He’s alive! Elviz – exploration of metagenome assemblies with an interactive visualization tool – Michael Cantor – BMC Bioinformatics

Genome assembly using Nanopore-guided long and error-free DNA reads – Mohammed-Amin Madoui – BMC Genomics

Protocol: Generating Enriched Metagenomes from Active Microorganisms with DNA Stable Isotope Probing – Carolina Grob – Springer Protocols Handbooks 2015

PhD thesis: MetaPathways : a modular pipeline for the analysis of environmental sequence information – Niels William Hanson – University of British Columbia

Metabolomics

Identification of Metabolic Signatures Linked to Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii – Sylvie Miquel – mBio

MetaboAnalyst 3.0—making metabolomics more meaningful – Jianguo Xia – Nucleic Acids Research

Microbes in the news

Crowd funding: Stayin’ alive: how do microbes help corals recover from bleaching? The roles of bacteria in corals – Laura Núñez-Pons – Experiment.com

Building a better microbiome – Richard A. Marini – Express News

The Truth About C-Sections, Probiotics, and the Bacteria in Your Gut: Dr. Neil Stollman on fecal microbiota transplants

Your make-up could be a breeding ground for bacteria – Kimberley Hibbert – Jamaica Observer

Learning from Earth’s Smallest Ecosystems (Kavli Hangout) – Alan Brown – Live Science

Spoiled rotten: how breweries are trying to spot bad beer through DNA – Josh Lowensohn -The Verge

The Fecal Bacterium You’ll Learn to Love – Jason Tetro – Huffington Post

Pet Talk: Research reveals canine skin microbiome – Your Houston News

Physician-scientist cautions against indiscriminate use of antibiotics – Bob Kustra – Idaho Statesman

Waterproof bacteria inspire special coatings – Tim Sandle – Digital Journal

Metanome changes name to Diversigen – News Medical

Solving Real-World Problems With Unconventional Solutions: Using Bacteria To Heal Wounds – Texas A&M Today

Strike a healthy bacteria balance in your gut – Scott Scanlon – Buffalo News

How Safe is Your Shrimp? – Consumer Reports study finds 60% of frozen shrimp contaminated with bacteria – Food Safety News

Science, publishing, and career

Trove of VA reports reveals research misconduct, medical malpractice – Brendan Borrell – Retraction Watch

Lab Bloopers: Reddit users share the worst mishaps they’ve witnessed while working in the lab – Jenny Rood – The Scientist

Peer review, explained (cartoon) – Academia Obscura

Bik’s Picks

Why pregnant women in Mississippi keep dying – Danielle Paquette – Washington Post

Oil May Have Killed Gulf Dolphins – David Biello – Scientific American

Photos: 7-Year-Old Boy Discovers T. Rex Cousin – Live Science
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April 24, 2015

Events

MetaSUB: First International Summit of Metagenomics & Metadesign of Subways and Urban Biomes – June 2015 – Christopher Mason – MicroBE.net

Human oral microbiome

Comparison of Bacterial Community Composition of Primary and Persistent Endodontic Infections Using Pyrosequencing – Giorgos N. Tzanetakis – Journal of Endodontics

Total and Specific Bacterial Levels in the Apical Root Canal System of Teeth with Post-treatment Apical Periodontitis – Henrique S. Antunes – Journal of Endodontics

Ability of Human Oral Microbiota to Produce Wine Odorant Aglycones from Odourless Grape Glycosidic Aroma Precursors – Carolina Muñoz-González – Food Chemistry

Human gut microbiome

Ecological effect of ceftazidime/avibactam on the normal human intestinal microbiota – Mamun-Ur Rashid – International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents

Manually curated database: Mycobiome: Approaches to analysis of intestinal fungi – Jie Tang – Journal of Immunological Methods

No abstract, behind paywall – Isoflavones and the gut microbiome – Herman Depypere – Maturitas

Animal models of microbiome research

Perturbation of the intestinal microbiota of mice infected with Cryptosporidium parvum – Refaat Ras – International Journal for Parasitology

Dysbiosis and Staphyloccus aureus Colonization Drives Inflammation in Atopic Dermatitis – Tetsuro Kobayashi – Immunity

Animal microbiome

Evaluation of Composition and Individual Variability of Rumen Microbiota in Yaks by 16S rRNA High-throughput Sequencing Technology – Wei Guo – Anaerobe

Diversity and phylogenetic analysis of endosymbiotic bacteria of the date palm root borer Oryctes agamemnon (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) – Wael S El-Sayed and Reda A Ibrahim – BMC Microbiology

Review: Genomics of the honey bee microbiome – Nancy A. Moran – Current Opinion in Insect Science

Review: Hologenome theory and the honey bee pathosphere – Ryan S. Schwarz – Current Opinion in Insect Science

Water microbiome

Metagenome-assembled genomes uncover a global brackish microbiome – Luisa W Hugerth – BioRxiv

Built environment microbiome

Review: Hospital-associated microbiota and implications for nosocomial infections – Simon Lax and Jack A Gilbert – Trends in Molecular Medicine

Microbes and immunology

Of mice, macaques and men: scaling of virus dynamics and immune responses – Christian L. Althaus – Frontiers in Microbiology

Extremophiles

Deciphering the microbiota of Tuwa hot spring, India using shotgun metagenomic sequencing approach – Amitsinh Mangrola – Genomics Data

Review: Thermophiles in the genomic era: Biodiversity, science, and applications – M. Sofía Urbieta – Biotechnology Advances

Microbes in the news

Justin and Erica Sonnenburg: Cute Family. And You Should See Their Bacteria –  John Swansburg @thescienceofus @NYMag

Episode 5 of The Microbiome Podcast: Diet and its impact on our microbiota and health with Drs. Erica and Justin Sonnenburg – American Microbiome Institute

The Man Who Drank Cholera and Launched the Yogurt Craze – Ilya Metchnikoff laid the foundation for modern probiotics – Lina Zeldovich- Nautilus

Dirk Gevers, heading the Janssen Human Microbiome Institute – Nature Reviews Drug Discovery

Science, publishing, and career

Big names or big ideas: Do peer-review panels select the best science proposals? – Danielle Li, Leila Agha – Science

Bik’s Picks

When Hubble Stared at Nothing for 100 Hours – Nadia Drake – National Geographic

Neuroscientists Create Illusion of Having Invisible Body – Sci-News

Entire genomes of woolly mammoths mapped: Clues to extinction, possibility of bringing mammoths back – Science Daily

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April 20, 2015

Happy 4/20! Here is a paper from last June that deserves renewed attention today: 

Understanding Cultivar-Specificity and Soil Determinants of the Cannabis Microbiome – Max E. Winston – PLOS ONE

Human oral microbiome

Review: Ecological Approaches to Oral Biofilms: Control without Killing – Marsh P.D. – Caries Research

Human vaginal microbiome

A multi-platform metabolomics approach identifies novel biomarkers associated with bacterial diversity in the human vagina – Amy McMillan – ArXiv

Comparison of detection methods for vaginal lactobacilli – I. Smidt – Beneficial Microbes

Human gut microbiome

Differences in Gut Microbiota Between Atopic and Healthy Children – Tiina Drell – Current Microbiology

DGGE: Is there interaction between gut microbial profile and cardiovascular risk in chronic kidney disease patients? – Amanda F Barros – Future Medicine

Thesis: Characterization and Investigation of Fungi Inhabiting the Gastrointestinal Tract of Healthy and Diseased Humans – Mallory J Suhr – University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Poster: The MS Microbiome Consortium (MSMC): an academic multi-disciplinary collaborative effort to elucidate the role of the gut microbiota in MS (P2.205)
Ilana Katz Sand – Neurology

Review: Gut microbiota and Ma-Pi 2 macrobiotic diet in the treatment of type 2 diabetes – Francesco Fallucca – World Journal of Diabetes

Animal microbiome

The coral core microbiome identifies rare bacterial taxa as ubiquitous endosymbionts
Tracy D Ainsworth – The ISME Journal

Plant root and soil microbiome

Tree: Genetic Diversity and Functional Traits of Pterocarpus officinalis Jacq. Associated with Symbiotic Microbial Communities in Caribbean Swamp Forests in Relation to Insular Distribution, Salinity and Flooding – Amadou M. Bâ, Elsie Rivera-Ocasio – Wetlands

Plant: Effects of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) root mucilage on microbial community response and capacity for phenanthrene remediation – Ran Sun – Journal of Environmental Sciences

Effect of conventional and organic orchard floor management practices on enzyme activities and microbial counts in a ‘Cripp’s Pink’/M7 apple orchard – André H Meyer – South African Journal of Plant and Soil

Successional and seasonal variations in soil and litter microbial community structure and function during tropical post-agricultural forest regeneration: A multi-year study
A. Peyton Smith – Global Change Biology

Editorial: Increasing diversity – Andrea Du Toit – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Soils naturally suppressive to banana Fusarium wilt disease harbor unique bacterial communities – Zongzhuan Shen – Plant and Soil

Cropping systems modulate the rate and magnitude of soil microbial autotrophic CO2 fixation in soil – Xiao H. Wu – Frontiers in Microbiology

Cave microbiome
Nutrient input influences fungal community composition and size and can stimulate Mn(II) oxidation in caves – SK Carmichael – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Water microbiome

Temporal and spatial constraints on community assembly during microbial colonization of wood in seawater – Dimitri Kalenitchenko – The ISME Journal

Extremophiles

In situ expression of eukaryotic ice-binding proteins in microbial communities of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice – Christiane Uhlig – The ISME Journal

Metatranscriptomes reveal functional variation in diatom communities from the Antarctic Peninsula – Gareth A Pearson – The ISME Journal

Venn Diagrams galore: Multi-scale variability analysis reveals the importance of spatial distance in shaping Arctic soil microbial functional communities – Yu Shi – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Microbes of the built environment

Influence of housing characteristics on bacterial and fungal communities in homes of asthmatic children – K. C. Dannemiller – Indoor Air

Microbial diversity in bioaerosol samples causing ODTS compared to reference bioaerosol samples as measured using Illumina sequencing and MALDI-TOF – Anne Mette Madsen – Environmental Research

Molecular characterization of microbial communities and quantification of Mycobacterium immunogenum in metal removal fluids and their associated biofilms
Jianfeng Wu – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Bioreactor and wastewater microbiology

Microbial Mats as a Biological Treatment Approach for Saline Wastewaters: The Case of Produced Water from Hydraulic Fracturing – Benay Akyon – Environmental Science & Technology

Dynamics and distribution of bacterial and archaeal communities in oil-contaminated temperate coastal mudflat mesocosms – Gbemisola O. Sanni – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Techniques

Flow cytometry as an auxiliary tool for the selection of probiotic bacteria – D. Mudroňová – Beneficial Microbes

Other microbiology papers

Shattering old beliefsGram’s stain does not cross the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane – Michael J. Wilhelm – ACS Chemical Biology

Dynamic Clustering in Suspension of Motile Bacteria – Xiao Chen – ArXiv

Microbes in the news

Jessica Richman, CEO of uBiome joins for short Toolmaker Talk about microbiome
 – Quantified Self Radio

Top 100 Most Influential People, with Martin Blaser – Almudena Bernabea – Time

VideoDavid Sela, PhD: Probiotics, nutrition & the microbiome – UMass Amherst – YouTube

Can Specks of Dust Help Solve Crimes? – Mandy Oaklander – Time

Bacterial flora of remote tribespeople carries antibiotic resistance genes – Science Daily

In fight against Crohn’s, professor battles bacteria – Scott Goss – USA Today

Are gut bacteria manipulating your mood? – Viviane Richter – Cosmos Magazine

To fight nasty digestive bugs, U-M scientists set out to build a better gut – using stem cells – HealthCanal

Mouth bacteria can tell the status of liver disease – Zee News

How the gut garden affects fat-burning – Sylvia Harral, Michele Stewart – Recorder Online

Maple Syrup Extract May Fight Infection-Causing Bacteria: Study – Joanna Adams – Huffington Post

How Things Work: Phages occupy bacteria to cure infection – Sharon Wu – The Tartan

The Bacteria Will See You Now: How Little Bugs Create Big Problems in Hospitals – Brian Krans – HealthLine

Cytokinins Cannot Be Associated with Plants Only: Being Present in Bacteria, They Also Affect Resistance to TB – Martina Šaradínová

Microbes and art

VideoAnna Dumitriu – “Don’t try this at home” – creating microbial artwork from faecal transplants – YouTube

Now with a Colon and Rectum – but Super Stomach and Tremendous Testicle are cute too. Bladder is on sale! I Heart Guts Plush Organs

Science, publishing, and career

University of Victoria student diving for his master’s – Jeff Bell – Times Colonist (HT: Ed Yong)

Bik’s Picks

Roundup and Risk Assessment – Michael Specter – New Yorker

Vampire Squid Outlast Their Shallower Peers – SindyaN. Bhanoo – New York Times

New species of frog found in Costa Rica looks just like Kermit – Andrea Romano – Mashable

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April 16, 2015

Human gut microbiome

Alcoholic Liver Disease: The Gut Microbiome and Liver Cross Talk – Phillipp Hartmann – Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research

Animal models of microbiome research

Xylo-oligosaccharides and virginiamycin differentially modulate gut microbial composition in chickens – Mohsen Pourabedin – Microbiome

Taking advantage of quorum sensing – Cláudio Nunes-Alves – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Changes in the colon microbiota and intestinal cytokine gene expression following minimal intestinal surgery – Susan Lapthorne – World Journal of Gastroenterology

Animal microbiome

Insect life history and the evolution of bacterial mutualism – Lee M. Henry – Ecology Letters

Bugs full of viruses – Astrid Gall – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Similar sponge-associated bacteria can be acquired via both vertical and horizontal transmission – Detmer Sipkema – Environmental Microbiology

Transcriptional activity of the giant barrel sponge, Xestospongia muta Holobiont: Molecular Evidence for Metabolic Interchange – Cara L. Fiore – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water microbiome

Shift of anammox bacterial community structure along the Pearl Estuary and the impact of environmental factors – Bingbing Fu – Journal of Geophysical Research

Metatranscriptome analyses indicate resource partitioning between diatoms in the field – Harriet Alexander – PNAS USA

Microbiome of the built environment

Total Concentrations of Virus and Bacteria in Indoor and Outdoor Air – Aaron J. Prussin – Environmental Science and Technology Letters
See also my blog post on MicroBE.net about this paper, with a lively discussion on filters and pore sizes

Food microbiology

Effect of Gamma Irradiation on the Bacteriological and Sensory Analysis of Raw Whole Milk under Refrigeration – Adriana Cristina de Oliveira Silva

Bioreactor microbiology

Disturbance opens recruitment sites for bacterial colonization in activated sludge – David C. Vuono – Environmental Microbiology

Metaproteomics of complex microbial communities in biogas plants – Robert Heyer – Microbial Biotechnology

16S rRNA gene analysis, not metagenomics: Metagenomic analysis for the microbial consortium of anaerobic CO oxidizers – Ying Guo – Microbial Biotechnology

Bioinformatics

Protocol: Bioinformatics and Microarray Data Analysis on the Cloud – Barbara Calabrese, Mario Cannataro – Methods in Molecular Biology

An Ontology-Based GIS for Genomic Data Management of Rumen Microbes – Saber Jelokhani-Niaraki – Genomics & Informatics

Behind a very thick paywall: Application of Meta-Mesh on the analysis of microbial communities from human associated-habitats – Xiaoquan Su – Quantitative Biology

Metagenomics

The metagenomic approach and causality in virology – Silvana Beres Castrignano and Teresa Keico Nagasse-Sugahara – Rev Saúde Pública

Techniques

Use of pressure cycling technology for cell lysis and recovery of bacterial and fungal communities from soil – Emily A. Bruner – BioTechniques

Microbial Ecology

Estimating and Mapping Ecological Processes Influencing Microbial Community Assembly – James C. Stegen – Frontiers in Microbiology

More microbiology

The Infallible Microbial Identification Test: Does It Exist? – Alex van Belkum – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Synthetic Cheese and the Microbiome – Alex A. — MicroBE.net

Total Concentrations of Virus and Bacteria in Indoor and Outdoor Air – Elisabeth Bik – MicroBE.net

A Review of the Oral Microbiome: Orli Reports – Orli Kadoch – uBiome Blog

To fight nasty digestive bugs, scientists set out to build a better gut—using stem cells – Medical Xpress

#BacteriaArePlural The bacteria that steals DNA from its surroundings – Mette Risbråthe – Norwegian University of Life Sciences

#BacteriaHysteria: Germ warfare: Kitchens can harbor hidden bacteria – Katherine Roth – The Pueble Chieftain

Science, publishing, and career

A resource for cell line authentication, annotation and quality control – Mamie Yu – Nature

Science AMA Series: We are Charon Pierson, journal editor and elected member of the Governing Council for the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch. AUA about publication ethics and retractions.

Rule rewrite aims to clean up scientific software – Nature Biotechnology asks peer reviewers to check accessibility of code used in computational studies – Erika Check Hayden – Nature

Bik’s Picks

Response of seafloor ecosystems to abrupt global climate change – Sarah E. Moffitt – PNAS USA

Longread: The Pollen Detective – He’d used science to crack cases from art forgery to bank robbery. But then a murder took place in his own backyard – David Wolman – Medium

This professor measured his fingernail growth for 35 years. The results will amaze you! – Seriously, Science? – Discover

April 13, 2015

Not a lot of literature in my inbox today (I covered a lot on Saturday), just some “Microbes in the News”. Two recent blog posts I wrote:

Microbial cockroaches: Effect of gamma-radiation on soil microbes – Elisabeth Bik – MicroBE.net

Thoughts on Peer Review – Introduction – Elisabeth Bik – Microbiome Digest

Events and conferences

Probiotica Americas 2015 – 3-5 June, San Diego, Nutraingredients

Built environment microbiome

Factors affecting crack repairing capacity of bacteria-based self-healing concrete – Mian Luo – Construction and Building Materials

CRISPRs

CRISPR adaptation biases explain preference for acquisition of foreign DNA – Asaf Levy – Nature

Microbes in the news

Microbial activity will start the pile cooking. A Project to Turn Corpses Into Compost – Catrin Einhorn – New York Times

Obesity-related Microbiota Induce Neurological Impairments in Mice – Mad In America

Military Kids May Be Missing Vaccines – Maggie Fox – NBC News.com

Moody microbes? Gut bacteria found to play key role in serotonin production – Nathan Gray – Nutraingredients

Aristotle University Cooperates With MIT to Find Bacteria That Fight Cancer and Autoimmune Disorders – A. Makris – Greek Reporter

How a Bacterial Cell Recognizes its Own DNA – Science Daily

Simple Signal Spurs Complex Process of Fixing Cell Walls – James Gorman – New York Times

Science, publishing, and career

When trainees go bad: problematic individuals in the lab causing stress – Tenure She Wrote

12 Guidelines For Surviving Science – Adam Micolich – Pacific SouthEast

We Are Not Impostors – Stephen J. Aguilar – Inside Higher Ed

Great news! Leading scientists favour women in tenure-track hiring test – Boer Deng – Nature

Gender equity in academia: Making a change – The Genome Analysis Centre

Lawsuit involving PubPeer unmasks commenter as pseudonymous whistleblower Clare Francis – Ivan Oransky – Retraction Watch

Bik’s Picks

Nasa’s Curiosity rover finds water below surface of Mars – Hannah Devlin – The Guardian

Why SpaceX is shooting an espresso machine into space – Ben Geier – Fortune

How The Science Of Wasabi Could Pave The Way For New Pain Meds – Jacqueline Howard – Huffington Post

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April 11, 2015

Another new paper on gorilla gut microbiome, reviews on role of microbes in obesity, and finding the microbial equivalent of cockroaches.

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Pathogenesis of neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis – Joanna C. Lim – Pediatric Surgery International

Human oral microbiome

Differentiation of salivary bacterial profiles of subjects with periodontitis and dental caries – Daniel Belstrøm – Journal of Oral Microbiology

Secretome of gingival epithelium in response to subgingival biofilms – N. Bostanci – Molecular Oral Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Perspective: Integrating host gene expression and the microbiome to explore disease pathogenesis – Allyson L Byrd and Julia A Segre – Genome Biology

Review: Recent Advances in Characterizing the Gastrointestinal Microbiome in Crohn’s Disease: A Systematic Review – Emily K Wright – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Review: Dietary effects on human gut microbiome diversity – Zhenjiang Xu and Rob Knight – British Journal of Nutrition

Review: Obesity and the gastrointestinal microbiota: a review of associations and mechanisms – Catherine Graham – Nutrition Reviews

Review: Gut Microbiome and Obesity: A Plausible Explanation for Obesity – Claudia Sanmiguel – Current Obesity Reports

Animal model microbiome

Distinct Commensals Induce Interleukin-1β via NLRP3 Inflammasome in Inflammatory Monocytes to Promote Intestinal Inflammation in Response to Injury – Sang-Uk Seo – Immunity
Animal microbiome

Gut microbiome composition and metabolomic profiles of wild western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) reflect host ecology – Andres Gomez – Molecular Ecology

Soil and plant root microbiome

Forest floor community metatranscriptomes identify fungal and bacterial responses to N deposition in two maple forests – Cedar N. Hesse – Frontiers in Microbiology

Parent materials have stronger effects than land use types on microbial biomass, activity and diversity in red soil in subtropical China – Huan Deng – Pedobiologia

Changes in soil microbial functional diversity and biochemical characteristics of tree peony with amendment of sewage sludge compost – Xiangdong Huang – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

16S rRNA study, not metagenomics: Cataloguing the bacterial diversity of the Sundarbans mangrove, India in the light of metagenomics – Pijush Basak – Genomics Data

Relationships among bulk soil physicochemical, biochemical, and microbiological parameters in an organic alfalfa-rice rotation system – Ana R. Lopes – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Soil microbial responses over 2 years following biochar addition to a north temperate forest – Genevieve L. Noyce – Biology and Fertility of Soils

Water microbiome

Temporal Dynamics of Active Prokaryotic Nitrifiers and Archaeal Communities from River to Sea – Mylène Hugoni – Microbial Ecology

Extremophile microbiome

Finding the microbial equivalent of cockroachesThe impact of gamma radiation on sediment microbial processes – Ashley R. Brown – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Methods to Assess Human Occupancy and Occupant Activity in Hospital Patient Rooms – Sandra Dedesko – Building and Environment

Bioreactor microbiology

Bacterial communities in haloalkaliphilic sulfate-reducing bioreactors under different electron donors revealed by 16S rRNA MiSeq sequencing – Jiemin Zhou – Journal of Hazardous Materials

Microbial Ecology

Antimicrobial Resistance: The Major Contribution of Poor Governance and Corruption to This Growing Problem – Peter Collignon – PLOS ONE

Local–global overlap in diversity informs mechanisms of bacterial biogeography – Joshua A Livermore and Stuart E Jones – The ISME Journal

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Inference of Markovian Properties of Molecular Sequences from NGS Data and Applications to Comparative Genomics – Jie Ren – ArXiv

Techniques

Normalization of environmental metagenomic DNA enhances the discovery of under-represented microbial community members – J.-B. Ramond – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Estimating Protistan Diversity using High-throughput Sequencing – Sarah K. Hu – Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Connecting Indoor Microbiome Studies with Indoor Chemistry – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBE.net

Smart Sewers Will Reveal What’s in Cambridge Citizens’ Guts – Elie Dolgin – IEEE Spectrum

Microbes disprove long-held assumption that all organisms share a common vocabulary – Science Daily

Scientists study mystery of Lake Erie toxic bacteria – Detroit Free Press

Jessica Cofield puts degrees in microbiology to good use – Crystal Garrett – Sun Journal

MRSA Bacteria From Borrowed Makeup Brush Paralyzes 27-Year-Old Woman – Lecia Bushak – Medical Daily

Science, publishing, and career

Virginia student earns admission to all eight Ivy League schools, and others – T. Rees Shapiro – Washington Post

China’s medical research integrity questioned – The Lancet

The seven sins of peer review – Technologist

Bik’s Picks

Review: Innovations in Health Value and Functional Food Development of Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) – Brittany L. Graf – Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety

In Hawaii, Chickens Gone Wild – Kenneth Chang – New York Times

Komodo dragon named Smaug gets a leg up from a new prosthetic – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

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April 1, 2015

April 1st science

Want to live chemical free? Try Doctor Bacfarc’s Dark Matter Diet™! – Galileo’s Pendulum

Zoology: Here be dragons – Andrew J Hamilton – Nature

CERN researchers confirm existence of the Force, with scientist Ben Kenobi – Cian O’Luanaigh – CERN

Against April Fools’ in Science Journalism – Lee Billings – Scientific American

Human oral microbiome

Comparison of Oral Microbial Profiles between Children with Severe Early Childhood Caries and Caries-Free Children Using the Human Oral Microbe Identification Microarray – Chen Ma – PLOS ONE

Like pulling teeth: Microbiota at teeth and implants in partially edentulous patients. A 10-year retrospective study – Sigrun Eick – Clinical Oral Implants Research

Human respiratory microbiome

The daily dynamics of cystic fibrosis airway microbiota during clinical stability and at exacerbation – Lisa A Carmody – Microbiome

Human gut microbiome

Fate, activity, and impact of ingested bacteria within the human gut microbiota – Muriel Derrien, Johan E.T. van Hylckama Vlieg – Trends in Microbiology

Gut Microbiota and Tacrolimus Dosing in Kidney Transplantation – John R. Lee – PLOS ONE

Gut microbiota: Optimal sampling of the intestinal microbiota for research – R. Balfour Sartor – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Review: Towards a more comprehensive concept for prebiotics – Laure B. Bindels – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Antibiotic Exposure in Infancy and Risk of Being Overweight in the First 24 Months of Life – Antti Saari – Pediatrics

Animal microbiome

Bats: External Microbiota of Western United States Bats: Does It Matter Where You Are From? – Ara Kooser – BioRxiv

Aphids: Infection Dynamic of Symbiotic Bacteria in the Pea Aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum Gut and Host Immune Response at the Early Steps in the Infection Process – François Renoz – PLOS ONE

Plant microbiome

Presentation: Mining the Agave Microbiome for Adaptations to Arid Environments – Devin Coleman-Derr – JGI

Soil and plant root microbiome

Baseline Survey of Root-Associated Microbes of Taxus chinensis (Pilger) Rehd – Qian Zhang – PLOS ONE

Extremophile microbiome

Functional Characterization of Bacteria Isolated from Ancient Arctic Soil Exposes Diverse Resistance Mechanisms to Modern Antibiotics – Gabriel G. Perron – PLOS ONE

Built environment microbiome

Influence of a Non-Hospital Medical Care Facility on Antimicrobial Resistance in Wastewater – Mathias Bäumlisberger – PLOS ONE

Metagenomics

Staph in staff: Capturing the cloud of diversity reveals complexity and heterogeneity of MRSA carriage, infection and transmission – Gavin K. Paterson

Metabolomics

Marine sequestration of carbon in bacterial metabolites – Oliver J. Lechtenfeld – Nature Communications

Ecology

Not microbial, but of interest: Inferring species interactions in ecological communities: a comparison of methods at different levels of complexity – Francesco Carrara – Methods in Ecology and Evolution

Techniques

Insight into biases and sequencing errors for amplicon sequencing with the Illumina MiSeq platform – Melanie Schirmer – Nucleic Acids Research

Microbes in the news

Apparently, this is not a joke: #Kryptonia: Hiding in Plain Sight: Researchers using metagenomics and single-cell sequencing identify a potential new bacterial phylum – Kim Smuga-Otto – The Scientist

Can ‘ghosts’ cause bad air? Poor indoor air quality and ‘sightings’ – Science Daily

Cool Jobs: The Cave Microbiologist – Scientiflix

Bacteria are plural, Smithsonian. Found: The Bacteria That’s Making You Stink – Erin Blakemore – Smithsonian

Duke-UNC Collaboration Creating ‘Gut-on-a-Chip’ – Marla Vacek Broadfoot – Duke Translational Medicine Institute

Researchers Discover New Source Of Airborne Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria – Erin Schumaker – Huffington Post

Research proves that intestinal bacteria can be used to classify the effects of different diseases – Medical Xpress

VanillinAre Microbes the Taste-Makers of the Future? – Jeffrey Marlow – Wired.com

Your Microbiome “Tree” – Spectrum MIT
Microbiome Research: A New Frontier in Medicine – Elizabeth Dougherty – Spectrum MIT

Manipulative Microbiomes – Gut bacteria control tumor growth via the mammalian immune system – Jenny Rood – The Scientist

This might be April 1st joke, but realistic results: Scientists reveal the thousands of bacteria colonies growing on dirty coins and notes – Sarah Griffiths – Daily Mail

New ‘Intraterrestrial’ Virus Found in Ocean Depths – Patrick J Kiger – Discovery

Best date ever: Date syrup shows promise for fighting bacterial infections – Science Daily

Science, publishing, career

How Articles Get Noticed and Advance the Scientific Conversation – Victoria Costello – PLOS Blogs

A Biotic Game Design Project for Integrated Life Science and Engineering Education –
Nate J. Cira – PLOS Biology

Bik’s Picks

Getting away with murder: Global analysis of fungal morphology exposes mechanisms of host cell escape – Teresa R. O’Meara – Nature Communications

Monarch Larva Monitoring Project Helps Citizen Scientists Build Connections to Nature – Eva Lewandowski – PLOS Blogs

Rats see the pain in other rats’ faces – Virginia Morell – Science Mag

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March 31, 2015

For today’s digest, I screened over 500 papers, and thousands of Tweets for you. Here is my selection:

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

PhD thesis [PDF]: Dynamics of co-existing Escherichia coli lineages in situ of the infant gut – Heidi Kira Gumpert – Technical University of Denmark

Associations between Gut Microbial Colonization in Early Life and Respiratory Outcomes in Cystic Fibrosis – Anne G Hoen – The Journal of Pediatrics

ReviewProbiotics for Preterm Infants: A Premature or Overdue Necrotizing Enterocolitis Prevention Strategy? – Sharon Anderson – Neonatal Network

Review: Preterm infant nutrition, gut bacteria, and necrotizing enterocolitis – Josef Neu –  Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care

Human oral microbiome

Periodontal Therapy Effects on Nitrite Related to Oral Bacteria: A 6-Month Randomized Clinical Trial – Sheila C Cortelli – Journal of Periodontology

Perspective: Mouthguards: Does the indigenous microbiome play a role in maintaining oral health? – Purnima S. Kumar and Matthew R. Mason – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Human respiratory microbiome

Nasal Inoculation of the Commensal Neisseria lactamica Inhibits Carriage of Neisseria meningitidis by Young Adults: A Controlled Human Infection Study – Alice M. Deasy – Clinical Infectious Diseases

Human skin microbiome

Molecular cartography of the human skin surface in 3D – Amina Bouslimani – PNAS USA

Human gut microbiome

Dynamic changes in short- and long-term bacterial composition following fecal microbiota transplantation for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection – Alexa Weingarden – Microbiome Journal

Insight into alteration of gut microbiota in Clostridium difficile infection and asymptomatic C. difficile colonization – Zhang Lihua – Anaerobe

Review: The microbiota in inflammatory bowel disease – Donal Sheehan – Journal of Gastroenterology

Review: Promoting Health and Longevity through Diet: From Model Organisms to Humans – Luigi Fontana, Linda Partridge – Cell

Review: TLR4 at the crossroads of nutrients, gut microbiota and metabolic inflammation
Licio A. Velloso – Endocrine Reviews

Review: Cultivating Healthy Growth and Nutrition through the Gut Microbiota – Sathish Subramanian – Cell

Review: The human gut microbiome, a taxonomic conundrum – Senthil Alias Sankar – Systematic and Applied Microbiology

Review: The Role of Infectious Mediators and Gut Microbiome in the Pathogenesis of Celiac Disease – Mohammad Rostami-Nejad – Archives of Iranian Medicine

Review: Exercise and the microbiota – Orla O’Sullivan – Gut Microbes

Animal models of microbiome research

Abnormal Pregnancy Outcomes in Mice Using an Induced Periodontitis Model and the Haematogenous Migration of Fusobacterium nucleatum Sub-Species to the Murine Placenta – Sara Stockham – PLOS ONE

Lactobacillus rhamnosus lowers zebrafish lipid content by changing gut microbiota and host transcription of genes involved in lipid metabolism – Silvia Falcinelli – Scientific Reports

Interactive effects of oligofructose and obesity predisposition on gut hormones and microbiota in diet-induced obese rats – Nina L. Cluny – Obesity

Animal microbiome

Editorial to Baboon microbiome paper: Metagenomics: Social behavior and the microbiome – Jack A Gilbert – eLIFE

More baboons: Development, diet, and dynamism: longitudinal and cross-sectional predictors of gut microbial communities in wild baboons – Tiantian Ren – Environmental Microbiology

Spider monkey: Effect of preservation method on spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) fecal microbiota over 8 weeks – Vanessa L. Hale – Journal of Microbiological Methods

Cats: Molecular identification of black-pigmented bacteria from subgingival samples of cats suffering from periodontal disease – L. Pérez-Salcedo – Journal of Small Animal Practice

Desert wool rat: Validating the use of trap-collected feces for studying the gut microbiota of a small mammal (Neotoma lepida) – Journal of Mammalogy

Tortoise: Kinship, inbreeding, and fine-scale spatial structure influence gut microbiota in a hindgut-fermenting tortoise – Michael L. Yuan – Molecular Ecology

Trout: Bacterial community structure in the intestinal ecosystem of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) as revealed by pyrosequencing-based analysis of 16S rRNA genes
Miray Etyemez, José Luis Balcázar – Research in Veterinary Science

Fruit fly: Pyrosequencing reveals a shift in symbiotic bacteria populations across life stages of Bactrocera dorsalis – Awawing A. Andongma – Scientific Reports

Aphids: Bacterial Communities Associated with Host-Adapted Populations of Pea Aphids Revealed by Deep Sequencing of 16S Ribosomal DNA – Jean-Pierre Gauthier – PLOS ONE

Plant microbiome

A metagenome for lacustrine Cladophora (Cladophorales) reveals remarkable diversity of eukaryotic epibionts and genes relevant to materials cycling – Linda E. Graham – Journal of Phycology

Soil and plant root microbiome

A novel pathway producing ​dimethylsulphide in bacteria is widespread in soil environments – O. Carrión – Nature Communications

Metabolic characteristics of microbial communities of Aeolian sandy soils induced by saline water drip irrigation in shelter forests – Z. Jin – European Journal of Soil Science

Field experimental evidence that stochastic processes predominate in the initial assembly of bacterial communities – Yi-Qi Hao – Environmental Microbiology

Effects of monoculture and mixed culture of grass and legume forage species on soil microbial community structure under different levels of nitrogen fertilization – Jie Zhao – European Journal of Soil Biology

Soil microbial community variation correlates most strongly with plant species identity, followed by soil chemistry, spatial location and plant genus – Jean H. Burns – AoB Plants

Long-term oil contamination causes similar changes in microbial communities of two distinct soils – Jingqiu Liao – Frontiers in Environmental Science

Soil Microbial Community Structure and Target Organisms under Different Fumigation Treatments – Sadikshya R. Dangi – Applied and Environmental Soil Science

Water microbiome

Carbonate fabrics in the modern microbialites of Pavilion Lake: two suites of microfabrics that reflect variation in microbial community morphology, growth habit, and lithification – C. Harwood Theisen – Geobiology

The Unique Chemistry of Eastern Mediterranean Water Masses Selects for Distinct Microbial Communities by Depth – Stephen M. Techtmann – PLOS ONE

Planktonic eukaryote molecular diversity: discrimination of minerotrophic and ombrotrophic peatland pools in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) – Enrique Lara – J. Plankton Research

Extremophile microbiome

Ice cover extent drives phytoplankton and bacterial community structure in a large north-temperate lake: implications for a warming climate – B. F. N. Beall – Environmental Microbiology

Marine microbes rapidly adapt to consume ethane, propane, and butane within the dissolved hydrocarbon plume of a natural seep – Stephanie D. Mendes – Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans

Built environment microbiome

Are microbial communities in green roof substrates comparable to those in post-industrial sites?—a preliminary study – Chloe J. Molineux – Urban Ecosystems

Food microbiology

Some journals just have great titles: Microbial community changes in Makgeolli during brewing – Changhoon Chai – Journal of the Institute of Brewing

Review: Fermented Foods as Experimentally Tractable Microbial Ecosystems – Benjamin E. Wolfe, Rachel J. Dutton – Cell

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Assessing the limits of restraint-based 3D modeling of genomes and genomic domains
Marie Trussart – Nucleic Acids Research

CRISPR Detection from Short Reads Using Partial Overlap Graphs – Ilan Ben-Bassat, Benny Chor – Research in Computational Molecular Biology

CLARK: fast and accurate classification of metagenomic and genomic sequences using
discriminative k-mers – Rachid Ounit – BMC Genomics

FlowClus: efficiently filtering and denoising pyrosequenced amplicons – John M Gaspar and W Kelley Thomas – BMC Bioinformatics

Review: 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing data mining of microbial diversity and interactions – Feng Ju, Dr. Tong Zhang – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Book Chapter: Single-Cell Sequencing of Microorganisms – Ying Chen – Single Cell Sequencing and Systems Immunology

Metabolomics

Review: Rumen Nutrition Symposium How to use data on the rumen microbiome to improve our understanding of ruminant nutrition – J. L. Firkins and Z. Yu – Journal of Animal Science

Microbes in the news

Modeling microbial metabolism on indoor surfaces – Jack Gilbert – MicroBEnet

Body Maps Expose the Chemical Residue That Coats Our Skin – Marcus Woo – Wired.com
Crazy maps reveal colonies of bacteria and chemicals all over the human body – Kevin Loria – Business Insider
3D Human Skin Maps Aid Study of Relationships Between Molecules, Microbes and Environment – Heather Buschman – UC San Diego

Advancing the understanding of the dental microbiome – Maria Perno Goldie – Dentistry IQ

Who Let the Microbes Out: A Paw Print of Doggy Skin Bacteria – Daniella Lowenberg – PLOS blogs

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are not match for medieval potion – Alexandra Ossola – Popular Science

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria From Texan Cattle Yards Are Now Airborne, Study Finds
Kevin McSpadden – Time

Growing a Baby Microbiome – Kevin Bonham – Scientific American

Poop Transplants Can Treat Severe Infection In Patients – FPJ Bureau – The Free Press Journal

Poo transplants could save thousands – Geoff Egan – Range News
Healthy Microbiome Changes Last After Fecal Transplant in New Research – Elizabeth Gough-Gordon – MPR

With sample collection videos: GoViral – collecting nasal and saliva samples from sick people – Boston Children’s Hospital

Northwestern leads research on effects of long-term stay in space – Peter Kotecki – The Daily Northwestern
Conference paper: Research from the NASA Twins Study and Omics in Support of Mars Missions – NASA Technical Reports

Podcast (1min30): Donate Your Health Data To Medical Science – Cynthia Graber – Scientific American – American Gut, GoViral

You Act What You Eat: How Gut Microbes Modify Our Behavior – Monica Thunder – ResetMe

Meet The Bacteria That Make A Stink In Your Pits – Poncie Rutsch – NPR
Bacterial genetic pathway involved in body odor production discovered – Science Daily

Should Gut Bugs Influence the 2015 Dietary Guidelines? – Cameron Wells – US News

Glowing Tampons Help Detect Sewage Leaks – Gwen Pearson – Wired

Nearly half of hospital uniforms are washed in temperatures too cool to kill bacteria, says DMU research – De Montfort University
Egyptians Brewed Beer in Tel Aviv 5,000 Years Ago – Megan Gannon – Live Science

Conferences

#IHMC2015: 5th International Human Microbiome Congress, March 31-April 2, 2015, Luxembourg (6/23 plenary speakers are women)

The 2nd Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Forum Europe, May 07 – 08, 2015, London, UK (10/36 listed speakers are women)

1st Annual Translational Microbiome Conference, 13–14 May 2015, Boston, United States (5/11 speakers are women)

ASM General Meeting, May 30 – June 2, 2015, New Orleans, LA, USA

Symbiomes: Systems Biology of Host-Microbiome Interactions, 5-10 June 2015, Pultusk, Poland (5/17 speakers are women)

The Human Microbiome, 10-12 Jun 2015, EMBL Heidelberg, Germany (8/23 confirmed speakers are women)

Exploring Human Host-Microbiome Interactions in Health and Disease, June 29 – July 1, 2015 , Cambridge, UK (7/17 speakers are women)

Science, publishing, and career

How Articles Get Noticed and Advance the Scientific Conversation – Victoria Costello – PLOS Blogs

Writing a Good Peer Review to Improve Scholarship: What Editors Value and Authors Find Helpful – H. McLaughlin – Social Work Education: The International Journal

DiscussionMistake index as a surrogate of quality in scientific manuscripts – Antoni Margalida – PNAS USA

What if you could replace performance evaluations with four simple questions? – Jena McGregor – Washington Post

Bik’s Picks

What 60 Minutes Got Right And Wrong On Duke’s Polio Virus Trial Against Glioblastoma – David Kroll – Forbes.com

The Astonishing beauty of Ordinary Sand magnified 250X – Aetherforce

What Elephants and Whales Look Like From Space – Robinson Meyer – The Atlantic

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