Category Archives: Built Environment Microbiology

August 21, 2020

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Events
HAPPENING TODAY: Microbiome sequencing in high-host and low biomass samples. August 21, 2020.

Webinar Series on the Gut-Brain Axis and the Microbiome
August 28, 2020 – September 25, 2020

Funding
Functional effects of the human gut microbiome on autism. Biocodex Microbiota Foundation

Human microbiome
Focus on Microbiome in Health and Disease – A special microbiome issue in Cell Host Microbe

REVIEW: The Impact of the Microbiome on Immunity to Vaccination in Humans. Sanne E. de Jong et al. Cell Host & Microbe.

REVIEW: The Gut Microbiota and Unhealthy Aging: Disentangling Cause from Consequence. Erica N. DeJong et al. Cell Host & Microbe.

Helminth coinfection and COVID-19: An alternate hypothesis. Russell Hays et al. PLoS Negleced Tropical Diseases.

Gut microbiome
REVIEW: Mitochondria, the gut microbiome and ROS. and ROS. J. William O.Ballard & Samuel G. Towarnicki. Cellular Signalling.

Stool Microbiome Profiling of Patients with Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Receiving Anti–PD-1 Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors. Nicholas J. Salgia et al. European Urology.

Programing of an Intravascular Immune Firewall by the Gut Microbiota Protects against Pathogen Dissemination during Infection. Braedon McDonald et al. Cell Host & Microbe

Oral microbiome
Analysis of microbial changes in the tonsillar formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue of Chinese patients with IgA nephropathy. Anchao Zhu. Pathology – Research and Practice

Early life microbiome
Breastmilk Feeding Practices Are Associated with the Co-Occurrence of Bacteria in Mothers’ Milk and the Infant Gut: the CHILD Cohort Study. Kelsey Fehr et al. Cell Host & Microbe.

Animal microbiome
Effects of Urbanization and Landscape on Gut Microbiomes in White-Crowned Sparrows. Mae Berlow. Microbial Ecology

Built environment
Passenger-surface microbiome interactions in the subway of Mexico City. Daniela Vargas-Robles et al. PLoS One.

Plant, root, and soil microbiome
Plant resistance and leaf chemical characteristic jointly shape phyllosphere bacterial community. Tian Xueliang. World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology.

The role of land management and elevation in shaping soil microbial communities: Insights from the Central European Alps. Nadine Praega. Soil Biology and Biochemistry.

Composition, predicted functions, and co-occurrence networks of fungal and bacterial communities_ Links to soil organic carbon under long-term fertilization in a rice-wheat cropping system. Jie Chen. European Journal of Soil Biology

Diversity and structure of prokaryotic communities within organic and conventional farming systems in central highlands of Kenya. Edward Nderitu Karanja et al. PLoS One.

Water and wastewater
Turning harmful algal biomass to electricity by microbial fuel cell: A sustainable approach for waste management. Jafar Ali. Environmental Pollution.

Combining physicochemical properties and microbiome data to evaluate the water quality of South African drinking water production plants. Tawanda E. Maguvu et al. PLoS One.

Viruses
They are what you eat: Shaping of viral populations through nutrition and consequences for virulence. Rebekah Honce & Stacey Schultz-Cherry. PLoS Pathogens.

Bioinformatics
Assembly methods for nanopore-based metagenomic sequencing: a comparative study. Adriel Latorre-Pérez. Scientific Report.

Completion of draft bacterial genomes by long-read sequencing of synthetic genomic pools. Hooman Derakhshani et al. BMC Genomics.

Modeling microbial cross-feeding at intermediate scale portrays community dynamics and species coexistence. Chen Liao et al. PLoS Computational Biology

Pre-print
Bacterial modification of the host glycosaminoglycan heparan sulfate modulates SARS-CoV-2 infectivity. Cameron Martino et al. bioRxiv

Evaluation of Compatibility of 16S rRNA V3V4 and V4 Amplicon Libraries for Clinical Microbiome Profiling. Po-Yu Liu et al.bioRxiv

Shirin’s non-microbiology picks
MICROBIOME ART: François-Joseph Lapointe, when biology meets art. Jihane Mossalim. Convergence Initiative.

BEHIND THE PAPER: Early-life microbiota diversification facilitates enterocyte proliferation. Michael Dougherty. Nature Microbiology Research Community

JOP OPPURTUNITY: PhD positions in the ecology and evolution of metabolic cross-feeding interactions in soil-living bacterial communities and the gut microbiota in protecting the host against intestinal colonisation by multidrug-resistant organisms

August 19, 2020

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Greetings!

Today’s digest is heavy on environmental microbiology with topics ranging from marine microplastics to carbon budgets to kitchen waste. I want to especially highlight a study that examines the phyllosphere of the mānuka. They found that the mānuka, or tea tree, has a stable core microbiome and variation in the non-core taxa is explained by biogeographical patterns.

Enjoy!

Events and jobs

Virtual Microbiome Bioinformatics Qiime2 Workshop – October 5-9, 2020

General microbiome

Opinion: Oceanic hitchhikers – Assessing pathogen risks from marine microplastic – Bowley et al. – Trends in Microbiology

Multi-site human microbiome

Analysis of the composition and functions of the microbiome in diabetic foot osteomyelitis based on 16S rRNA and metagenome sequencing technology – Mengchen et al. – Diabetes

Animal experiments

Developmental stage-associated microbiota profile of the peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata (Diptera: Tephritidae) and their functional prediction using 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding sequencing – Naaz et al. – 3 Biotech

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

A core phyllosphere microbiome exists across distant populations of a tree species indigenous to New Zealand – Noble et al. – PLOS One

Water and extremophile microbiome

Carbon budgets for soil and plants respond to long-term warming in an Alaskan boreal forest – Alster et al. – Biogeochemistry

First insights to the microbial communities in the plant process water of the multi-metal Kevitsa mine – Bomberg et al. – Research in Microbiology

Halomicroarcula amylolytica sp. nov., a novel halophilic archaeon isolated from a salt mine – Chen et al. – International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

Spatial patterns of microbial communities across surface waters of the Great Barrier Reef – Frade et al. – Communications Biology

Isolation and characterization of a novel acidophilic zero-valent sulfur- and ferric iron-respiring Firmicute – Holanda and Johnson – Research and Microbiology

Combining physicochemical properties and microbiome data to evaluate the water quality of South African drinking water production plants – Maguvu et al. – PLOS One

Transient dynamics of archaea and bacteria in sediments and brine Across a salinity gradient in a solar saltern of Goa, India – Mani et al. – Frontiers in Microbiology

Diversity and distribution of cultivable fungi present in acid sulphate soils in chronosequence under para-periglacial conditions in King George Island, Antarctica – Porto et al. – Extremophiles

Investigation of the ecological roles of putative keystone taxa during tailing revegetation – Sun et al. – Environmental Science & Technology

Geochemistry and microbiology predict environmental niches with conditions favoring potential microbial activity in the Bakken shale – Tinker et al. – Frontiers in Microbiology

Spatial patterns of selenium and profiling of Se-tolerant Bacillus strains in Shiwalik foot-hills – Tiwana et al. – Geomicrobiology Journal

Bacterial laccase of Anoxybacillus ayderensis SK3-4 from hot springs showing potential for industrial dye decolorization – Wang et al. – Annals of Microbiology

Built environment

Comparison of microbial communities during anaerobic digestion of kitchen waste: Effect of substrate sources and temperatures – Jiang et al. – Bioresource Technology

August 14, 2020

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Good morning from Massachusetts! Dr. Elisabeth Bik will be giving a Zoom talk today on research misconduct in biomedical research. You can register at the link under events. Fittingly, today’s digest includes a preprint on the effects of retraction after misconduct on citations. Other highlights today include an entire theme issue on the microbiome and host evolution and a paper on phylogenomic analyses of archaea attempting to elucidate the DPANN lineage. In early life, the placental microbiome debate rages on with a paper demonstrating evidence for contamination rather than an actual placental microbiome. Finally, I have highlighted a paper studying whether soil archives can give us a glimpse into soil microbial communities of the past.

Have a great weekend!

Events

Dr. Bik is discussing “The Dark Side of Science: Misconduct in Biomedical Research” today at 12PM EDT! Register here.

General microbiome

Theme Issue: The role of the microbiome in host evolution – Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

Pregnancy and early life

Evidence for contamination as the origin for bacteria found in human placenta rather than a microbiota – Rémi Gschwind – PloS One

Human milk microbiome

SARS-CoV-2 in human milk is inactivated by Holder pasteurization but not cold storage – Gregory J. Walker – Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health

Human oral microbiome

Review: Oral microbiome geography: Micron-scale habitat and niche – Jessica L. Mark Welch – Cell Host & Microbe

Human gut microbiome

Epidemiology and associated microbiota changes in deployed military personnel at high risk of traveler’s diarrhea – William A. Walters – PloS One

Animal experiments

Differential alteration in gut microbiome profiles during acquisition, extinction, and reinstatement of morphine-induced CPP – Jianbo Zhang – Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry

Modulation of the intestinal microbiota of broilers supplemented with monensin or functional oils in response to challenge by Eimeria spp. – Alexandre Maciel Vieira – PloS One

Herpes simplex virus infection, Acyclovir and IVIG treatment all independently cause gut dysbiosis – Chandran Ramakrishna – PloS One

Animal microbiome

Raw milk and fecal microbiota of commercial Alpine dairy cows varies with herd, fat content and diet – Francesca Albonico – PloS One

Hydrolytic bacteria associated with natural helminth infection in the midgut of Red Sea marbled spinefoot rabbit fish Siganus rivulatus – Ghada Abd-Elmonsef Mahmoud – Microbial Pathogenesis

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Book: Agriculturally Important Fungi for Sustainable Agriculture Vol 2: Functional Annotation for Crop Protection – Eds. Ajar Nath Yadav et al. – Springer

Patient propagules: Do soil archives preserve the legacy of fungal and prokaryotic communities? – Gian Maria Niccolò Benucci – PloS One

Labile carbon limits late winter microbial activity near Arctic treeline – Patrick F. Sullivan – Nature Communications

Enhanced biodegradation of crude oil by constructed bacterial consortium comprising salt-tolerant petroleum degraders and biosurfactant producers – Weiwei Chen – International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation

Plant–archaea relationships: a potential means to improve crop production in arid and semi-arid regions – Elizabeth Temitope Alori – World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

First report of Fusarium equiseti causing crown rot and damping-off on durum wheat in Algeria – Amor Bencheikh – Archives of Phytopathology and Plant Protection

Soil microbial diversity and composition: Links to soil texture and associated properties – Qing Xia – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Water, air, and extremophile microbiome

Effects of different habitats on the bacterial community composition in the water and sediments of Lake Taihu, China – Wenjie Chang – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Genomic and enzymatic evidence of acetogenesis by anaerobic methanotrophic archaea – Shanshan Yang – Nature Communications

Undinarchaeota illuminate DPANN phylogeny and the impact of gene transfer on archaeal evolution – Nina Dombrowski – Nature Communications

Preprint: Occurrence, identification and antibiogram signatures of selected Enterobacteriaceae from Tsomo and Tyhume rivers in the Eastern Cape Province, Republic of South Africa – Fadare Temitope Folake — BioRxiv

Built environment

The microbiome of drinking water biofilters is influenced by environmental factors and engineering decisions but has little influence on the microbiome of the filtrate – Ben Ma – Environmental Science & Technology

In-situ remediation of acid mine drainage from abandoned coal mine by filed pilot-scale passive treatment system: Performance and response of microbial communities to low pH and elevated Fe – Haiyan Chen – Bioresource Technology

Bioinformatics and other techniques

De novo sequence assembly requires bioinformatic checking of chimeric sequences – Laila Sara Arroyo – PloS One

Review on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry for the rapid screening of microbial species: A promising bioanalytical tool – Suresh Kumar Kailasa – Microchemical Journal

Microbes in the News

Using the infant stool microbiome to predict NEC: New machine learning tool predicts devastating intestinal disease in premature infants – Science Daily

Science Publishing and Career

Preprint: Does retraction after misconduct have an impact on citations? A pre-post study – Cristina Candal-Pedreira – bioRxiv

August 10th, 2020

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God morgon!

Good morning from Sweden. Today’s digest is a light one but carries a preprint with some very important findings. The study has suggested that the nCoV can potentially hijack the immune system completely by infecting the lymphocytes. This might lead to impaired antibody and T-cell response, something that could have a serious implication on the success of the much-awaited vaccine. (Unfortunately, for some unknown reasons, the PDF of the preprint is inaccessible to me! Let me know down in the comments if you are able to download it.)

A new paper in BMC microbiome shows a correlation between the indoor dust microbiota and the microbiota of infant airways. A classic example of how our environment impacts our health.  There is another interesting preprint where the authors show that a fungus alters its virulence when it is challenged by predatory amoebae. Perhaps the amoeba challenge selects for the warrior mutants which then carry on their warring ways!

Elsewhere in the digest is a preprint where Plasmodium knowlesi was used as a model to successfully determine new vaccine targets against more dangerous Plasmodium vivax, a paper detailing the effect of polar light cycles on the Antarctic lake microbiome, and identification of haloarchael species in Korean gut microbiota.

COVID-19

Preprint: Infection of human lymphomononuclear cells by SARS-CoV-2 – Marjorie C Pontelli, et al.

General Microbiology

Preprint: Amoeba predation of Cryptococcus neoformans results in pleiotropic changes to traits associated with virulence – Man Shun Fu, et al.

Preprint: Using Plasmodium knowlesi as a model for screening Plasmodium vivax blood-stage malaria vaccine targets reveals new candidates – Duncan N Ndegwa, et al.

General microbiome

Influence of the polar light cycle on seasonal dynamics of an Antarctic lake microbial community – Pratibha Panwar, et al. – Microbiome

Environmental shaping of the bacterial and fungal community in infant bed dust and correlations with the airway microbiota – Shashank Gupta, et al. – Microbiome

Archaea/Gut microbiota

The human gut archaeome: identification of diverse haloarchaea in Korean subjects – Joon Yong Kim, et al. – Microbiome

Techniques

Preprint: Successful introduction of the Colour Test into inexperienced settings – Kadri Klaos

Zoom Seminar

How a healthy gut microbe affects your whole body? – Karen Ranzi, Holistic Health Coach, Award-Winning Author, Motivational Speaker, Natural Foods Chef, Speech and Feeding Therapist (phew!)

July 31, 2020

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Today’s digest features studies on hospital-associated bacterial communities on window components, the effect of urbanization on the vaginal microbiota of Amerindians, nitrate as a potential prebiotic for oral health, and the latest news in bioinformatics. Happy reading!

General microbiome

Microbial species interactions determine community diversity in fluctuating environments – Shota Shibasaki – bioRxiv

Review: The host-associated archaeome – Guillaume Borrel – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Oral microbiome

*Nitrate as a potential prebiotic for the oral microbiome – Bob T. Rosier – Scientific Reports

Skin microbiome

Deep skin dysbiosis in vitiligo patients: link with mitochondrial and immune changes – Hanene Bzioueche – medRxiv

Gut microbiome

Review: The microbiome: An emerging key player in aging and longevity– Minhoo Kim and Bérénice A. Benayoun – Translational Medicine of Aging

Immunoglobulin recognition of fecal bacteria in stunted and non-stunted children: findings from the Afribiota study – Kelsey E. Huus – Microbiome

Vaginal microbiome

*Changes in the vaginal microbiota across a gradient of urbanization – Daniela Vargas-Robles – Scientific Reports

Comparison between a novel molecular tool and conventional methods for diagnostic classification of bacterial vaginosis: is integration of the two approaches necessary for a better evaluation? – Margherita Scapaticci – New Microbiologica

Genome-wide mutagenesis identifies factors involved in Enterococcus faecalis vaginal adherence and persistence – Norhan Alhajjar – bioRxiv

Association between Vaginal Bacterial Microbiota and Vaginal Yeast Colonization – McKenna C Eastment – The Journal of Infectious Diseases

Urinary microbiome

Review: The microbiome in urological diseases – Kwang Woo Lee – Investigive and Clinical Urology

Review: FimH and Anti-Adhesive Therapeutics: A Disarming Strategy Against Uropathogens – Meysam Sarshar – Antibiotics

Characterization of urinary microbiome in patients with bladder cancer: Results from a single-institution, feasibility study – Juan Chipollini – Urologic Oncology: Seminars and Original Investigations

Animal microbiome

Resistance to change: AMR gene dynamics on a commercial pig farm with high antimicrobial usage – Jolinda Pollock – Scientific Reports

Vaginal Microbiota Changes During Estrous Cycle in Dairy Heifers – Juan J. Quereda – Frontiers in Veterinary Science

Animal experiment

The gut microbiome switches mutant p53 from tumour-suppressive to oncogenic – Eliran Kadosh – Nature

An Enteric Pathogen Subverts Colonization Resistance by Evading Competition for Amino Acids in the Gut – Gustavo Caballero-Flores – Cell Host & Microbe

Consumption of a Western-Style Diet Modulates the Response of the Murine Gut Microbiome to Ciprofloxacin – Damien J. Cabral – mSystems

Water and extremophile microbiome

Determining the primary sources of fecal pollution using microbial source tracking assays combined with land-use information in the Edwards Aquifer – Jessica Hinojosa – Water Research

Diverse Microorganisms in Sediment and Groundwater Are Implicated in Extracellular Redox Processes Based on Genomic Analysis of Bioanode Communities – Tyler J. Arbour – Frontiers in Microbiology

Food microbiome

Discovering microbiota and volatile compounds of surströmming, the traditional Swedish sour herring – Luca Belleggia – Food Microbiology

Built environment

*Viable bacterial communities on hospital window components in patient rooms – Patrick F. Horve – PeerJ

Microbiome and Metagenome Analyses of a Closed Habitat during Human Occupation – Ganesh Babu Malli Mohan – mSystems

Phages and viruses

Viral Metagenomic Content Reflects Seawater Ecological Quality in the Coastal Zone – Anastasia Tsiola – Viruses

Bioinformatics

Evaluating metagenomics tools for genome binning with real metagenomic datasets and CAMI datasets – Yi Yue – BMC Bioinformatics

Untangling Species-Level Composition of Complex Bacterial Communities through a Novel Metagenomic Approach – Christian Milani – mSystems

Automated prediction and annotation of small proteins in microbial genomes– Matthew G Durrant and Ami S Bhatt – bioRxiv

Accurate and sensitive detection of microbial eukaryotes from metagenomic shotgun sequencing data – Abigail L. Lind – bioRxiv

MicrobeAnnotator: a user-friendly, comprehensive microbial genome annotation pipeline – Carlos A. Ruiz-Perez – bioRxiv

Topological and kernel-based microbial phenotype prediction from MALDI-TOF mass spectra – Caroline Weis – Bioinformatics

NetCoMi: Network Construction and Comparison for Microbiome Data in R – Stefanie Peschel – bioRxiv

Review: Metagenomic approaches in microbial ecology: an update on whole-genome and marker gene sequencing analyses – Ana Elena Pérez-Cobas – Microbial Genomics

Podcast

Machine learning for drug development with Marinka Zitnik – Jacob Schreiber – The Bioinformatics Chat

July 19, 2020

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Hello from the Sonoran Desert! In today’s digest, you’ll find find a lot of very interesting papers! For those interested in host-phages interactions, there is an amazing work from Ping and collaborators looking at phage infections dynamics in migrating bacterial populations. Interestingly, the authors suggests that phages may be able to “hitchhike” with moving bacteria.

To continue with our viral readings, you’ll also find an interesting perspective paper from Kuprovic and collaborators. In this piece, the authors attempt to reconstruct the virome associated to LUCA (Last Universal Cellular Ancestor). Amazingly, their reconstruction shows that a remarkably complex virome would have been associated to LUCA, suggesting an extensive viral evolution antedating LUCA!

Finally, today’s non-microbiology pick is a book, looking at the fascinating Cuatro Ciénegas Basin, located in México, a site that is often described as a real outdoor laboratory for astrobiology. Indeed, the Basin site contains gypsum-rich soil analogous to the Gale Crater in Mars, and the ponds contains extremely oligotrophic waters, which can be used to model ancient oceans chemistry. You’ll explore along the chapters the history, ecology, microbiology and evolution of this amazing site, to unravel the mysteries of this site absolutely unique on the planet.

Have a great Sunday!

Human respiratory microbiome

Review: Insights gained into respiratory infection pathogenesis using lung tissue metabolomics –  Bernatchez and McCall –  PLOS Pathogens

Human gut microbiome

Description and determinants of the faecal resistome and microbiome of farmers and slaughterhouse workers: A metagenome-wide cross-sectional study –  Van Gompel et al. –  Environment International

Review: The influence of the gut microbiome on obesity –  Blanco – Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners

Animal microbiome (for animals in the wild)

Comparative analysis of the gut microbiota of Apis cerana in Yunnan using high-throughput sequencing. –  Luo et al. –  Archives of Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Higher tree diversity increases soil microbial resistance to drought. –  Gillespie et al. –  Communications Biology

Effect of land uses on soil microbial community structures among different soil depths in northeastern China. –  Ji et al. –  European Journal of soil Biology

Structural variability and niche differentiation of the rhizosphere and endosphere fungal microbiome of Casuarina equisetifolia at different ages. –  Huang et al. –  Environmental Microbiology

Water and extremophile microbiome (sea, rivers, lakes, glaciers, permafrost, high-salt)

Substrate regulation leads to differential responses of microbial ammonia-oxidizing communities to ocean warming. –  Zheng et al. –  Nature communications

Diversity and dynamics of relevant nanoplanktonic diatoms in the Western English Channel. –  Arsenieff et al.  –  The ISME Journal

Lake characteristics influence how methanogens in littoral sediments respond to terrestrial litter inputs. –  Yakimovich et al. –  The ISME Journal

Built environment (subways, indoor surfaces)

Heavy metal concentrations in Brazilian port areas and their relationships with microorganisms: can pollution in these areas change the microbial community? –  Del Busso Zampieri et al. –  Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

Food microbiology

Material conversion, microbial community composition and metabolic functional succession during green soybean hull composting. –  Zhang et al. –  Bioresource Technology

Phages and viruses

Hitchhiking, collapse, and contingency in phage infections of migrating bacterial populations. –  Ping et al. – The ISME Journal

Review: The LUCA and its complex virome. –  Krupovic et al. –  Nature Review Microbiology

Insights into the dynamics between viruses and their hosts in a hot spring microbial mat. –  Jarett et al. –  ISME Journal

Bioinformatics

IDMIL: an alignment-free Interpretable Deep Multiple Instance Learning (MIL) for predicting disease from whole-metagenomic data. –  Rahman and Rangwala –  Bioinformatics

My non-microbiology pick

Book: Astrobiology and Cuatro Ciénegas Basin as an Analog of Early Earth. –  Medina-Chávez et al. –  Cuatro Ciénegas Basin: An Endangered Hyperdiverse Oasis. Springer

July 17, 2020

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Human microbiome

Covid-19: disinfectants and sanitisers are changing microbiomes. Ajit Singh.
BMJ.

Probiotics and COVID-19: one size does not fit all. Joyce WY Mak. The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology.

Probiotics and COVID-19. Eric Giannoni. The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology.

Animal microbiome
The Intestinal Microbiome Restricts Alphavirus Infection and Dissemination through a Bile Acid-Type I IFN Signaling Axis. Emma S. Winkler.Cell

Built-in environment
Bed bugs shape the indoor microbial community composition of infested homes. Madhavi L.Kakumanua. Science of the Total Environment.

Pre-print
Metagenomic analysis of the cow, sheep, reindeer and red deer rumen. Laura Glendinning. bioRxiv.

Microbial Diversity of Co-occurring Heterotrophs in Cultures of Marine Picocyanobacteria. Sean Michael Kearney. bioRxiv

Microbes in the news
The human microbiome: Everything you need to know about the 39 trillion microbes that call our bodies home. Mun-Keat Looi. ScienceFocus

July 15, 2020

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There are several notable entries in today’s digest. Registration is open for the European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences’ “Introducing Your Microbiome” virtual training course. The course is for European secondary school science teachers and is 5 weeks long. The 3rd Microbiome Movement will also be held this year, both virtually and in-person. Links are in the Events section.  

Today I’ve highlighted a bioinformatics paper on variant calling for cpn60 barcode sequencing and an early life paper on pre-term infant stem cell proliferation upregulated by microbial metabolites. While putting this digest together, I learned algae turns snow different colors! This is so cool to me that I’ve highlighted that paper as well. Finally, the News section includes an article for Smithsonian Magazine by Rob Dunn on quarantine’s effects on our microbial passengers.  

Happy reading!

Events

3rd Microbiome Movement – Animal Health & Nutrition Summit, taking place in North Carolina as well as digitally October 19-21, 2020.

European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences’ “Introducing Your Microbiome” November 2-December 7, 2020. Applications are due October 15 and the course is free.

Pregnancy and early life

Gut microbiota maturation during early human life induces enterocyte proliferation via microbial metabolites – Michael W. Dougherty – BMC Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Perspective: Gut microbiome, big data and machine learning to promote precision medicine for cancer – Giovanni Cammarota – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Microbiome of death

Characterizing the postmortem human bone microbiome from surface-decomposed remains – Alexandra L. Emmons – PloS One

Animal experiments

Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation products (SCFP) stabilize the ruminal microbiota of lactating dairy cows during periods of a depressed rumen pH – Hein M. Tun – BMC Veterinary Research

Animal microbiome

A Shift Pattern of Bacterial Communities Across the Life Stages of the Citrus Red Mite, Panonychus citri – Zhen-yu Zhang – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Nitrogen enrichment stimulates wetland plant responses whereas salt amendments alter sediment microbial communities and biogeochemical responses – Mary Donato – PloS One

Bioavailable metal (loid) s and physicochemical features co-mediating microbial communities at combined metal (loid) pollution sites – Jiawen Wang – Chemosphere

Assessing the effects of tylosin fermentation dregs as soil amendment on macrolide antibiotic resistance genes and microbial communities: Incubation study – Bo Zhang – Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part B

Book: Phytobiomes: Current Insights and Future Vistas – Manoj Kumar Solanki – Springer

Early changes in bacterial communities in wound tissues of Pinus massoniana after inoculation with Bursaphelenchus xylophilus – Jinyan Liu – Nematology

Preprint: Unexpected diversity of CPR bacteria and nanoarchaea in the rare biosphere of rhizosphere-associated grassland soil – Alexa M. Nicolas – bioRxiv

Preprint: A Meta-analysis of the known Global Distribution and Host Range of the Ralstonia Species Complex – Tiffany Lowe-Power – bioRxiv

Water, air, and extremophile microbiome

Lipid Biomarker Record of the Serpentinite-Hosted Ecosystem of the Samail Ophiolite, Oman and Implications for the Search for Biosignatures on Mars – Sharon A Newman – Astrobiology

Metabolic acclimation of anammox consortia to decreased temperature – Tangran Huo – Environment International

Complete Genome Sequences of Two Marine Biofilm Isolates, Leisingera sp. nov. Strains 201A and 204H, Novel Representatives of the Roseobacter Group – Giselle S. Cavalcanti – Microbiology Resource Announcements

Microbial interspecific interaction and nitrogen metabolism pathway for the treatment of municipal wastewater by iron carbon based constructed wetland – Xiao Huang – Bioresource Technology

Biogeographical distribution of dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) bacteria in wetland ecosystems around the world – Huawei Pan – Journal of Soils and Sediments

Molecular diversity of the microbial community in coloured snow from the Fildes Peninsula (King George Island, Maritime Antarctica) – Wei Luo – Polar Biology

Novel arsenic hyper-resistant bacteria from an extreme environment, Crven Dol mine, Allchar, North Macedonia – Vladimir Bermanec – Journal of Hazardous Materials

Built environment

Ozone treatment in a wind tunnel for the reduction of airborne viruses in swine buildings – Jonathan M. Vyskocil – Aerosol Science and Technology

Food microbiology

Correlation between microbial communities and key flavors during post-fermentation of Pixian broad bean paste – Ping Liu – Food Research International

Additives affect the distribution of metabolic profile, microbial communities and antibiotic resistance genes in high-moisture sweet corn kernel silage – Zhe Wu – Bioresource Technology

Shifts in autochthonous microbial diversity and volatile metabolites during the fermentation of chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.) – Xinxing Xu – Food Chemistry

Proteomic characterization of extracellular vesicles produced by several wine yeast species – Ana Mencher – Microbioal Biotechnology

Book Chapter: Role of Microbes for Attaining Enhanced Food Crop Production – Pankaj Sharma – Microbial Biotechnology: Basic Research and Applications

Bioinformatics

Evaluation of variant calling for cpn60 barcode sequence-based microbiome profiling – Sarah J. Vancuren – PloS One

Techniques

Preprint: Visualization of giant virus particles using BONCAT labeling and STED microscopy – Monica Berjon-Otero – bioRxiv

Microbes in the News

Human Microbiome: 39 trillion microbes and bacteria that call us home – Mun-Keat Looi – Science Focus

What Quarantine is Doing to Your Body’s Wondrous World of Bacteria – Rob Dunn – Smithsonian Magazine

July 13, 2020

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Greetings from Pittsburgh, PA!

Included is a wide range of microbial ecology articles focused on everything from the human microbiome to soil microbial fuel cells. I want to give a special highlight to the article about how the indoor microbial community changes in response to bed bug infestations. This study incorporates a few of my favorite disciplines including entomology, public health, the built environment, as well as microbiology. If you’re interested in learning more about bed bugs, I’ll also recommend one my favorite reads from a few years ago: Infested: How the bed bug infiltrated our bedrooms and took over the world by Brooke Borel.

Events and jobs

In my last microbiome digest, I gave a special plug for the National Summer Undergraduate Research Project (NSURP). NSURP is a community-driven initiative to create rewarding remote summer research opportunities for BIPOC undergraduate students in the microbial sciences. They have already paired over 140 students with summer research opportunities, but they still need mentors for remaining student applicants. Please apply and share widely!

General microbiome

The beta-diversity of Siganus fuscescens-associated microbial communities from different habitats increases with body weight – Wu et al. – Frontiers in Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Metagenome-wide association analysis identifies microbial determinants of post-antibiotic ecological recovery in the gut – Chng et al. – Nature Ecology & Evolution

The gut microbiome during acute lifestyle transition – Devkota – Nature Medicine

Review: Challenges and emerging systems biology approaches to discover how the human gut microbiome impact host physiology – Wian and Ho – Biophysical Reviews

Animal experiments

The gut and feed residue microbiota changing during the rearing of Hermetia illucens larvae – Cifuentes et al. – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Animal microbiome

Effect of introduced parasites on the survival and microbiota of nestling cactus finches (Geospiza scandens) in the Galápagos Islands – Addesso et al. – Journal of Ornithology

Direct comparison of fecal and gut microbiota in the Blue Mussel (Mytilus edulis) discourages fecal sampling as a proxy for resident gut community – Griffin et al. – Microbial Ecology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Variable microbial communities in the non-hydrothermal sediments of the Mid-Okinawa trough – Cao et al. – Geomicrobiology Journal

Review: Microbial communities from arid environments on a global scale. A systematic review – Vásquez-Dean et al. – Biological Research

Unravelling metabolism and microbial community of a phytobed co-planted with Typha angustifolia and Ipomoea aquatica for biodegradation of doxylamine from wastewater – Xiong et al. – Journal of Hazardous Materials

Built environment

Bed bugs shape the indoor microbial community composition of infested homes – Kakumanu et al. – Science of the Total Environment

Effect of sono-thermal pre-treatment over methane production, specific activities and the microbial community of sludge anaerobic digesters – Neumann et al. – Waste and Biomass Valorization

Effects of anode materials on the performance and anode microbial community of soil microbial fuel cell – Yu et al. – Journal of Hazardous Material

Techniques

Review: Targeted microbiome depletion – Du Toit – Nature Reviews Microbiology

July 1, 2020

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Greetings Everyone,
I want to began the month of July on a note that diversity is the basis for life. I can’t think of anything better to teach us about diversity, co-existence, and evolution than the fascinating Microbiome.
The microbiome affects us right from our birth till the end affecting our mental as well as physical health. The microbiome exhibits all sorts of differences in shape, size, color, metabolic functions in order to sustain life.
Much to learn from these tiny beings!!!!
Today’s Digest comprises of some interesting studies about effect of microbiome on chemotherapy and studies on tumor microbiome. It also includes articles exploring genetics of gut microbiome and the role of microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease. Additionally has a news article about taking microbiome therapies to clinical trials.
Hope you enjoy reading today’s digest!!
“Life on earth is such a good story you cannot afford to miss the beginning… Beneath our superficial differences we are all of us walking communities of bacteria. The world shimmers, a pointillist landscape made of tiny living beings”. – Lynn Margulis

General microbiome
Human Microbiota and Effectiveness of Cancer Chemotherapy – Shvets et al – Experimental Oncology

Immunity to commensal skin fungi promotes psoriasiform skin inflammation – Hurabielle et al – PNAS

Human Tumor microbiome
*Perspective: Probing the tumor micro(b)environment – Atreya et al – Science

Human Eye microbiome
Review: Current Knowledge on the Human Eye Microbiome: A Systematic Review of Available Amplicon and Metagenomic Sequencing Data – Delbeke et al – Acta Ophthalmologica

Human nearly-sterile sites (blood, organs, brain)
Blood Bacterial Profiles Associated with HIV Infection and Immune Recovery – Serranno-Villar et al – The Journal of Infectious Diseases

Human gut microbiome
*Genetics of human gut microbiome composition – Kurilshikov et al – bioRxiv

Review: The microbiome in inflammatory bowel diseases: from pathogenesis to therapy – Liu et al – Protein&Cell

Built environment
Vertical Stratification in Urban Green Space Aerobiomes – Robinson et al – bioRxiv

Food microbiology
Food and mood: how do diet and nutrition affect mental wellbeing? – Firth et al – BMJ

Bioinformatics
DRAM for distilling microbial metabolism to automate the curation of microbiome function – Shaffer et al – bioRxiv

Techniques
MetaRibo-Seq measures translation in microbiomes – Fremin et al – Nature Communications

Microbes on the market
Enterome Secures €46M to Take Microbiome Therapies to Clinical Trials – Helen Albert – Labiotech.eu

Human Microbiome Therapeutics Market Research: Global Status & Forecast by Geography, Type & Application (2016-2026)