Category Archives: Events and jobs

November 10, 2023

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Read about new species discovered in the female genitourinary tract Lactobacillus isalae, Gardnerella pickettii and Gardnerella greenwoodii, and important UTI and other latest microbiome science news.
Happy Friday! And see you next week at MVIF!

Urinary microbiome

A human urothelial microtissue model reveals shared colonization and survival strategies between uropathogens and commensals – Carlos Flores – Science Advances

Gardnerella pickettii sp. nov. (formerly Gardnerella genomic species 3) and Gardnerella greenwoodii sp. nov. (formerly Gardnerella genomic species 8) isolated from female urinary microbiome – Márcia Sousa – International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

Vaginal microbiome

Lactobacillus isalae sp. nov., isolated from the female reproductive tract – Tom Eilers – International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

Identification of a DNA-cytosine methyltransferase that impacts global transcription to promote group B streptococcal vaginal colonization – Haider S. Manzer – mBio

Gut microbiome

Aggression: A gut reaction? The effects of the gut microbiome on aggression – Atara Uzan-Yulzari – bioRxiv

Oral microbiome

Establishment of tongue microbiota by 18 months of age and determinants of its microbial profile – Shinya Kageyama – mBio

Animal microbiome

Pet cats may shape the antibiotic resistome of their owner’s gut and living environment – Yiwen Yang – Microbiome

The impact of kit, environment and sampling contamination on the observed microbiome of bovine milk – Christopher J Dean – bioRxiv

Animal experiments

Early life exposure to broccoli sprouts confers stronger protection against enterocolitis development in an immunological mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease – Lola Holcomb – mSystems

Daily fluctuation of colonic microbiome in response to nutrient substrates in a pig model – Hongyu Wang – npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

Water microbiome

Assessing the impact of anti-microbial showerheads on the prevalence and abundance of opportunistic pathogens in shower water and shower water-associated aerosols – Sarah Pitell, Sarah-Jane Haig – Frontiers in Microbiomes

Global abundance patterns, diversity, and ecology of Patescibacteria in wastewater treatment plants – Huifeng Hu – bioRxiv

Technique

A high-throughput and low-waste viability assay for microbes – Christian T. Meyer – Nature Microbiology

Bioinformatics

Comparison of gene clustering criteria reveals intrinsic uncertainty in pangenome analyses – Saioa Manzano-Morales – Genome Biology

ACR: metagenome-assembled prokaryotic and eukaryotic genome refinement tool – Hoon Je Seong – Briefings in Bioinformatics


October 13, 2023

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Today’s digest features the Chinese Gut Microbiome Resource, plate readers in the anaerobic chamber, seasonal stability of sponge microbiomes, and more.

Also, you can support the outreachy bugsigdb project by sharing your study to be curated (more info here https://www.outreachy.org/apply/project-selection/#bioconductor or contact me). See you at #MVIF next week!

General

From hype to hope: considerations in conducting robust microbiome science – Amelia J McGuinness – Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

Global

Unraveling the functional dark matter through global metagenomics – Georgios A. Pavlopoulos – Nature

Human gut microbiome

Integration of 168,000 samples reveals global patterns of the human gut microbiome – Richard J. Abdill – bioRxiv

Analysis of strain, sex, and diet-dependent modulation of gut microbiota reveals candidate keystone organisms driving microbial diversity in response to American and ketogenic diets – Anna C. Salvador – Microbiome

Gut microbial genomes with paired isolates from China signify probiotic and cardiometabolic effects – Pan Huang – bioRxiv

Gut microbiota profiles in feces and paired tumor and non-tumor tissues from Colorectal Cancer patients. Relationship to the Body Mass Index – Sofía Tesolato – PlosOne

Tracking gut microbiome and bloodstream infection in critically ill adults – Christopher H. Gu – PlosOne

Human milk

Human milk oligosaccharides modify the strength of priority effects in the Bifidobacterium community assembly during infancy – Martin F. Laursen & Henrik M. Roager – The ISME Journal

Antibiotic Resistome

Metagenome meta-analysis reveals an increase in the abundance of some multidrug efflux pumps and mobile genetic elements in chemically polluted environments – Jessica Subirats – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Plant microbiome

Characterization of Differences of Seed Endophytic Microbiome in Conventional and Organic Rice by Amplicon-based Sequencing and Culturing Methods – Sabin Khana – bioRxiv

Animal microbiome

Microbiome species diversity and seasonal stability of two temperate marine sponges Hymeniacidon perlevis and Suberites massa – Claire E. Lamb & Joy E. M. Watts – Environmental Microbiome

An observational study of the presence and variability of the microbiota composition of goat herd milk related to mainstream and artisanal farm management – Rita A. H. Hoving-Bolink – PlosOne

Technique

Cultivating efficiency: High-throughput growth analysis of anaerobic bacteria in compact microplate readers – Oona L.O. Snoeyenbos-West – bioRxiv

Bioinformatics

On the relationship between protist metabarcoding and protist metagenome-assembled genomes – Daryna Zavadska – bioRxiv

Track, Analyze, Visualize: Unravel Your Microbiome’s Temporal Tale with MicrobiomeStat – Chen Yang & MicrobiomeStat team

September 15, 2023

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Today’s digest features the BugSigDB, AMPSphere and more. Also, you can check out my tips for online conferencing and how to do it better. See you at #MVIF next week!

Respiratory microbiome

The landscape of antibiotic resistance genes in the nasopharynx of preterm infants: Prolonged signature of hospitalization and effects by antibiotics – Achal Dhariwal – bioRxiv

Breast cancer microbiome

Integrating current analyses of the breast cancer microbiome – Sidra Sohail and Michael B. Burns – Plos One

Vaginal microbiome

Diet influences community dynamics following vaginal group B Streptococcus colonization – Christina J. Megli – bioRxiv

Gut microbiome

Gut microbes exacerbate systemic inflammation and behavior disorders in neurologic disease CADASIL – Sheng Liu – Microbiome

Water microbiome

Exploring novel alkane-degradation pathways in uncultured bacteria from the North Atlantic Ocean – Mirna Vázquez Rosas Landa – mSystems

Insect microbiome

Plastics shape the black soldier fly larvae gut microbiome and select for biodegrading functions – Francesca De Filippis – Microbiome

Animal experiment

Enhancing Recovery from Gut Microbiome Dysbiosis and Alleviating DSS-Induced Colitis in Mice with a Consortium of Rare Short-Chain Fatty Acid-Producing Bacteria – Achuthan Ambat – bioRxiv

Bioinformatics

BugSigDB captures patterns of differential abundance across a broad range of host-associated microbial signatures – Ludwig Geistlinger – Nature Biotechnology

Computational exploration of the global microbiome for antibiotic discovery – Célio Dias Santos-Júnior – bioRxiv

June 13, 2023

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Today’s microbiome digest includes quite a few host-microbe studies, including one published by my colleague and highlighted below which focuses on the hindgut microbiome of the American cockroach.

Human gut microbiome

Gut microbiota interspecies interactions shape the response of Clostridioides difficile to clinically relevant antibiotics – Hromada – and Venturelli – PLOS Biology

Construction of model animals to explore intestinal microbiome for detection of breast cancer – Ji et al. – PLOS One

Animal experiments

**Disentangling hindgut metabolism in the American cockroach through single-cell genomics and metatranscriptomics – Dukes et al. – Frontiers in Microbiology

Evaluation of microbial and vancomycin treatments in ulcerative colitis in murine models – Hasan and Yang – PLOS One

Animal microbiome

Geography, not lifestyle, explains the population structure of free-living and host-associated deep-sea hydrothermal vent snail symbionts – Hauer et al. – Microbiome

Insect phylogeny structures the bacterial communities in the microbiome of psyllids (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) in Aotearoa New Zealand – Martoni et al. – PLOS One

Water and extremophile microbiome

In the right place, at the right time: the integration of bacteria into the Plankton Ecology Group model – Park et al. – Microbiome

Phages and viruses

Beyond pathogenesis: Detecting the full spectrum of ecological interactions in the virosphere – Jurburg et al. – PLOS Biology

Phage therapy and the public: Increasing awareness essential to widespread use – McCammon et al. – PLOS One

May 5, 2023

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Today’s microbiome digest is a grab bag that includes ten simple rules for working with other people’s code, an article examining Wolbachia infections in native cockroach populations, and an article examining the role in lactic acid in shaping the human microbiome. Also highlighted is an article focused on human viruses residing within our cells and tissues, which demonstrated a unique virome in nine different human organs through targeted-enrichment viral metagenomics and virus specific qPCRs.

Happy reading!

General microbiome

The structure of prevacuolar compartments in Neurospora crassa as observed with super-resolution microscopy – Bowman – PLOS One

Phylogenetic trees of closely related bacterial species and subspecies based on frequencies of short nucleotide sequences – Nakano et al. – PLOS One

***Unmasking the tissue-resident eukaryotic DNA virome in humans – Pyöriä et al. – Nucleic Acids Research

Predicting partner fitness based on spatial structuring in a light-driven microbial community – Sakkos et al. – PLOS Computational Biology

Multi-site human microbiome

Evaluation of alcohol-free mouthwash for studies of the oral microbiome – Yano et al. – PLOS One

A systematically biosynthetic investigation of lactic acid bacteria reveals diverse antagonistic bacteriocins that potentially shape the human microbiome – Zhang et al. – Microbiome

Human gut microbiome

Positive mood-related gut microbiota in a long-term closed environment: a multiomics study based on the “Lunar Palace 365” experiment – Hao et al. – Microbiome

Animal microbiome

Wolbachia infection in native populations of Blattella germanica and Periplaneta americana – Choubdar et al. – PLOS One

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Bacterial and fungal community composition and community-level physiological profiles in forest soils – Kunito et al. – PLOS One

Water and extremophile microbiome

Predicting microbial community compositions in wastewater treatment plants using artificial neural networks – Liu et al. – Microbiome

Open ocean and coastal strains of the N2-fixing cyanobacterium UCYN-A have distinct transcriptomes – Muñoz-Marín et al. – PLOS One

Meta-organism gene expression reveals that the impact of nitrate enrichment on coral larvae is mediated by their associated Symbiodiniaceae and prokaryotic assemblages – Tong et al. – Microbiome

Bioinformatics

Ten simple rules for working with other people’s code – Pilgrim et al. – PLOS Computational Biology

Predicting microbe organisms using data of living micro forms of life and hybrid microbes classifier – Raza et al. – PLOS One

iPHoP: An integrated machine learning framework to maximize host prediction for metagenome-derived viruses of archaea and bacteria – Roux et al. – PLOS Biology

February 4th, 2023

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Bonjour from Paris, France !

In today’s digest you will find a wide variety of interesting preprints and published research papers encompassing very interesting microbiome such as Yak calves rumen, compost, wineyard soil and lichen symbionth microbiota!

If you are interested in virome, I recommend looking at the fascinating preprint from Ha and collaborators investigating the biogeography of giant viruses from the phylum Nucleocytoviricota. They leveraged the bioGEOTRACES metagenomic dataset collected across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to recovered novel genomes from these viruses and identified geographical patterns of distribution.

If you are working on human microbiomes, I recommend checking out a really interesting preprint, comparing the biases and strengths of four commercially available DNA extraction kits frequently used for whole genome shotgun analysis of the human microbiome.

Have a great Saturday!

Events and jobs

Event: Cell Symposia: Infection biology in the age of the microbiome. Paris, France June 7-9

Event: 55th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. Vienna, Austria 17-20 May

Pregnancy and early life

Insufficient Evidence of a Breastmilk Microbiota at Six-Weeks Postpartum: A Pilot Study – Leech et al. – Nutrients

Effects of Perinatal Antibiotic Exposure and Neonatal Gut Microbiota – Morreale et al. – Antibiotics

Necrotizing Enterocolitis: The Role of Hypoxia, Gut Microbiome, and Microbial Metabolites – Kaplina et al. – International Journal of Molecular sciences

Human gut microbiome

Preprint: Functional assignment of gut-specific archaeal proteins in the human gut microbiome – Novikova et al. – BioRxiv

Animal microbiome

Combining vertebrate mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene sequencing and shotgun metagenomic sequencing to investigate the diet of the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) in Korea – Woo et al. – PLOS ONE

The association between gingivitis and oral spirochetes in young cats and dogs – Yamaki et al. – PLOS ONE

Maternal rumen and milk microbiota shapes the establishment of early-life rumen microbiota in grazing yak calves – Guo et al. – Journal of Dairy Science

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Preprint: Fundamentals of biofilm formation in soil: From functionalized self-assembled monolayers to rewilding – Hendiani et al. – BioRxiv

Local conditions matter: Minimal and variable effects of soil disturbance on microbial communities and functions in European vineyards – Steiner et al. – PLOS ONE

Preprint: Evidence for a core set of microbial lichen symbionts from a global survey of metagenomes – Tagirdzhanova et al. – BioRxiv

Water and extremophile microbiome

Preprint: Assessing the biogeography of marine giant viruses in four oceanic transects – Ha et al. – BioRxiv

Preprint: Cross-domain interactions induce community stability to benthic biofilms in proglacial streams – Busi et al. – BioRxiv

Opinion: Viral infection in the ocean—A journey across scales – Vincent and Vardi – PLOS biology

Bioinformatics

Preprint: Identifying and tracking mobile elements in evolving compost communities yields insights into the nanobiome – Van Dijk et al – BioRxiv

Techniques

Preprint: Comparison of commercial DNA extraction kits for whole metagenome sequencing of human oral, vaginal, and rectal microbiome samples – Wright et al – BioRxiv

November 8, 2022

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Greetings from Pittsburgh, PA!

It’s election day here, which means I have low grade nausea and am looking for a distraction. If you’re in the same boat, check out today’s awesome articles on a holobiont deep sea shrimp, plant-microbiome assemblies of poplar trees, and viral community-wide auxiliary metabolic genes. I also included a few interesting preprints, my favorite of which is noted below and uses a microbiome public dataset to compare different normalization and transformation methods.

Animal microbiome

A novel and dual digestive symbiosis scales up the nutrition and immune system of the holobiont Rimicaris exoculata – Aubé et al. – Microbiome

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Plant sex affects plant-microbiome assemblies of dioecious Populus cathayana trees under different soil nitrogen conditions – Guo et al. – Microbiome

Phages and viruses

Viral community-wide auxiliary metabolic genes differ by lifestyles, habitats, and hosts – Luo et al. – Microbiome

Techniques

*Preprint: Alpha and beta-diversities performance comparison between different normalization methods and centered log-ratio transformation in a microbiome public dataset – Bars-Cortina – bioRxiv

Preprint: Noise reduction strategies in metagenomic chromosome confirmation capture to link antibiotic resistance genes to microbial hosts – McCallum et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Targeted metagenomics using probe capture detects a larger diversity of nitrogen and methane cycling genes in complex microbial communities than traditional metagenomics – Siljanen et al. – bioRxiv

August 19, 2022

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Today’s digest is short and sweet! We have articles on the gut microbiota in rats, the influence of host genetics on the leaf fungal microbiome, and biofilm fouling in drinking water. There are also two manuscripts which provide tips for pathway enrichment analysis and biomarker discovery.

Happy reading! Also, if you’re in Scotland, consider checking out the enormous E. coli in Edinburgh this weekend!

Animal experiments

Effects of sea salt intake on metabolites, steroid hormones, and gut microbiota in rats – Chanmuang et al. – PLOS One

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

The changing influence of host genetics on the leaf fungal microbiome throughout plant development – Karasov & Lundberg – PLOS Biology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Impacts of temperature and hydraulic regime on discolouration and biofilm fouling in drinking water distribution systems – Fish et al. – PLOS Water

Bioinformatics

Nine quick tips for pathway enrichment analysis – Chicco & Agapito – PLOS Computational Biology

Ten quick tips for biomarker discovery and validation analyses using machine learning – Diaz-Uriarte et al. – PLOS Computational Biology

July 14, 2022

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Today’s digest has multiple articles on statistical and bioinformatic techniques! Also included is a job ad from my research team, so check it out if you’re interested in gaining geomicrobiology research experience at a national laboratory.

Events and jobs

Our geomicrobiology research group at the National Energy Technology Lab – Pittsburgh is looking for a technician/researcher. Exact responsibilities are somewhat flexible depending on interest and education-level; we are accepting applications from current students at all levels as well as postdocs.

General microbiome

Mycobacteriophages: From Petri dish to patient – Hatfull – PLOS Pathogens

Animal microbiome

Reconstructing the ecosystem context of a species: Honey-borne DNA reveals the roles of the honeybee – Wirta et al. – PLOS One

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Patterns of microbial communities were shaped by bioavailable P along the elevation gradient of Shergyla Mountain, as determined by analysis of phospholipid fatty acids – Ba et al. – PLOS One

Preprint: Soil chemistry and soil history significantly structure oomycete communities in Brassicaceae crop rotations – Blakney et al. – bioRxiv

Community succession and straw degradation characteristics using a microbial decomposer at low temperature – Zhang et al. – PLOS One

Built Environment

Indoor air microbial load, antibiotic susceptibility profiles of bacteria, and associated factors in different wards of Arba Minch General Hospital, southern Ethiopia – Kayta et al. – PLOS One

Techniques

moreThanANOVA: A user-friendly Shiny/R application for exploring and comparing data with interactive visualization – Jiang et al. – PLOS One

Preparation of biological monolayers for producing high-resolution scanning electron micrographs – Mentor et al. – PLOS One

The accuracy of absolute differential abundance analysis from relative count data – Roche & Mukherjee – PLOS Computational Biology

AC-PCoA: Adjustment for confounding factors using principal coordinate analysis – Wang et al. – PLOS Computational Biology

Microbes in the news

The Art of Science: Students Participate in University’s First-Ever Bio-Art Class – Bernardi – Syracuse University News

July 13, 2022

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Today’s digest features studies on the leaf-microbiome of 🍅 and 🍓 plants (+ bumblebees and mites), human gut and wastewater resistome, and more. Happy reading!

Reproductive tract

Female reproductive tract microbiota and recurrent pregnancy loss: a nested case-control study – Pirkko Peuranpää – Reproductive BioMedicine Online

Gut microbiome

Dynamic metabolic interactions and trophic roles of human gut microbes identified using a minimal microbiome exhibiting ecological properties – Sudarshan A. Shetty – Journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology

*Within-patient evolution of plasmid-mediated antimicrobial resistance – Javier DelaFuente – bioRxiv

An expanded reference map of the human gut microbiome reveals hundreds of previously unknown species – Sigal Leviatan – Nature Communications

Animal microbiome

Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa) Harbor a Distinctive Gut Microbiome Related to That of Honey Bees and Bumble Bees – Jo-anne C. Holley – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Animal experiments

Gardnerella Exposures Alter Bladder Gene Expression and Augment Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Urinary Tract Infection in Mice – Nicole M. Gilbert – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Plant microbiome

*The Greenhouse Phyllosphere Microbiome and Associations with Introduced Bumblebees and Predatory Mites – Marie Legein – Microbiology Spectrum

Food microbiome

Longitudinal, multi-platform metagenomics yields a high-quality genomic catalog and guides an in vitro model for cheese communities – Christina C. Saak – bioRxiv

New insights of bacterial communities in fermented vegetables from shotgun metagenomics and identification of antibiotic resistance genes and probiotic bacteria – Muhammad Yasir – Food Research International

Water microbiome

*High-resolution characterisation of short-term temporal variability in the taxonomic and resistome composition of wastewater influent – Kevin Kaibond Chau – bioRxiv

Pilot investigation on biostability of drinking water distribution systems under water source switching – Kejia Zhang – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Bioinformatics

*BinaRena: a dedicated interactive platform for human-guided exploration and binning of metagenomes – Michael J. Pavia – bioRxiv

getSequenceInfo: a suite of tools allowing to get genome sequence information from public repositories – Vincent Moco – BMC Bioinformatics

baseLess: Lightweight detection of sequences in raw MinION data – Ben Noordijk – bioRxiv