August 12, 2016

On vacation, so here is a short and late Digest for you: Metabolomics of preterm birth, mouse gut bacteria collection, bacteria associated with mosses.

Pregnancy and birth

Use of metabolomics for the identification and validation of clinical biomarkers for preterm birth: Preterm SAMBA – Jose G. Cecatti – BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth

Animal microbiome

The Mouse Intestinal Bacterial Collection (miBC) provides host-specific insight into cultured diversity and functional potential of the gut microbiota – Ilias Lagkouvardos – Nature Microbiology

First public collection of bacteria from the intestine of mice. Mouse gut bacteria find a new home – Science Daily

Environment shapes the fecal microbiome of invasive carp species – Jessica J. Eichmiller – Microbiome

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Comparative analysis of bacteria associated with different mosses by 16S rRNA and 16S rDNA sequencing – Yang Tian – Journal of Basic Microbiology

Water microbiome

A metabolomics guided exploration of marine natural product chemical space – Dimitrios J. Floros – Metabolomics

Bioreactor microbiome

Unraveling the microbiome of a thermophilic biogas plant by metagenome and metatranscriptome analysis complemented by characterization of bacterial and archaeal isolates – Irena Maus – Biotechnology for Biofuels

Food microbiology

Vegemite Beer: yeast extract spreads as nutrient supplements to promote fermentation – Edward D. Kerr – PeerJ

Microbial Ecology and other

Compartmentalization in PVC super-phylum: evolution and impact – Sandrine Pinos – Biology Direct

Conflicts over host manipulation between different parasites and pathogens: Investigating the ecological and medical consequences – Nina Hafer – BioEssays

Microbes in the news

Soil Has a Microbiome, too. The unique mix of microbes in soil has a profound effect on which plants thrive and which ones die – Carrie Arnold – Smithsonian

Gut bacteria have own circadian clock – MedicalXpress

Not your momma’s microbe lab: a new genetic engineering machine takes microbial design to the masses – Casey Gilman – Philly.com

How brushing your teeth could prevent cancer: Twice daily scrub reduces bacteria linked to bowel tumours – Colin Fernandez – Daily Mail

Picture of the day: Metal-oxidizing bacteria from a gold mine – Science 360

Attendee Shares Experience from DDW® 2016 Active Learning Session on the Gut Microbiome – Gasto.org

Science, publishing, and career

The manterruption is real. Why Women Talk Less Than Men at Work – Alicia Adamczyk – Time / Money Magazine

Satire: First Draft of Peer-Review Rebuttal Just Says “Fuck Off” – The Allium

 

 

July 18, 2016

Gut bacteria in the lung in case of sepsis or ARDS, metagenomics along a depth gradient, and microbes in peanut processing plants.

Pregnancy and birth

Screening of vulvovaginal infections during pregnancy in resource constrained settings: Implications on preterm delivery – Chaitanya Tellapragada – Journal of Infection and Public Health

Human respiratory microbiome/ Animal experiments

Enrichment of the lung microbiome with gut bacteria in sepsis and the acute respiratory distress syndrome – Robert P. Dickson

Human gut microbiome

Impact of Cranberries on Gut Microbiota and Cardiometabolic Health: Proceedings of the Cranberry Health Research Conference 2015 – Jeffrey B Blumberg – Advances in Nutrition

Review: On the pathogenesis of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus: the role of microbiota – Elena Gianchecchi – Immunologic Research

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi induced changes in rhizosphere, essential oil and mineral nutrients uptake in dill/common bean intercropping system – W. Weisany – Annals of Applied Biology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Comparative metagenomics unveils functions and genome features of microbialite-associated communities along a depth gradient – Aurélien Saghaï – Environmental Microbiology

Comparative Analysis of Microbial Communities in Iron-Dominated Flocculent Mats in Deep Sea Hydrothermal Environments – Hiroko Makita – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Food production microbiology

Microbiological contamination in peanut confectionery processing plants – Joyce de Almeida Carminati – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Microbes in the news

First virus-hunter in space will test DNA-decoding device – STATnews

Microbe of the month: Nanopusillus acidilobi, an archaeon found in Yellowstone National Park – Jennifer Tsang – The Microbial Menagerie

Sewage in the Saluda deserves more attention, politicians, river advocates say – Sammy Fretwell – The State

Science, publishing, and career

The 7 biggest problems facing science, according to 270 scientists – Julia Belluz – Vox

5 health and medicine issues to watch for at the GOP convention – David Nather – STATnews

 

July 14, 2016

Gut microbes and diabetes risk, llama sausages, urban greenness, and the sea turtle microbiome.

Pregnancy and birth

The Infant Gut Bacterial Microbiota and Risk of Pediatric Asthma and Allergic Diseases – Christine Cole Johnson – Translational Research

Human gut microbiome

Human gut microbes impact host serum metabolome and insulin sensitivity – Helle Krogh Pedersen – Nature

Press: Gut bacteria imbalance increases diabetes risk – EurekAlert
Gut bacteria imbalance increases diabetes risk – BioMed Central blog

Effects of Gut Microbiota Manipulation by Antibiotics on Host Metabolism in Obese Humans: A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial – Dorien Reijnders – Cell Metabolism

The Gut Microbiota from Lean and Obese Subjects Contribute Differently to the Fermentation of Arabinogalactan and Inulin – Marisol Aguirre – PLOS ONE

Review: The esophageal microbiota in health and disease – Vincenzo Di Pilato – Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Review: Colon microbiota fermentation of dietary prebiotics towards short-chain fatty acids and their roles as anti-inflammatory and antitumour agents: A review – Javier Fernández – Journal of Functional Foods

Animal and other experiments

Microbial Mat Functional and Compositional Sensitivity to Environmental Disturbance –
Eva Christine Preisner – bioRxiv

Gut microbiota directs PPARγ-driven reprogramming of the liver circadian clock by nutritional challenge – Mari Murakami – EMBO Reports

Preview: Microbially Produced Acetate: A “Missing Link” in Understanding Obesity? – Chad M. Trent – Cell Metabolism

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid chronic risk assessment for soil biota – Georg von Mérey – Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Zonal Soil Type Determines Soil Microbial Responses to Maize Cropping and Fertilization – Mengxin Zhao – mSystems

Built environment microbiome

Urban greenness influences airborne bacterial community composition – Gwynne Mhuireach – Science of The Total Environment

Research Watch: Dirty environment for adult life: the bad, the good, the unknown – Jun Sun – Genes & Diseases

Food microbiology

Microbial ecology involved in the ripening of naturally fermented llama meat sausages. A focus on lactobacilli diversity – Fontana Cecilia – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Metabolomics

Free eBook: Metabolomics – A Key Technology for Microbiome Research – Kirk Beebe – Metabolon

Techniques

Evaluation of VITEK matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry for identification of anaerobes – Zheng Xiao – Microbiology and Immunology

Fungal identification biases in microbiome projects – Leho Tedersoo – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Rapid and Selective Detection of Pathogenic Bacteria in Bloodstream Infection with Aptamer-based Recognition – Haijing Shen – Applied Materials and Interfaces

Microbes in the news

Project to study sea turtle microbiomes in captivity and in the wild – Holly Ganz – MicroBEnet

Gonorrhea may soon become resistant to all antibiotics and untreatable – Helen Branswell – STAT news

Bacteriophage Therapy Grows as Alternative to Antibiotics – Michael McGrady – Heartland

Getting to the guts: Studying the gut microbiome to manage pain – Shay Stowell – Missouri State University

Career

Men cite themselves more than women do. The apparent trend has been on the rise over the past two decades – Dalmeet Singh Chawla – Nature

Bik’s non-microbiology Picks

A Gathering of Giants. A photographer slips into the ocean to swim among hundreds of sperm whales – witnessing a rarely seen social spectacle – Tony Wu – Biographic

The people who don’t get ‘Eleanor Rigby’. Happy music and sad sounds are not universal. – Nature

June 29, 2016

Two new papers on multiple sclerosis and breast tissue, cross-respiration, the Boston urban transit microbiome, and plastic debris.

Human respiratory microbiome

Review: The respiratory microbiome of HIV-infected individuals – MB Lawawni – Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy

Human skin microbiome

The microbiota of breast tissue and its association with tumours – Camilla Urbaniak – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Alterations of the human gut microbiome in multiple sclerosis – Sushrut Jangi – Nature Communications

Review: Gut microbiota and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: where do we stand? – D Zama – Bone Marrow Transplantation

Review: The neuropharmacology of butyrate: The bread and butter of the microbiota-gut-brain axis? – Roman M. Stilling – Neurochemistry International

Animal and in vitro experiments

A Commensal Bacterium Promotes Virulence of an Opportunistic Pathogen via Cross-Respiration – Apollo Stacy – mBio

Press: Cross-respiration between oral bacteria leads to worse infections – EurekAlert

Microbiota-Regulated IL-25 Increases Eosinophil Number to Provide Protection during Clostridium difficile Infection – Erica L. Buonomo – Cell Reports

Animal microbiome

Genome-wide survey of gut fungi (Harpellales) reveals the first horizontally transferred ubiquitin gene from a mosquito host – Yan Wang – Molecular Biology and Evolution

In barn swallows: Stress response, gut microbial diversity and sexual signals correlate with social interactions – Iris I. Levin – Biology Letters

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Plant Host and Geographic Location Drive Endophyte Community Composition in the Face of Perturbation – Natalie Christian – Microbial Ecology

Perspective: Soil immune responses – Jos M. Raaijmakers – Science

Water and extremophile microbiome

Microbes in mercury-enriched geothermal springs in western North America – Gill G. Geese – Science of The Total Environment

Environmental Disturbances Decrease the Variability of Microbial Populations within Periphyton – Cristina M. Herren – mSystems

Metagenomics unveils the attributes of the alginolytic guilds of sediments from four distant cold coastal environments – Marina N. Mato – Environmental Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Commentary: Avoiding Pandemic Fears in the Subway and Conquering the Platypus – A. Gonzalez – mSystems

Urban Transit System Microbial Communities Differ by Surface Type and Interaction with Humans and the Environment – Tiffany Hsu – mSystems

Press: ‘Bugs’ on the subway: Monitoring the microbial environment to improve public health – EurekAlert

Diversity and Activity of Communities Inhabiting Plastic Debris in the North Pacific Gyre – Jessica A. Bryant – mSystems

Food microbiology

Culture-independent bacterial community profiling of carbon dioxide treated raw milk – Raquel Lo – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

MetaPalette: a k-mer Painting Approach for Metagenomic Taxonomic Profiling and Quantification of Novel Strain Variation – David Koslicki – mSystems

Bayesian identification of bacterial strains from sequencing data – Aravind Sankar – Microbial Genomics

MetaTreeMap: An Alternative Visualization Method for Displaying Metagenomic Phylogenic Trees – Maxime Hebrard – PLOS ONE

Proteomics and metabolomics

MPLEx: a Robust and Universal Protocol for Single-Sample Integrative Proteomic, Metabolomic, and Lipidomic Analyses – Ernesto S. Nakayasu – mSystems

An Integrated Metabolomic and Genomic Mining Workflow To Uncover the Biosynthetic Potential of Bacteria – Maria Maansson – mSystems

Techniques

16S rRNA gene sequencing of mock microbial populations- impact of DNA extraction method, primer choice and sequencing platform – Fiona Fouhy – BMC Microbiology

Preservation Methods Differ in Fecal Microbiome Stability, Affecting Suitability for Field Studies – Se Jin Song – mSystems

Moleculo Long-Read Sequencing Facilitates Assembly and Genomic Binning from Complex Soil Metagenomes – Richard Allen White III – mSystems

A Universal Next-Generation Sequencing Protocol To Generate Noninfectious Barcoded cDNA Libraries from High-Containment RNA Viruses – Lindsey A. Moser- mSystems

Fungal identification biases in microbiome projects – Leho Tedersoo – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Microbes in the news

Germs in the Subway Are the Harmless Kind – Nicholas Bakalar – New York Times

An Industrial Microbiologist Who Adds Biofuel to the Fire – Nandita Jayaraj – The Wire India

Interview of Faculty of Clinical Microbiology, Prof. Generalov Igor Ivanovich, at VSMU, Belarus – LinkedIn

 

June 26, 2016

Pregnancy and birth

A key genetic factor for fucosyllactose utilization affects infant gut microbiota development – Takahiro Matsuki – Nature Communications

Necrotizing enterocolitis and preterm infant gut bacteria – Barbara B. Warner – Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal

Human oral microbiome

Identification of Veillonella Species in the Tongue Biofilm by Using a Novel One-Step Polymerase Chain Reaction Method – Izumi Mashima – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory microbiome

Bacterial Microbiota Analysis Present in the Nose and Pharynx of a Mexican Young Population – Ana Karina Rodríguez-Vicente – Int J Curr Microbiol App Sci

Human gut microbiome

Significant Differences Found in Short Nucleotide Sequences of Human Intestinal Metagenomes of Northern-European and Chinese Origin – Balázs Szalkai – Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – General Subjects

Analysis of the effects of microbiome-related confounding factors on the reproducibility of the volatolomic test – Marcis Leja – Journal of Breath Research

Campylobacter concisus utilizes blood but not short chain fatty acids despite showing associations with Firmicutes taxa – Nadeem O. Kaakoush – Microbiology

Review: Links Between the Microbiome and Bone – C.J. Hernandez – Journal of Bone and Mineral Research

Review: Microbiome, Metabolome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease – Ishfaq Ahmed – Microorganisms

Comment: Ethics of exploring the microbiome of native peoples – Maria G. Dominguez-Bello – Nature Microbiology

Microbes found in blood

I’m skeptical about this review: A Bacterial Component to Alzheimer’s-Type Dementia Seen via a Systems Biology Approach that Links Iron Dysregulation and Inflammagen Shedding to Disease – Etheresia Pretorius – Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease

Animal experiments

A sentinel goblet cell guards the colonic crypt by triggering Nlrp6-dependent Muc2 secretion – George M. H. Birchenough – Science

Gut microbiota drive the development of neuro-inflammatory response in cirrhosis – Dae Joong Kang – Hepatology

Bacteriophage infections of microbiota can lead to leaky gut in an experimental rodent model – George Tetz – Gut Pathogens

The Effects of LW-AFC on Intestinal Microbiome in Senescence-Accelerated Mouse Prone 8 Strain, a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease – Jianhui Wang – Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease

Microbiome associations in pigs with the best and worst clinical outcomes following co-infection with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) – Megan C. Niederwerder – Veterinary Microbiology

Press: College of Veterinary Medicine researchers examine microbiome associations related to disease expression in swine – Kansas State University

Supplementing Blends of Sugars, Amino Acids, and Secondary Metabolites to the Diet of Termites (Reticulitermes flavipes) Drive Distinct Gut Bacterial Communities – Xing-Feng Huang – Microbial Ecology

Letter: Does Intestinal Microbiota Protect Mice Against Acute/Binge Drinking-Induced Liver Injury? – Tao Zeng – Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research

Animal microbiome

DGGE: Influence of Starvation on the Structure of Gut-Associated Bacterial Communities in the Chinese White Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus armandi) – Xia Hu – Forests

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Effects of temperature variability on community structure in a natural microbial food web – Axel Zander – Global Change Biology

Effectiveness of ecological rescue for altered soil microbial communities and functions – Kadiya Calderón – ISME Journal

Soil drying procedure affects the DNA quantification of Lactarius vinosus but does not change the fungal community composition – Carles Castaño – Mycorrhiza

Assessing quality of Medicago sativa silage by monitoring bacterial composition with single molecule, real-time sequencing technology and various physiological parameters – Weichen Bao – Scientific Reports

Water and extremophile microbiome

Revealing the relationship between microbial community structure in natural biofilms and the pollution level in urban rivers: a case study in the Qinhuai River Basin, Yangtze River Delta – Wei Cai – Water Science and Technology

Status of metal pollution in rivers flowing through urban settlements at Pune and its effect on resident microflora – Neelu Nawani – Biologia

Profiling of Sediment Microbial Community in Dongting Lake before and after Impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam – Wei Huang – Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health

Bioreactor and wastewater microbiology

Metagenomic analysis of bacterial community composition and antibiotic resistance genes in a wastewater treatment plant and its receiving surface water – Junying Tang – Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

Food microbiology

Effect of Simulated Sanitizer Carryover on Recovery of Salmonella from Broiler Carcass Rinsates – Gary R. Gamble – Journal of Food Protection

Press: USDA Salmonella Bacteria on Chicken Testing Severely Flawed, New Study Finds – Emily Monaco – Organic Authority

Potential applications of metagenomics to assess the biological effects of food structure and function – Tasha Santiago-Rodriguez – Food & Function

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

A comparison of tools for the simulation of genomic next-generation sequencing data – Merly Escalona – Nature Reviews Genetics

Hessian Regularization Based Symmetric Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for Clustering Gene Expression and Microbiome Data – Yuanyuan Ma – Methods

Techniques

Grown, Printed, and Biologically Augmented: An Additively Manufactured Microfluidic Wearable, Functionally Templated for Synthetic Microbes – Christoph Bader – 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing

Investigation of bacterial and archaeal communities: novel protocols using modern sequencing by Illumina MiSeq and traditional DGGE-cloning – Lucia Kraková – Extremophiles

DGGE: Representative sampling of natural biofilms: influence of substratum type on the bacterial and fungal communities structure – Jennifer Hellal – Springer Plus

More microbiology

Applying landscape genetics to the microbial world – Rachael Y. Dudaniec – Molecular Ecology

A metapopulation model for the spread of MRSA in correctional facilities – Marc Beauparlant – Infectious Disease Modelling

Biological Dual-Use Research and Synthetic Biology of Yeast – Angela Cirigliano – Science and Engineering Ethics

Microbes in the news

Fabulous Pacific coast and the latest digestive diseases research: BMC Medicine joins DDW2016 – Alessandro Recchioni – BioMedCentral blog

The Unseen – Millions of microbes are yet to be discovered. Will one hold the ultimate cure? – Raffi Khatchadourian – The New Yorker

Indicator of chronic fatigue syndrome found in gut bacteria – Krishna Ramanujan – Cornell Chronicle

Fermentation Fervor: Here’s How Chefs Boost Flavor And Health – Allison Aubrey – NPR Morning Edition

Beneficial bacteria may protect breasts from cancer – ASM – EurekAlert

Economics in Mind, Evolution Has Allowed Some Bacteria to Evolve Sublime Genomes – Aswin Sai Narain Seshasayee – The Wire

Old Technology Successfully Reduce Salmonella in Meat Products by 90 Percent –  John Raphael – Nature World News

Bright Minds Battling Dark Diseases: San Diego is home to world-class biomedical scientists focused on cutting-edge projects touted by president – Gary Robbins – The San Diego Union Tribune

Liquid eyeliner recalled, contains bacteria – CTV News Winnipeg

June 24, 2016

Placenta samples not distinguishable from controls, gut microbiome in ME/CFS and PKU patients, childhood undernutrition, corals’ microbial sentinels, and plant root traps.

Pregnancy and birth

I was hoping for this study to be done: Comparison of placenta samples with contamination controls does not provide evidence for a distinct placenta microbiota – Abigail P. Lauder – Microbiome

Systematic review: Treatment of bacterial vaginosis in pregnancy in order to reduce the risk of spontaneous preterm delivery – a clinical recommendation – Thor Haahr – Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica

Human ear microbiome

The microbiome of otitis media with effusion – Chun Ling Chan – The Laryngoscope

Human gut microbiome

Reduced diversity and altered composition of the gut microbiome in individuals with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome – Ludovic Giloteaux – Microbiome

Phenylketonuria and Gut Microbiota: A Controlled Study Based on Next-Generation Sequencing – Felipe Pinheiro de Oliveira – PLOS ONE

Review: Childhood undernutrition, the gut microbiota, and microbiota-directed therapeutics – Laura V. Blanton – Science

Editorial: Gut microbiota and undernutrition – Caroline Ash – Science

Infection and microbiology

Role of Clinicogenomics in Infectious Disease Diagnostics and Public Health Microbiology – Lars F. Westblade – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Novel Taxa Associated with Human Fungal Black-Grain Mycetomas: Emarellia grisea gen. nov., sp. nov., and Emarellia paragrisea sp. nov. – Andrew M. Borman – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Sociomicrobiology and Pathogenic Bacteria – Joao B. Xavier – Microbiology Spectrum

Paleomicrobiology Data: Authentification and Interpretation – Michel Drancourt – Microbiology Spectrum

Animal experiments

Dietary fucoidan modulates the gut microbiota in mice by increasing the abundance of Lactobacillus and Ruminococcaceae – Qingsen Shang – Food & Function

Animal microbiome

Perspective: Corals’ microbial sentinels – Tracy D. Ainsworth – Science

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Escaping Underground Nets: Extracellular DNases Degrade Plant Extracellular Traps and Contribute to Virulence of the Plant Pathogenic Bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum – Tuan Minh Tran – PLOS Pathogens

Press: An ‘arms race’ raging beneath our plants: A crop’s DNA-laden root trap manages to hold on to only a quarter of its bacterial prisoners. – Amy Middleton – Cosmos Magazine

Responsiveness of soil nitrogen fractions and bacterial communities to afforestation in the Loess Hilly Region (LHR) of China – Chengjie Ren – Scientific Reports

Spatial Shifts in Soil Microbial Activity and Degradation of Pasture Cover Caused by Prolonged Exposure to Cement Dust – Fuensanta Caravaca – Land Degradation & Development

Water and extremophile microbiome

Biogeochemical and 16S rRNA gene sequence evidence supports a novel mode of anaerobic methanotrophy in permanently ice-covered Lake Fryxell, Antarctica – Matthew A. Saxton – Limnology and Oceanography

Food microbiology

The Microbiome and Metabolites in Fermented Pu-erh Tea as Revealed by High-Throughput Sequencing and Quantitative Multiplex Metabolite Analysis – Yongjie Zhang – PLOS ONE

More microbiology

Sugar Synthesis from CO2 in Escherichia coli – Niv Antonovsky – Cell

Press: Eating air, making fuel. Scientists engineer bacteria to create sugar from the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide – Science Daily

Not a scientific paper, just a list of links: Web Alert: Synthetic microbial communities: An annotated selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to the topics in environmental microbiology – Lawrence P. Wackett – Environmental Microbiology

Techniques

High stability of faecal microbiome composition in guanidine thiocyanate solution at room temperature and robustness during colonoscopy – Yuichiro Nishimoto – Gut

Microbes in the news

New life form discovered in saliva is linked to human disease – Andy Coghlan – New Scientist

Seagulls Are Carrying a Dangerous Superbug Through the Skies – Maryn McKenna – National Geographic
Beware of Seagulls Carrying This Dangerous Superbug – Laura Lorenzetti – Fortune

Microbes In The Body Affect Success Of Organ Transplants: Study – Katrina Pascual -Tech Times

Scientists just found a compound that kills 98% of a drug-resistant bacteria – Fiona MacDonald – Science Alert

Milken Institute School of Public Health researchers awarded $7 million to study microbiome – Sera Royal – The GW Hatchet

Mycobacterium in olive oil for cancer treatment – EurekAlert

Scientists discover unsuspected bacterial link to bile duct cancer – MedicalXpress

Bik’s completely-not-microbiology Picks

The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles – Jean-François Bonnefon – Science

June 23, 2016

Red snow microbiomes and melting glaciers, effect of earthworms on microbes, microbiome in COPD.

Pregnancy and birth

Early Gut Microbiota Perturbations Following Intrapartum Antibiotic Prophylaxis to Prevent Group B Streptococcal Disease – Giuseppe Mazzola – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory microbiome

Editorial: Early life nasal microbiota in infants with cystic fibrosis – Fiona J Whelan – The Lancet Respiratory Medicine

Review: Understanding the role of the microbiome in COPD: Principles, Challenges and Future Directions – Yvonne J. Huang – Translational Research

Human gut microbiome

Anaerococcus rubiinfantis sp. nov., isolated from the gut microbiota of a Senegalese infant with severe acute malnutrition – Maryam Tidjani Alou – Anaerobe

Review: Understanding the mechanisms of faecal microbiota transplantation – Alexander Khoruts – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Review: Microbe-host interactions: Influence of the gut microbiota on the enteric nervous system – Niall P. Hyland – Developmental Biology

Systematic review: Probiotic supplementation can positively affect anxiety and depressive symptoms: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials – Meysam Pirbaglou – Nutrition Research

Animal experiments

Maternal gut and fetal brain connection: Increased anxiety and reduced social interactions in Wistar rat offspring following peri-conceptional antibiotic exposure – Stéphanie Degroote – Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry

A human gut ecosystem protects against C. difficile disease by targeting TcdA – Sarah Lynn Martz – Journal of Gastroenterology

Animal microbiome

Species-specific effects of earthworms on microbial communities and the fate of litter-derived carbon – Chih-Han Chang – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Diversity of natural product biosynthetic genes in the microbiome of the deep sea sponges Inflatella pellicula, Poecillastra compressa and Stelletta normani – Alan D. Dobson – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Tree species select diverse soil fungal communities expressing different sets of lignocellulolytic enzyme-encoding genes – Florian Barbi – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Repeated annual glyphosate applications may impair beneficial soil microorganisms in temperate grassland – M. Druille – Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

Water and extremophile microbiome

 The biogeography of red snow microbiomes and their role in melting arctic glaciers – Stefanie Lutz – Nature Communications

Press: The Arctic’s pretty but alarming strawberry-pink snow – Ben Guarino – Washington Post
This Pink Snow Does Not Bode Well For Our Future – Maddie Stone – Gizmodo

Effects of heap-bioleaching plant on microbial community of the nearby river – Mingjiang Zhang – International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation

Molecular Characterization of Aquatic Bacterial Communities in Dinaric Range Caves – Pleše, Bruna – Water Environment Research

Air microbiome

High-throughput sequencing reveals unprecedented diversities of Aspergillus species in outdoor air – Seungeun Lee – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Food microbiology

Changes in the microbiota of lamb packaged in a vacuum and in modified atmospheres during chilled storage analysed by high-throughput sequencing – Taojun Wang – Meat Science

Microbial Diversity of Type I Sourdoughs Prepared and Back-Slopped with Wholemeal and Refined Soft (Triticum aestivum) Wheat Flours – Manuela Taccari – Journal of Food Science

Added ingredients affect the microbiota and biochemical characteristics of durum wheat type-I sourdough – Fabio Minervini – Food Microbiology

Fungal diversity and ecosystem function data from wine fermentation vats and microcosms – Primrose J. Boynton – Data in Brief

The phenotypic characterization of yeast strains to stresses inherent to wine fermentation in warm climates – M. García – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Built environment microbiology

Contamination of healthcare workers’ mobile phones by epidemic viruses – S. Pillet – Clinical Microbiology and Infection

Press: Mobile devices of healthcare workers often contaminated by viral RNA – News Medical

No access for me, but intriguing title: Show research into the human microbiome can be used to solve crimes – Kyle Nothern – Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal

Microbes in the news
Video: Citizen Science and Mapping the Microbiome – Eric J. Topol interviews Jessica Richman – Medscape

Mapping the subway’s microbiome. Barcelona takes part in the international research project Metasub, which aims to map the microbiome of public transit systems in 54 cities worldwide – EurekAlert

Biology professor helps author free textbook, saving students hundreds: OpenStax Microbiology – Lainie Mazzullo – Wichita State University

Science, publishing, and career

At 31, she runs one of the hottest biotech companies in the country, with Rachel Haurwitz, CEO of Caribou Biosciences – Andrew Joseph – STAT news

Stem cell scientist Paolo Macchiarini suspected of involuntary manslaughter – STAT news

June 20, 2016

The temperate tree phyllosphere, Qaanaaq Glacier, effect of human activities on Hong Kong coast microbes, and genome assembly from read clouds.

Events

Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Forum: USA, October 3-4, San Diego

Pregnancy and birth

Putative periodontopathic bacteria and herpesviruses in pregnant women: a case-control study – Haixia Lu – Scientific Reports

Human gut microbiome

Letter to Editor: Reduction of antibiotic resistance genes in intestinal microbiota of recurrent Clostridium difficile patients after fecal microbiota transplantation – Hanne Jouhten – Clinical Infectious Diseases Advance Access

Review: The Gut Microbiota and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases – Jun Miyoshi – Translational Research

Review: Links Between the Microbiome and Bone – C.J. Hernandez – Journal of Bone and Mineral Research

Animal models

Interactions between the colonic transcriptome, metabolome and microbiome in mouse models of obesity-induced intestinal cancer – Anna C. Pfalzer – Physiological Genomics

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Host species identity, site and time drive temperate tree phyllosphere bacterial community structure – Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe – Microbiome

Nitrogen deposition and management practices increase soil microbial biomass carbon but decrease diversity in Moso bamboo plantations – Quan Li – Scientific Reports

A comparative analysis of microbiomes in natural and anthropogenically disturbed soils of northwestern Kazakhstan – E. V. Pershina – Eurasian Soil Science

A novel isolate and widespread abundance of the candidate alphaproteobacterial order (Ellin 329), in southern Appalachian peatlands – Austin B. Harbison – FEMS Microbiology Letters

Water and extremophile microbiome

Microbial community variation in cryoconite granules on Qaanaaq Glacier, NW Greenland – Jun Uetake – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Mechanisms driving Antarctic microbial community responses to ocean acidification: a network modelling approach – Roshni C. Subramaniam – Polar Biology

Video article: Simultaneous DNA-RNA Extraction from Coastal Sediments and Quantification of 16S rRNA Genes and Transcripts by Real-time PCR – Enrico Tatti – Journal of Visualized Experiments

Waste and pollution microbiology

Microorganisms in heavy metal bioremediation: strategies for applying microbial-community engineering to remediate soils – Jennifer L. Wood – AIMS Bioengineering

Impacts of Human Activities on Distribution of Sulfate Reducing Prokaryotes and Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Marine Coastal Sediments of Hong Kong – Feng Guo – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Shotgun metagenomic profiles have a high capacity to discriminate activated sludge according to wastewater type – Federico M. Ibarbalz – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Characteristics of Sediment Bacterial Community in Response to Environmental Impacts in a Sewage Polluted River – Jialin Li – Journal of Coastal Research

Plants rather than mineral fertilization shape microbial community structure and functional potential in legacy contaminated soil – Jakub Ridl – Frontiers in Microbiology

Food microbiology

Viable bacterial population and persistence of foodborne pathogens on the pear carpoplane – Francois J. Duvenage – Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

Book: Acetic Acid Bacteria: Ecology and Physiology – Springer

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Genome assembly from synthetic long read clouds – Volodymyr Kuleshov – Bioinformatics

Unsupervised Binning of Metagenomic Assembled Contigs Using Improved Fuzzy C-Means Method – Yun Liu – IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

Bioreactor microbiology

Genome-centric resolution of microbial diversity, metabolism and interactions in anaerobic digestion – Inka Vanwonterghem – Environmental Microbiology

Microbes in the news

From ASM Microbe 2016: Bacteria Can Persist on Gloves, Transfer to Surfaces – Neil Osterweil – Medscape

Ischemic stroke therapy – does the gut microbiota hold the key? – Sara Adães – PLOS Neuro Community

French microbiologist hopes CRISPR/Cas9 can be used medically, with Emmanuelle Charpentier – Focus Taiwan

Chipotle Bosses Accused Of Insider Trading During Bacteria Scandals – Scott Heins – Gothamist

Bik’s Not-Microbiology Picks

Why Did Scientists Release Dead Sea Turtles into Chesapeake Bay? – Erica Tennenhouse – The Science Explorer

June 16, 2016

ASM Microbe 2016 meeting Tweet-up, two exciting papers on infant gut colonization, Lactobacillus reuteri restores autism-like behavior in a mouse model, rumen microbiomes in high-altitude mammals, an undergraduate lab in food spoilage, the archaeal origins of eukaryotes, and the discovery of CRISPRs.

Events

ASM Microbe 2016 Tweet-up is Friday, June 17, 11:45-12:30 in the Peer-to-Peer Exchange Zone (in the Exhibition Hall)

Pregnancy and birth

Natural history of the infant gut microbiome and impact of antibiotic treatment on bacterial strain diversity and stability – Moran Yassour – Science Translational Medicine

Antibiotics, birth mode, and diet shape microbiome maturation during early life – Nicholas A. Bokulic – Science Translational Medicine

Press: Antibiotics given to babies change their gut microbes for years – Anna Vlasits – STAT
Don’t Stress About Your Baby’s Microbiome Just Yet. Antibiotics and C-sections might change a baby’s microbes, but it’s not clear that those changes are bad, lasting, or that they matter at all. – Ed Yong- the Atlantic

Research Highlight: Growing up together — gut microbiota assembly and IgA – Hugh Thomas – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Opinion: Why Don’t All Infants Have Bifidobacteria in Their Stool? – Gerald W. Tannock – Frontiers in Microbiology

Human oral microbiome
A preliminary study of the oral microbiota in Chinese patients with Sjögren’s Syndrome – Miaoran Li – Archives of Oral Biology

Detection of Novel Integrons in the Metagenome of Human Saliva – Supathep Tansirichaiya – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory microbiome

Severe Achromobacter xylosoxidans infection and loss of sputum bacterial diversity in an adult patient with cystic fibrosis – Nick P. Talbot – Paediatric Respiratory Reviews

Human gut microbiome

Occurrence of human sapoviruses in wastewater and stool samples in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Julia Monassa Fioretti – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Review: Intestinal Crosstalk between Bile Acids and Microbiota and Its Impact on Host Metabolism – Annika Wahlström – Cell Metabolism

Review: Repertoire of human gut microbes – Perrine Hugon – Microbial Pathogenesis

Review: The intestinal microbiome and surgical disease – Monika A. Krezalek – Current Problems in Surgery

Animal experiments

Microbial Reconstitution Reverses Maternal Diet-Induced Social and Synaptic Deficits in Offspring – Shelly A. Buffington – Cell

Press: A single species of gut bacteria can reverse autism-related social behavior in mice – MedicalXpress
Single Bacterial Species Improves Autism-Like Behavior in Mice – Ruth Williams – The Scientist

Absence of gut microbiota influences lipopolysaccharide-induced behavioral changes in mice – Alline C. Campos – Behavioural Brain Research

Altered Microbiota Contributes to Reduced Diet-Induced Obesity upon Cold Exposure –
Marika Ziętak – Cell Metabolism

Revealing the combined effects of lactulose and probiotic enterococci on the swine faecal microbiota using 454 pyrosequencing – Jong Pyo Chae – Microbial Biotechnology

Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG modulates innate signaling pathway and cytokine responses to rotavirus vaccine in intestinal mononuclear cells of gnotobiotic pigs transplanted with human gut microbiota – Haifeng Wang – BMC Microbiology

Effect of postnatal low-dose exposure to environmental chemicals on the gut microbiome in a rodent model – Jianzhong Hu – Microbiome

Animal microbiome

Multiyear Survey of Coccidia, Cryptosporidia, Microsporidia, Histomona, and Hematozoa in Wild Quail in the Rolling Plains Ecoregion of Texas and Oklahoma, USA – Lixin Xiang – The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology

Convergent Evolution of Rumen Microbiomes in High-Altitude Mammals – Zhigang Zhang – Current Biology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Biogeographical patterns in fungal communities from soils cultivated with sugarcane – Thiago Gumiere – Journal of Biogeography

Specific impacts of beech and Norway spruce on the structure and diversity of the rhizosphere and soil microbial communities – S. Uroz – Scientific Reports

Inoculant of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (Rhizophagus clarus) Increase Yield of Soybean and Cotton under Field Conditions – Martha V. T. Cely – Frontiers in Microbiology

Patterns and drivers of soil microbial communities in Tibetan alpine and global terrestrial ecosystems – Yong-Liang Chen – Journal of Biogeography

Water and extremophile microbiome

Microbial Inventory of Deeply Buried Oceanic Crust from a Young Ridge Flank – Steffen L. Jørgensen – Frontiers in Microbiology

Resilience of Freshwater Communities of Small Microbial Eukaryotes Undergoing Severe Drought Events – Marianne Simon – Frontiers in Microbiology

Food microbiology

Undergraduate Laboratory Exercises Specific to Food Spoilage Microbiology – Abigail B. Snyder – Journal of Food Science Education

Waste and pollution microbiology

Comparison of microbial taxonomic and functional shift pattern along contamination gradient – Youhua Ren – BMC Microbiology

More microbiology

On the Archaeal Origins of Eukaryotes and the Challenges of Inferring Phenotype from Genotype: A Hunt for the Archaeal Ancestor of Eukaryotes – Gautam Dey – Trends in Cell Biology

Press: Life as we know it most likely arose via ‘long, slow dance’ – EurekAlert

Mentions our Mycobacterium paper from 1991! The discovery of CRISPR in archaea and bacteria – Francisco J. M. Mojica – The FEBS Journal

Microbes in the news

Antibiotics increase availability of nutrients in the gut, enabling growth of pathogens, with Franziska Faber – UC Davis – Science Daily

Whole Foods Must Clean Up Its Act, FDA Says. Agency warns of ‘serious violations’ at food-preparation plant – Jesse Newman and Heather Haddon – Wall Street Journal

The Parasite Underground – A shadow network of patients are trying to treat their own debilitating diseases — by infecting themselves with gastrointestinal worms – Moises Velasquez-Manoff – The New York Times Magazine

uBiome Doubles Research Grant to Award Two Microbiome Researchers up to $100,000 Each – PR Web

About MetaFast: Personalized medicine will employ computer algorithms – Science Daily

University Seeks to Capitalize on Push to Harness Helpful Microbes – In more recent years, microbes have proved their worth through things like polymerase chain reaction – Terry Devitt – University of Wisconsin-Madison

TGen test shows promise for diagnosing Lyme – Emery Cowan – AZ Daily Sun

Important opinion piece: We are not viruses: Don’t limit gay men from donating blood – Benjamin Mazer – STAT news

Satire: New Mountain Dew Vows To Kill 99.9% Of Stomach Bacteria – The Onion

Science, publishing, and career

A peek at peer review helps young scientists – Jeffrey Mervis – Science

The age of the Twitter conference – Stephanie Avery-Gomm – Science

June 15, 2016

Microbiome evolution in vertebrates, post-antibiotic microbial competition for sugars, microbial networks in respiratory infections, bacteria in snow from Australian and Swiss Alps, Yucatan Black and Red soil microbes.

Human oral microbiome

Longitudinal assessment of sputum microbiome by sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene in non-CF bronchiectasis patients – Michael J Cox – bioRxiv

Human skin microbiome

Comprehensive pyrosequencing analysis of the bacterial microbiota of the skin of patients with seborrheic dermatitis – Akiomi Tanaka – Microbiology and Immunology

Review: Can molecular DNA-based techniques unravel the truth about diabetic foot infections? – M. Malone – Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews

Human respiratory microbiome

Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Streptococcus pneumoniae caused different microbial structure and correlation network in lung microbiota – Heping Wang – Journal of Thoracic Disease

Human gut microbiome

Ecophysiological consequences of alcoholism on human gut microbiota: implications for ethanol-related pathogenesis of colon cancer – Atsuki Tsuruya – Scientific Reports

Research highlight: Intimate gut interactions: helminths and the microbiota – Nicola L Harris – Cell Research

Review: Human Gut-on-a-Chip technology: Will this revolutionize our understanding of IBD and future treatments? – Jaewon Lee – Expert Review of Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Review: Dientamoeba fragilis, the Neglected Trichomonad of the Human Bowel – Damien Stark – Clinical Microbiology Reviews

Review: Akkermansia muciniphila: a novel functional microbe with probiotic properties – C. Gómez-Gallego – Beneficial Microbes

Review: Alterations of gut microbiota in patients with irritable bowel syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis – Xiaojun Zhuang – Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Animal and tissue culture experiments

Host-mediated sugar oxidation promotes post-antibiotic pathogen expansion – Franziska Faber – Nature

News and Views: Microbiology: The dark side of antibiotics – Thibault G. Sana & Denise M. Monack – Nature

Genetic and transcriptional analysis of human host response to healthy gut microbiome – Allison L Richards – bioRxiv

The Microbiota Determines Susceptibility to Experimental Autoimmune Uveoretinitis – Jarmila Heissigerova – Journal of Immunology Research

Animal microbiome

Invited Review: Microbiome Evolution Along Divergent Branches of the Vertebrate Tree of Life: What’s Known and Unknown – Timothy J. Colston – Molecular Ecology

Microbial community structure of two freshwater sponges using Illumina MiSeq sequencing revealed high microbial diversity – Swapnil Gaikwad – AMB Express

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Endophytic bacterial and fungal microbiota in sprouts, roots and stems of rice (Oryza sativa L.) – Wenfeng Wang – Microbiological Research

Yucatán in black and red: Linking edaphic analysis and pyrosequencing-based assessment of bacterial and fungal community structures in the two main kinds of soil of Yucatán State – Héctor Estrada-Medina – Microbiological Research

Water and extremophile microbiome

Global and local-scale variation in bacterial community structure of snow from the Swiss and Australian Alps – Tina Wunderlin – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Waste, pollution, drinking water microbiology

Assessing the effects of heavy metals in ACC deaminase and IAA production on plant growth-promoting bacteria – Mendoza-Hernández José Carlos – Microbiological Research

Effect of Co-Composting Cattle Manure with Construction and Demolition Waste on the Archaeal, Bacterial, and Fungal Microbiota, and on Antimicrobial Resistance Determinants – Devin B. Holman – PLOS ONE

Anthropogenic impact on mangrove sediments triggers differential responses in the heavy metals and antibiotic resistomes of microbial communities – Lucélia Cabral – Environmental Pollution

Investigation of Archaeal and Bacterial community structure of five different small drinking water networks with special regard to the nitrifying microorganisms – Zsuzsanna Nagymáté – Microbiological Research

A survey of biofilms on wastewater aeration diffusers suggests bacterial community composition and function vary by substrate type and time – Peter A. Noble – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

DGGE: Synergistic effect of crude oil plus dispersant on bacterial community in a louisiana salt marsh sediment – Mohammed Al-Jawasim – FEMS Microbiology Letters

Food microbiology

Complexity and Dynamics of the Winemaking Bacterial Communities in Berries, Musts, and Wines from Apulian Grape Cultivars through Time and Space – Marinella Marzano – PLOS ONE

More microbiology

Viruses Infecting a Freshwater Filamentous Cyanobacterium (Nostoc sp.) Encode a Functional CRISPR Array and a Proteobacterial DNA Polymerase B – Caroline Chénard – mBio

Press: Virus Hacks Host Genome, Steals CRISPR to Protect Itself – GenEngNews
Virus uses ‘stolen’ CRISPR to hack its host’s immune system – Science Daily

Microbes in the news

Asgard archaea diversity in estuaries – Roy Rodriguez – REU in Subtropical Marine Ecosystems, University of Texas at Austin

Microbes in pressed grapes may predict flavor metabolites in the finished wine – American Society for Microbiology – EurekAlert

Nanoflowers can detect bacteria before they make you sick: The particles can spot even tiny amounts of E. coli – Mariella Moon – Engadget

BacteriaHysteria: Self-cleaning sheets do exist! Silvon launches bacteria-resistant bedding – Julie Pennell – Today

Science, publishing, and career

Predatory journals: Ban predators from the scientific record – Jeffrey Beall – Nature

Data sharing: A code of conduct for data on epidemics – Ilaria Capua – Nature