June 1, 2015

Still catching up from my trip abroad – lots of new papers to share, so I will do two blog posts today.

General microbiome

Elucidating microbial codes to distinguish individuals – Allyson L. Byrd and Julia A. Segre – PNAS

Human oral microbiome

Periodontal status and pathogenic bacteria after gastric bypass: a cohort study – Sílvia Helena de Carvalho Sales-Peres – Journal of Clinical Periodontology

Inflammation-associated microbiota in pediatric eosinophilic esophagitis – Alain J Benitez – Microbiome

Global transcription of CRISPR loci in the human oral cavity – Andrew G Lum – BMC Genomics

Oral and Gastric Helicobacter Pylori: Effects and Associations – Nélio Veiga – PLOS ONE

Book Chapter: Obesity and Periodontal Disease – Simon D. Tran – Environmental Metagenomics

Human gut microbiome

Investigation of the Association Between the Fecal Microbiota and Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women: a Population-Based Case-Control Pilot Study – James J. Goedert – Journal of the National Cancer Institute

Review: The art of targeting gut microbiota for tackling human obesity – Marisol Aguirre, Koen Venema – Genes and Nutrition

Review article: dietary fibre–microbiota interactions – H. L. Simpson and B. J. Campbell – Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Animal and other microbiome models

Evolutionary transition in symbiotic syndromes enabled diversification of phytophagous insects on an imbalanced diet – Sailendharan Sudakaran – ISME Journal

Fecal Microbial Transplant After Ileocolic Resection Reduces Ileitis but Restores Colitis in IL-102/2 Mice – Troy Perry – IBD Journal

Alteration of gut microbiota by vancomycin and bacitracin improves insulin resistance via glucagon-like peptide 1 in diet-induced obesity – Injae Hwang – The FASEB Journal

Pheromone killing of multidrug-resistant Enterococcus faecalis V583 by native commensal strains – Michael S. Gilmore – PNAS

Human Microbiota-Associated Swine: Current Progress and Future Opportunities – Mei Wang and Sharon M. Donovan – ILAR Journal

Animal microbiome

Marked seasonal variation in the wild mouse gut microbiota – Corinne F Maurice – ISME Journal

Evolution of host specialization in gut microbes: the bee gut as a model – Waidan K Kwong – Gut Microbes

Soil microbiome

Soil bacterial diversity patterns and drivers along an elevational gradient on Shennongjia Mountain, China – Yuguang Zhang – Microbial Biotechnology

High resolution dynamics of microbial communities during dissimilatory selenate reduction in an anoxic soil – Ronald Ragudo Navarro – Environmental Science & Technology

Study and assessment of microbial communities in natural and commercial bioleaching – Arevik Vardanyan – Minerals Engineering

Benefactor and allelopathic shrub species have different effects on the soil microbial community along an environmental severity gradient – S. Hortal – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Evaluation of soil microbial communities as influenced by crude oil pollution – Eucharia Oluchi Nwaichi and Magdalena Frac – African Journal of Biotechnology

Water microbiome

Aquarium microbiome response to ninety-percent system water change: Clues to microbiome management – William Van Bonn – Zoo Biology

Frequency-based haplotype reconstruction from deep sequencing data of bacterial populations – Sergio Pulido-Tamayo – Nucleic Acids Research

Manganese and iron as structuring parameters of microbial communities in Arctic marine sediments from the Baffin Bay – Camelia Algora – FEMS Microbial Ecology

Quantitative analysis of commensal Escherichia coli populations reveals host-specific enterotypes at the intra-species level – Mounira Smati – Microbiology Open

Manganese cycling microbial communities inside deep-sea manganese nodules – Marco Blöthe – Environmental Science & Technology

Effects of Misgurnus anguillicaudatus and Cipangopaludina cathayensis on Pollutant Removal and Microbial Community in Constructed Wetlands – Pengfei Li – Water

Thesis: Evaluating changes in diversity and functional gene abundance of denitrifying microbe communities and nutrient concentrations in runoff following the implementation of low-grade weirs in agricultural drainage systems – Beth Baker – Mississippi State University/ Gradworks

Bioreactor microbiome

Lipid hydrolysis products affect the composition of infant gut microbial communities in vitro – Rikke G. Nejrup – British Journal of Nutrition

Effect of phospholipid on pyrite oxidation and microbial communities under simulated acid mine drainage (AMD) conditions – Andro-Marc Pierre-Louis – Environmental Science & Technology

Antibiotic resistome and its association with bacterial communities during sewage sludge composting – Jianqiang Su – Environmental Science & Technology

Food microbiology

Microbiota dynamics associated with environmental conditions and potential roles of cellulolytic communities in traditional Chinese cereal starter solid-state fermentation – Pan Li- Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Note: not metagenomics but Single Locus Sequencing / OTU defining: MICCA: a complete and accurate software for taxonomic profiling of metagenomic data – Davide Albanese – Scientific Reports

An efficient and scalable analysis framework for variant extraction and refinement from population-scale DNA sequence data: GotCloud – Goo Jun – Genome Research

GITIRBio: A Semantic and Distributed Service OrientedArchitecture for Bioinformatics Pipeline – Luis F. Castillo – Journal of Integrative Bioinformatics

mmnet: an R package for metagenomics systems biology analysis: community-level metabolic network reconstruction – Yang Cao – BioMed Research International

Techniques

How to evaluate PCR assays for the detection of low-level DNA – Frederik Banch Clausen – APMIS
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apm.12405/full

A Novel Microbial Source Tracking Microarray for Pathogen Detection and Fecal Source Identification in Environmental Systems – Xiang Li – Environmental Science & Technology

Functional Foods

Programmable probiotics for detection of cancer in urine – Tal Danino – Science Translational Medicine

Microbes in the news

Alterations to the eye microbiome of contact lens wearers may increase infections – Medical News Today

U.S. defense chief monitoring military anthrax investigation – Reuters

Deadly Bacteria Now a Proven Cancer Detector? – Samantha Solomon – Wall Street Daily’

Gut Bacteria Impacts Toddlers’ Behavior, Particularly Boys – Traci Pederson – PsychCentral

Cervicovaginal Bacteria May Increase the risk of HIV Acquisition in Women – University of Kwazulu – Natal

DNA Genotek’s microbiome collection and stabilization blog: Microbiome learnings from the Weizmann Institute – Cindy MacCullough – DNA Genotek

Scientists probe mysterious wave of antelope deaths – Rory Galloway – BBC News

Bacteria may cause Type 2 diabetes – University of Iowa Now

Should we care about fungi? The mycobiome: an emerging field of the human microbiome research – Human Microbiome Club

Hardy bacteria thrive under hot desert rocks – Nola Taylor Redd – Phys.org

Colon Cancer Diagnosis With Lumninescent Bacteria: Modified Probiotics Can Successfully Detect Tumors In Liver – Colon Cancer News Today

Scientists Find Link Between Ocean Bacteria and Atmosphere – Simon Yu – UCSD Guardian

Woman goes blind after cat licks her and transmits rare bacteria that could affect the brain, eyes, heart, and internal organs – Daily Mail

Science, career, and publishing

This poor advice blog post was retracted from Science today, but the internet never forgets.

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May 29, 2015

General microbiome

Perspective: The trendy microbes – VK Viswanathan – Gut Microbes

Review: Use of the Microbiome in the Practice of Epidemiology: A Primer on -Omic Technologies – Betsy Foxman – American Journal of Epidemiology

Review: Biological warfare: Microorganisms as drivers of host–parasite interactions – Nolwenn M. Dheilly – Infection, Genetics and Evolution

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Bacterial communities in neonatal feces are similar to mothers’ placentae – X-D Dong – Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology

Human oral microbiome

Maturation of Oral Microbiota in Children with or without Dental Caries – Pernilla Lif Holgerson – PLOS ONE

Exploring the variation of oral microbiota in supragingival plaque during and after head-and-neck radiotherapy using pyrosequencing – Li Gao – Archives of Oral Biology

Human genital microbiome

Sensitive Detection of Thirteen Bacterial Vaginosis-Associated Agents Using Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction – Natália Malaguti – BioMed Research International

Human gut microbiome

Esophageal Microbiome in Eosinophilic Esophagitis – J. Kirk Harris – PLOS ONE

Pyrosequencing Analysis Reveals Changes in Intestinal Microbiota of Healthy Adults Who Received a Daily Dose of Immunomodulatory Probiotic Strains – Julio Plaza-Díaz – Nutrients

Fecal menaquinone profiles of overweight adults are associated with gut microbiota composition during a gut microbiota–targeted dietary intervention – J Philip Karl – American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Pouch Inflammation is Associated with a Decrease in Specific Bacterial Taxa – Leah Reshef – Gastroenterology

Human seroreactivity to gut microbiota antigens – Benjamin S. Christmann – Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Acute cholecystitis associated with infection of Enterobacteriaceae from gut microbiota – Jianjun Liu – Clinical Microbiology and Infection

Letter to the Editor: Mediterranean diet: the missing link between gut microbiota and inflammatory diseases – M Bifulco – European Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Editorial: Fecal Microbiota Transplantation for Ulcerative Colitis: Not Just Yet – Ari M. Grinspan – Gastroenterology

Perspective: Rifaximin, gut microbes and mucosal inflammation: unraveling a complex relationship – Jun Gao – Gut Microbes

Review: Apples and Cardiovascular Health—Is the Gut Microbiota a Core Consideration? – Athanasios Koutsos  – Nutrients

Animal models of microbiome research

Exercise Is More Effective at Altering Gut Microbial Composition and Producing Stable Changes in Lean Mass in Juvenile versus Adult Male F344 Rats – Agnieszka Mika – PLOS ONE

Gut microbiota inhibit Asbt-dependent intestinal bile acid reabsorption via Gata4 – Carolien Out – Journal of Hepatology

Animal microbiome

RUMINANT NUTRITION SYMPOSIUM: The impact of the rumen microbiome on nutrition, health, and production – R.A. Kohn – Journal of Animal Science
How to use data on the rumen microbiome to improve our understanding of ruminant nutrition – J.L. Firkins – Journal of Animal Science

Production attributes of Merino sheep genetically divergent for wool growth are reflected in differing rumen microbiotas – I. De Barbieri – Livestock Science

The camel faecal metagenome under different systems of management: phylogenetic and gene-centric Approach – Suchitra S. Dande – Livestock Science

Microbiome structure of the fungid coral Ctenactis echinata aligns with environmental differences – Cornelia Roder – Molecular Ecology

Early life microbial colonization of the gut and intestinal development differ between genetically divergent broiler lines – Dirkjan Schokker – BMC Genomics

Soil microbiome

Biodegradation kinetic rates of diesel-contaminated sandy soil samples by two different microbial consortia – Alejandro Ledezma-Villanueva – Annals of Microbiology

Temperature sensitivity of soil bacterial community along contrasting warming gradient – Jinfeng Wu – Applied Soil Ecology

Water microbiome

Heavy metals and TPH effects on microbial abundance and diversity in two estuarine areas of the southern-central coast of São Paulo State, Brazil – Aline Bartelochi Pinto – Marine Pollution Bulletin

Food microbiology

Microbial food safety: Potential of DNA extraction methods for use in diagnostic metagenomics – Mathilde H. Josefsen – Journal of Microbiological Methods

Metagenomics

Alarmingly high segregation frequencies of quinolone resistance alleles within human and animal microbiomes are not explained by direct clinical antibiotic exposure – Wesley Field – Genome Biology and Evolution

Bioinformatics

Ghost-tree: creating hybrid-gene phylogenetic trees for diversity analyses – Jennifer Fouquier – PeerJ PrePrints

Microbes in the news

The germ at the scene of the crime – Viviane Richter – Cosmos

Researchers combat bias in next-generation DNA sequencing – Eric Beidel – Phys.org

Microbiome research heralds new era of medical diagnosis – Aaron Krumins – Extreme Tech

Community Microbiomes: Chatting Cat Scat with Kittybiome’s Holly Ganz – Scott Edmunds – BioMedCentral Blog

Pheromones produced by gut bacteria found to kill resistant variants of its own kind – Bob Yirka – Phys.org

500 protesters chant in Santa Barbara as bacteria munch the oil spill – Chriss W. Street – Breitbart

Science, publishing, and career

Career Advice From an Oldish Not-Quite Geezer: You can’t count on your publications and awards to take care of you – Robert J. Sternberg – Chronicle

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May 19, 2015

Two papers today on the microbiome of the Giant Panda – it’s not good at digesting bamboo!

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Bacterial community structure associated with elective cesarean section versus vaginal delivery in Chinese newborns – Liu D, et al. – J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr

The microbiota at multiple body sites during pregnancy in a rural Tanzanian population and the effects of Moringa supplemented probiotic yogurt – Jordan E. Bisanz – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Review: Gut microbiome and immunity: possible role in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) – Paul N. Goldwater – Frontiers in Immunology

Human oral microbiome

Microbiome Profiles in Periodontitis in Relation to Host and Disease Characteristics
Bo-Young Hong – PLOS ONE

Review: The human saliva proteome: overview and emerging methods for characterization
Timothy J. Griffin – SPIE Proceedings

Human gut microbiome

Deviations in human gut microbiota: a novel diagnostic test for determining dysbiosis in patients with IBS or IBD – C. Casén – Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics

Schisandra chinensis fruit modulates the gut microbiota composition in association with metabolic markers in obese women : a randomized, double-blind placebo controlled study – Mi-young Song – Nutrition Research

Gut Microbial Succession Follows Acute Secretory Diarrhea in Humans – Lawrence A. David – mBio

Food Fight: Our gut microbes are no fans of junk food – Laura Beil – Science News

Human vaginal microbiome

Review: Antimicrobial and immune modulatory effects of lactic acid and short chain fatty acids produced by vaginal microbiota associated with eubiosis and bacterial vaginosis – Muriel Aldunate – Frontiers in Physiology

Microbiome models

Composition and function of the undernourished neonatal mouse intestinal microbiome – Geoffrey A. Preidis – The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry

Maternal microbiota regulate glucocorticoids levels and placental development in mice – Maha Al-Asmakh – Endocrine Abstracts

Different Dynamic Patterns of β-Lactams, Quinolones, Glycopeptides and Macrolides on Mouse Gut Microbial Diversity – Jia Yin – PLOS ONE

Relationships Between Diet-Related Changes in the Gut Microbiome and Cognitive Flexibility – K.R. Magnusson – Neuroscience

Physiological variability in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath and released from faeces due to nutrition- and somatic growth in a standardized caprine animal model – Sina Fischer – Journal of Breath Research

Animal microbiome

The Bamboo-Eating Giant Panda Harbors a Carnivore-Like Gut Microbiota, with Excessive Seasonal Variations – Zhengsheng Xue – mBio

The evolution of the gut microbiota in the giant and the red pandas – Ying Li – Scientific Reports

Patterns of Gut Bacterial Colonization in Three Primate Species – Erin A. McKenney – PLOS ONE

Skin bacteria provide early protection for newly metamorphosed southern leopard frogs (Rana sphenocephala) against the frog-killing fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis
Whitney M. Holden – Biological Conservation

Plant and Soil microbiome

Bacterial and Fungal Communities in a Degraded Ombrotrophic Peatland Undergoing Natural and Managed Re-Vegetation – David R. Elliott – PLOS ONE

Response of soil, leaf endosphere and phyllosphere bacterial communities to elevated CO2 and soil temperature in a rice paddy – Gaidi Ren – Plant and Soil

Patterns in Species Persistence and Biomass Production in Soil Microcosms Recovering from a Disturbance Reject a Neutral Hypothesis for Bacterial Community Assembly
Fen-Guo Zhang – PLOS ONE

Time-dependent effect of graphene on the structure, abundance and function of the soil bacterial community – Wenjie Ren – Journal of Hazardous Materials

Patterns in Wetland Microbial Community Composition and Functional Gene Repertoire Associated with Methane Emissions – Shaomei He – mBio

Nano titania aided clustering and adhesion of beneficial bacteria to plant roots to enhance crop growth and stress management – G. M. Palmqvist – Scientific Reports

Review: Future challenges and perspectives for applying microbial biotechnology in sustainable agriculture based on a better understanding of plant-microbiome interactions – J. M. Barea – Journal of soil science and plant nutrition

Water microbiome

The influence of land-use, nutrients, and geography on microbial communities and fecal indicator abundance at Lake Michigan beaches – Danielle D. Cloutier – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbial responses to changes in flow status in temporary headwater streams: a cross-system comparison – Catherine M. Febria – Frontiers in Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Distribution and population structure characteristics of microorganisms in urban sewage system – Yanchen Liu – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Extremophile microbiome

Microbial Community in High Arsenic Shallow Groundwater Aquifers in Hetao Basin of Inner Mongolia, China – Ping Li – PLOS ONE

Microbial diversity in engineered haloalkaline environments shaped by shared geochemical drivers observed in natural analogues – Talitha C. Santini – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Metagenomic characterization of biodiversity in the extremely arid desert soils of Kazakhstan – O. V. Kutovaya – Eurasian Soil Science

Archaeal Communities in a Heterogeneous Hypersaline-Alkaline Soil – Yendi E. Navarro-Noya – Archaea

Food microbiology

An Integrated Metagenomics/Metaproteomics Investigation of the Microbial Communities and Enzymes in Solid-state Fermentation of Pu-erh tea – Ming Zhao – Scientific Reports

Review: Foodomics in microbiological investigations – Yong-Jiang Xu – Current Opinion in Food Science

Metagenomics and Bioinformatics

Review: Metagenomics: Tools and Insights for Analyzing Next-Generation Sequencing Data Derived from Biodiversity Studies – Anastasis Oulas – Bioinformatics and Biology Insights

Toward accurate molecular identification of species in complex environmental samples: testing the performance of sequence filtering and clustering methods – Jullien M. Flynn – Ecology and Evolution

Divergence thresholds and divergent biodiversity estimates: can metabarcoding reliably describe zooplankton communities? – Emily A. Brown – Ecology and Evolution

Sharing is caring – Claudio Nunes-Alves – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Kitty Kickstarter: See the Microbes That Live in Your Cat – Becky Oskin – Live Science

Eden unveils The Human Microbiome this week – West Briton

Bodyguards for precious seeds—without chemical mace – Phys.org

Panda poop reveals they’re bad at digesting bamboo – Laura Geggel – CBS News

Giant Panda Microbiome Ill-Suited for Bamboo Diet, Study Finds – Genome Web

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May 16, 2015

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

Human oral microbiome

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

Human respiratory microbiome

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

Human gut microbiome

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

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

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

Microbiome models

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

Water microbiome

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

Plant root and soil microbiome

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

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

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

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

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

Air microbiome

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

Food microbiology

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

Techniques

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

Microbes in the news

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

Science, publishing, and career

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

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

Bik’s Picks

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

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

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

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May 12, 2015

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Metagenomic Analysis of Milk of Healthy and Mastitis-Suffering Women – Esther Jiménez – Journal of Human Lactation

Human oral microbiome

AbstractChanges In The Oral Microbiome Of HIV-Infected Individuals May Alter Nitrogen Metabolism And The Enterosalivary Circulation Of Nitrate – Carl D. Koch – Am J Respir Crit Care Med

Human respiratory microbiome

Conference abstracts in Am J Respir Crit Care Med:

Human gut microbiome

Metabolism Links Bacterial Biofilms and Colon Carcinogenesis – Caroline H. Johnson – Cell Metabolism

Review: The gut microbiome: What do we know? – Francisco Guarner – Clinical Liver Disease

Review: A model for the role of gut bacteria in the development of autoimmunity for type 1 diabetes – Austin G. Davis-Richardson – Diabetologia

Functional foods

Review: A breakthrough in probiotics: Clostridium butyricum regulates gut homeostasis and anti-inflammatory response in inflammatory bowel disease – Takanori Kanai – Journal of Gastroenterology

Animal models of microbiome research

Phylum Level Change in the Cecal and Fecal Gut Communities of Rats Fed Diets Containing Different Fermentable Substrates Supports a Role for Nitrogen as a Factor Contributing to Community Structure – Martin Kalmokoff – Nutrients

Animal microbiome

Variation in koala microbiomes within and between individuals: effect of body region and captivity status – Niccoló Alfano – Scientific Reports

Plants and soil microbiome

Minimal genomes of mycoplasma-related endobacteria are plastic and contain host-derived genes for sustained life within Glomeromycota – Mizue Naito – PNAS

Transcriptome diversity among rice root types during asymbiosis and interaction with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi – Caroline Gutjahr – PNAS
Reintroduction of locally extinct vertebrates impacts arid soil fungal communities
Laurence J. Clarke – Molecular Ecology

Compartmentalized and contrasted response of ectomycorrhizal and soil fungal communities of Scots pine forests along elevation gradients in France and Spain
Ana Rincón – Environmental Microbiology

Impact of tropical lowland rainforest conversion into rubber and oil palm plantations on soil microbial communities – Valentyna Krashevska – Biology and Fertility of Soils

Masters Thesis: The establishment of apple orchards as temperate forest garden systems and their impact on indigenous bacterial and fungal population abundance in Southern Ontario, Canada – Paul Wartman – University of Guelph, Canada

Review: Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and sustainable agriculture: A review
Muhammad Arslan Ashraf – African Journal of Microbiology Research

Water microbiome

Organic and inorganic composition and microbiology of produced waters from Pennsylvania shale gas wells – Denise M. Akob – Applied Geochemistry

Perspective: Using dispersants after oil spills: impacts on the composition and activity of microbial communities – Sara Kleindienst – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Not sure if these are small enough (20-500 um) to be classified as microbes: Metagenetic tools for the census of marine meiofaunal biodiversity: An overview – Laura Carugati – Marine Genomics

Extremophile microbiome

Arsenic rich Himalayan hot spring metagenomics reveal genetically novel predator-prey genotypes – Naseer Sangwan – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Comparison of Archaeal and Bacterial Diversity in Methane Seep Carbonate Nodules and Host Sediments, Eel River Basin and Hydrate Ridge, USA – Olivia U. Mason – Microbial Ecology

Deep-sea hydrothermal vent bacteria related to human pathogenic Vibrio species – Nur A. Hasan – PNAS

Microbial communities of the Lemon Creek Glacier show subtle structural variation yet stable phylogenetic composition over space and time – Cody S. Sheik – Frontiers in Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Forensic analysis of the microbiome of phones and shoes – Simon Lax – Microbiome

The Actinobacterial Colonization of Etruscan Paintings – Marta Diaz-Herraiz – Scientific Reports

Food microbiology

Molecular Analysis of Skin Bacterial Assemblages from Codfish and Pollock after Dry-Salted Fish Production – Natalia Pegoraro

Viruses and phages

Infection of phytoplankton by aerosolized marine viruses – Shlomit Sharoni – PNAS

Archaea

The two-domain tree of life is linked to a new root for the Archaea – Kasie Raymann – PNAS

Review: Archaeal Lineages within the Human Microbiome: Absent, Rare or Elusive?
Hans-Peter Horz – Life

Review: The interplay between nucleoid organization and transcription in archaeal genomes – Eveline Peeters – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Tax4Fun: predicting functional profiles from metagenomic 16S rRNA data – Kathrin P. Aßhauer – Bioinformatics

ProtPhylo: identification of protein–phenotype and protein–protein functional associations via phylogenetic profiling – Yiming Cheng – Nucleic Acids Research

IonGAP: integrative bacterial genome analysis for Ion Torrent sequence data – Adrian Baez-Ortega – Bioinformatics

Natural Bacterial Communities Serve as Quantitative Geochemical Biosensors – Mark B. Smith – mBio

Manuscript: Deeply sequenced metagenome and metatranscriptome of a biogas-producing microbial community from an agricultural production-scale biogas plant – Andreas Bremges

Review: The integration of sequencing and bioinformatics in metagenomics – Firouz Abbasian – Reviews in Environmental Science and Bio/Technology

Book Chapter: Protocols and Methods for the in Silico Reconstruction of the Origin and Evolution of Metabolic Pathways – Luana Presta – Briefs in Molecular Science 2015

Book Chapter: Molecular Screening of Azurin-Like Anticancer Bacteriocins from Human Gut Microflora Using Bioinformatics – Van Duy Nguyen – Advanced Computational Methods for Knowledge Engineering

Other microbial papers of interest

Bacterial Swarms Recruit Cargo Bacteria To Pave the Way in Toxic Environments – Alin Finkelshtein – mBio

Mosaic genome of endobacteria in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: Transkingdom gene transfer in an ancient mycoplasma-fungus association – Gloria Torres-Cortés – PNAS

Perspective: Resilience vs. historical contingency in microbial responses to environmental change – Christine V. Hawkes – Ecology Letters

A tortoise–hare pattern seen in adapting structured and unstructured populations suggests a rugged fitness landscape in bacteria – Joshua R. Nahum – PNAS

Microbes in the news
Can The Microbes You Leave Behind Be Used to Identify You? – Ed Yong – National Geographic

Forbidden Data: Wyoming wants to conceal the fact that many of its streams are contaminated by E. coli bacteria – Slate

UGSG looks at microbiology, chemistry of Pa. fracked wells – Bob Downing – Ohio.com

Chinese breast milk discovery strengthens case for probiotics in infant formula: Chr Hansen – By Mark Astley – Dairy Reporter

Researchers find metabolic link between bacterial ‘biofilms’, colon cancer – Medical Xpress

Accessing the Hidden Kingdom: Fungal ITS Reference Sequences – NCBI Insights
#BacteriaHysteria

Germ City: Bacteria thriving at the makeup counter: 30% of used makeup samples in stores contain bacteria – PIX11

Tests found bacteria on popular single-serve coffeemakers – Your Central Valley

Bik’s Picks

De novo synthesis of a sunscreen compound in vertebrates – Andrew R Osborn – eLIFE

Chemical messages in 170-year-old champagne bottles from the Baltic Sea: Revealing tastes from the past – Philippe Jeandet – PNAS

Unraveling ancient Egypt’s animal mummy mystery: Roughly a third of the animal mummies examined were completely empty – Michael E. Miller – Washington Post

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May 1, 2015

A late post today – I was in meetings all day, and had no time to look at the 474 papers in my inbox until late. But let’s catch up!

General microbiome

Editorial: Bacteria make us human – Mohsin Ali – The Lancet

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Spotlight: Gut bacteria and necrotizing enterocolitis: cause or effect? – Christopher James Stewart – Trends in Microbiology

Editorial Harnessing the Early-Life Microbiota to Protect Children with Cystic Fibrosis – Leopoldo N. Segal and Martin J. Blaser – The Journal of Pediatrics

Human oral microbiome

Review: Dental Chatter: Bacterial Cross-Talk in the Biofilm of the Oral Cavity – Doron Steinberg – Israel Journal of Chemistry

The interaction between Streptococcus spp. and Veillonella tobetsuensis in the early stages of oral biofilm formation – Izumi Mashima – Journal of Bacteriology

Human gut microbiome

Antibiotic treatment of diarrhoea is associated with decreased time to the next diarrhoea episode among young children in Vellore, India – Elizabeth T Rogawski – International Journal of Epidemiology

High throughput sequencing reveals distinct microbial populations within the mucosal and luminal niches in healthy individuals – Yehuda Ringel – Gut Microbes

Gut Microbiota-Mediated Drug-Antibiotic Interactions – Dong-Hyun Kim – Drug Metabolism & Disposition

Humoral Immunity in the Gut Selectively Targets Phenotypically Virulent Attaching-and-Effacing Bacteria for Intraluminal Elimination – Nobuhiko Kamada – Cell Host & Microbe

MicroRNA-193a-3p Reduces Intestinal Inflammation in Response to Microbiota via Down-regulation of Colonic PepT1 – Xin Dai – The Journal of Biological Chemistry

Editorial: Some Reflections on the Microbiome and Obesity – Richard I. Shader – Clinical Therapeutics

Review: Regulation of body fat mass by the gut microbiota: Possible mediation by the brain – Erik Schéle – Peptides

Review: Role of Intestinal Microbiome in Lipid and Glucose Metabolism in Diabetes Mellitus – Casper van Olden – Clinical Therapeutics

Review: Gut microbiome, gut function, and probiotics: Implications for health – Neerja Hajela – Indian Journal of Gastroenterology

Review: Gut microbiota and the development of pediatric diseases – Chun-Yi Lu – Journal of Gastroenterology

Review: Regulation of body fat mass by the gut microbiota: Possible mediation by the brain – Erik Schéle – Peptides

Animal models

Transcriptional Modulation of Intestinal Innate Defense/Inflammation Genes by Preterm Infant Microbiota in a Humanized Gnotobiotic Mouse Model – Lei Lu – PLOS ONE

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products alter the holobiome and development of a medically important mosquito – Marcus J. Pennington – Environmental Pollution

Differences in the faecal microbiome of non-diarrhoeic clinically healthy dogs and cats associated with Giardia duodenalis infection: impact of hookworms and coccidia – Jan Šlapeta – International Journal for Parasitology

Ezetimibe and simvastatin modulate gut microbiota and expression of genes related to cholesterol metabolism – Emilie Catry – Life Sciences

Animal microbiome

Review: Tick microbiome: the force within – Sukanya Narasimhan – Trends in Parasitology

16S rRNA Amplicon Sequencing Demonstrates that Indoor-Reared Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) Harbor a Core Subset of Bacteria Normally Associated with the Wild Host – Ivan Meeus – PLOS ONE

Plant microbiome

Plant and soil effects on bacterial communities associated with Miscanthus × giganteus rhizosphere and rhizomes – Dongfang Li – GCB Bioenergy

Soil microbiome

Distinct microbial populations are tightly linked to the profile of dissolved iron in the methanic sediments of the Helgoland mud area, North Sea – Oluwatobi Oni – Frontiers in Microbiology

Ecological effects of combined pollution associated with e-waste recycling on the composition and diversity of soil microbial communities – Jun Liu – Environmental Science & Technology

Water microbiome

Differences in organic matter and bacterioplankton between sections of the largest Arctic river: Mosaic or continuum? – Michail I. Gladyshev – Limnology and Oceanography

Extremophile microbiome

Insights from the Metagenome of an Acid Salt Lake: The Role of Biology in an Extreme Depositional Environment – Sarah Stewart Johnson – PLOS ONE

The microbial diversity, distribution, and ecology of permafrost in China: a review – Weigang Hu – Extremophiles

Bioreactor microbiology

Illumina MiSeq Sequencing Reveals Diverse Microbial Communities of Activated Sludge Systems Stimulated by Different Aromatics for Indigo Biosynthesis from Indole – Xuwang Zhang – PLOS ONE

Effects of garlic oil, nitrate, saponin and their combinations supplemented to different substrates on in vitro fermentation, ruminal methanogenesis, and abundance and diversity of microbial populations – A.K. Patra – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Food microbiology

Technological implications of reducing nitrate and nitrite levels in dry-fermented sausages: typical microbiota, residual nitrate and nitrite and volatile profile – Xavier F. Hospital – Food Control

Review: New Approaches for Bacteriotherapy: Prebiotics, New-Generation Probiotics, and Synbiotics – Rachna Patel – Clinical Infectious Diseases

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

DIDA: Distributed Indexing Dispatched Alignment – Hamid Mohamadi – PLOS ONE

Hybrid De Novo Genome Assembly Using MiSeq and SOLiD Short Read Data – Tsutomu Ikegami – PLOS ONE

Using populations of human and microbial genomes for organism detection in metagenomes – Sasha K Ames – Genome Research

Metabolomics

Systems biology of host–microbe metabolomics – Almut Heinken and Ines Thiele – Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Systems Biology and Medicine

Microbes in the news

Don’t douche, and other lessons about the vaginal microbiome: Exploring the microscopic world between our legs – Susan Keown – Fred Hutch

Gut bacteria easy scapegoat to explain diseases, but connections hard to prove – Meredith Knight – Genetic Literacy Project

Find Out Just How Bacteria-Infested Houston Street Is During This Weekend of Walking Tours – Jaime Cone – Bedford and Bowery
and
The Artist & The Scientist: Microbial Maps – Festival Walk in New York City with Chris Mason – Jane’s Walk

Video: The Microbiome Project: Hospitals – Bacteria may actually be beneficial to hospitals – Argonne National Laboratory

Freshmen participate in huge research study on tiny viruses – University of Colorado Boulder

uBiome is launching an academic consortium to bring together researchers and industry teams with the hope of accelerating scientific understanding of the microbiome – uBiome

Each vineyard has a unique microbiome – Louise Lerner – Futurity

Science, publishing, and career

Ten Simple (Empirical) Rules for Writing Science – Cody J. Weinberger – PLOS Computational Biology

Honors Thesis: Students’ Knowledge and Opinions Concerning Genetically Modified Organisms: A Survey at University of Colorado Boulder – Connor Folkerth – University of Colorado at Boulder

Sexism in science: Peer editor tells female researchers their study needs a male author – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

Bik’s Picks

How This Beetle Creates 500 Explosions Per Second In Its Bum – Ed Yong – National Geographic

Evidence that premature girls thrive more than premature boys – Science Daily

House GOP Wants to Eviscerate NASA Earth Sciences in New Budget – Phil Plait – Bad Astronomy – Slate
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April 28, 2015

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

Events

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

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

Human oral microbiome

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

Human gut microbiome

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Animal models of microbiome research

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

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

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

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

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

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

Animal microbiome

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

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

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

Plant, plant root and soil microbiome

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Water microbiome

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

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

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

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

Extremophile microbiome

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

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

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

Microbiome of the built environment

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

Bioreactor microbiology

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

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

Food microbiology

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

Microbial Ecology

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

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

Techniques

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

Bioinformatics

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

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

Metagenomics

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

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

Metabolomics and proteomics

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

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

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

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

Phages and viruses

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

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

Microbes in the news

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

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

Facts About Our Microbial Menagerie – Infection Control Today

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

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

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

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

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

Microbes and money

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

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

Science, publishing and career

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

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

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

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

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

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

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April 27, 2015

Events:

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

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

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

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

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

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

Human gut microbiome

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

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

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

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

Animal microbiome

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

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

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

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

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

Plant root and soil microbiome

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

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

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

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

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

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

Water microbiome

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

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

Extremophiles

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

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

Microbiome of the built environment

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

Food microbiology

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

Phages, viruses, and CRISPRs

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

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

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

Metagenomics and Bioinformatics

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

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

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

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

Metabolomics

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

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

Microbes in the news

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Waterproof bacteria inspire special coatings – Tim Sandle – Digital Journal

Metanome changes name to Diversigen – News Medical

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

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

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

Science, publishing, and career

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

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

Peer review, explained (cartoon) – Academia Obscura

Bik’s Picks

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

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

Photos: 7-Year-Old Boy Discovers T. Rex Cousin – Live Science
[hr]

April 22, 2015

Happy Earth Day! Today, I screened 371 papers for you from ISME Journal, Nature, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, PLOS ONE, and others. Here is what I found:

Human oral microbiome

Quorum-Sensing Dysbiotic Shifts in the HIV-Infected Oral Metabiome – Robert E. Brown – PLOS ONE

Full mouth periodontal debridement with or without adjunctive metronidazole gel in smoking patients with chronic periodontitis: A pilot study – C. C. Bergamaschi – Journal of Periodontal Research

Human respiratory microbiome

Changes in Cystic Fibrosis Airway Microbial Community Associated with a Severe Decline in Lung Function – Patrizia Paganin – PLOS ONE

Bacteriological Assessment of Healthcare-Associated Pneumonia Using a Clone Library Analysis – Shingo Noguchi – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Sex, Body Mass Index, and Dietary Fiber Intake Influence the Human Gut Microbiome – Christine Dominianni – PLOS ONE

Editorial: Gut Bacteria Combined With Poor Diet May Promote Childhood Malnutrition – M. J. Friedrich – JAMA

Animal models of microbiome research

Effects of dietary supplementation of selenium-enriched probiotics on production performance and intestinal microbiota of weanling piglets raised under high ambient temperature – C. H. Lv – Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition

Phylogenetic and Functional Alterations in Bacterial Community Compositions in Broiler Ceca as a Result of Mannan Oligosaccharide Supplementation – A. Corrigan – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Animal microbiome

Taxonomic Identification of Ruminal Epithelial Bacterial Diversity during Rumen Development in Goats – Jinzhen Jiao – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Shifts in Bacterial Communities of Eggshells and Antimicrobial Activities in Eggs during Incubation in a Ground-Nesting Passerine – Stéphanie Grizard – PLOS ONE

Plant microbiome

Fungi on leaves: Host genotype is an important determinant of the cereal phyllosphere mycobiome – Rumakanta Sapkota – New Phytologist

Soil and plant soil microbiome

Continental-scale distributions of dust-associated bacteria and fungi – Albert Barberán – PNAS USA

Missing forests: Soil microbiome responses to the short-term effects of Amazonian deforestation – Acacio A. Navarrete – Molecular Ecology

Distinct soil microbial diversity under long-term organic and conventional farming – Martin Hartmann – The ISME Journal

Genomic signature of selective sweeps illuminates adaptation of Medicago truncatula to root-associated microorganisms – Maxime Bonhomme – Molecular Biology and Evolution

Differential Assemblage of Functional Units in Paddy Soil Microbiomes – Yongkyu Kim – PLOS ONE

The Effect of Biochar and Its Interaction with the Earthworm Pontoscolex corethrurus on Soil Microbial Community Structure in Tropical Soils – Jorge Paz-Ferreiro – PLOS ONE

Water microbiome

Species Richness and Adaptation of Marine Fungi from Deep-Subseafloor Sediments – Vanessa Rédou – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Environmental metabarcoding reveals heterogeneous drivers of microbial eukaryote diversity in contrasting estuarine ecosystems – Delphine Lallias – The ISME Journal

Food microbiology

Spoiler alert: Origin and ecological selection of core and food-specific bacterial communities associated with meat and seafood spoilage – Stéphane Chaillou – ISME Journal

Proteomics

“You produce while I clean up,” a strategy revealed by exoproteomics during Synechococcus–Roseobacter interactions – Joseph A. Christie-Oleza – Proteomics

Microbes in the news

How Modern Life Depletes Our Gut Microbes – Michaeleen Doucleff – NPR Goats and Soda

Great longread: Forensic science: The soil sleuth – Forensic geologist Lorna Dawson helps convict criminals using the dirt from their shoes – Chelsea Wald – Nature

A Microbiome Three-Conference Summary – Kristina Campbell – The Intestinal Gardener

University brews up artificial kopi luwak coffee with even more flavor using civet microbiome – Katherine Wei – China Post

Science, publishing, and career

The postdoc series: What comes next? A postdoc sets you up for a variety of careers, including academia, editing, working in industry, core laboratories and more – Julie Gould – Nature Jobs

Is it fair to evaluate Ph.D. students based on their personalities? Fallout from a gutless adviser – Alice Huang – Science

Minority Ph.D. students: Where do they go? – Beryl Lieff Benderly – Science

Bibliometrics: The Leiden Manifesto for research metrics – Diana Hicks – Nature

Rita Colwell: Women in science still battle bias – Mike McInally – Mid-Valley Health

Bik’s Picks

The genome of cultivated sweet potato contains Agrobacterium T-DNAs with expressed genes: An example of a naturally transgenic food crop – Tina Kyndt – PNAS

How exactly do mosquitoes track us down – and what makes humans their meal of choice? – Biodetectives

Construction workers in China accidentally unearth dinosaur eggs – Sean O’Kane – The Verge
[hr]

April 17, 2015

Two new papers on the microbiome of not-western populations, and the influence of the microbiome on the circadian rhythm (or is it the other way around?).

Events

Session on “The Microbiome” at the AHCJ (Association of Health Care Journalists) annual meeting, Santa Clara, CA – Friday April 24 – HT: Jonathan Eisen

Human oral microbiome

Review: Oral infections and cardiovascular disease – Karim El Kholy – Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism

Human skin microbiome

Review: Rosacea : Part I. Introduction, categorization, histology, pathogenesis, and risk factors – Aimee M. Two – Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology

Human respiratory microbiome

Review: Emerging bacterial pathogens and changing concepts of bacterial pathogenesis in cystic fibrosis – Michael D. Parkins – Journal of Cystic Fibrosis

Human gut microbiome

The microbiome of uncontacted Amerindians – Jose C. Clemente – Science Advances

The Gut Microbiota of Rural Papua New Guineans: Composition, Diversity Patterns, and Ecological Processes – Inés Martínez – Cell Reports

Altered fecal microbiota composition in patients with major depressive disorder – Haiyin Jiang – Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

Forum: Keeping gut lining at bay: impact of emulsifiers – Patrice D. Cani, Amandine Everard

Review: Possible role of the microbiome in the development of acute malnutrition and implications for food-based strategies to prevent and treat acute malnutrition – Ellen Murray, Mark Manary – Food and Nutrition Bulletin

Review: The gut microbiota and liver disease – Cristina Llorente – CMGH Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Animal and other models

Effects of Diurnal Variation of Gut Microbes and High-Fat Feeding on Host Circadian Clock Function and Metabolism – Vanessa Leone – Cell Host & Microbe

Resistant starch diet induces change in the swine microbiome and a predominance of beneficial bacterial populations – Özgün C O Umu – Microbiome Journal

In-vitro model for studying methanogens in human gut microbiota – William Tottey – Anaerobe

Relationship between the gut microbiota, lipopolysaccharide, inflammation, and metabolic osteoarthritis development: Studies in a rat model – K.H. Collins – Osteoarthritis and Cartilage

Effects of dietary supplementation with β-glucan and synbiotics on growth, haemolymph chemistry, and intestinal microbiota and morphology in the Pacific white shrimp – S. Boonanuntanasarn – Aquaculture Nutrition

Extremophiles / rock microbiome

On the rocks: Autoendoliths: a distinct type of rock-hosted microbial life – J. Marlow – Geobiology

Food microbiology

Evaluation of the Dynamics of Microbiological Quality in Lightly Pickled Napa Cabbages During Manufacture – Kazuya Masuda – Journal of Food Safety

Microbes in the news

Western lifestyle may limit the diversity of bacteria in the gut – Joseph Caputo – Cell Press
What Your Poop Says About Your Lifestyle – Agata Blaszczak-Boxe – Live Science
Is super-diverse Amazon microbiome something to strive for? – Penny Sarchet – New Scientist
Yanomami, An Amazon Tribe, Could Provide Answers To Antibiotic Resistance – Susan Scutti – Medical Daily
Study Reveals Microbiome Diversity, Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Isolated Amazon Tribe – Andrea Anderson – Genome Web
Bacteria bonanza found in remote Amazon village – Boer Deng – Nature

Gut Microbes Influence Circadian Clock – Anna Azvolinsky – The Scientist

“Computers are the new microscopes, and data is the new blood draw,” UCSD hiring ‘big data’ stars – Gary Robbins – UT San Diego

Brushing teeth regularly can save you from future heart attacks – Business Standard

Escape by dilution: dissolved organic matter in the ocean is too dilute to be consumed – Jack J. Middelburg – Science

Microbiome Researcher Also Fan Of Guns And Roses – The Allium

Science, publishing, and career

A PI is forced to close his lab: The reality that dare not speak its name – Andrew D. Hollenbach
A harsh response:
On productivity and the “unfair” grant funding game – DrugMonkey

SurveyHelp solve the mystery of the disappearing Ph.D.s – Beryl Lieff Benderly – Science

Ten Simple Rules for Effective Online Outreach – Holly M. Bik – PLOS Computational Biology

The Quantitative Methods Boot Camp: Teaching Quantitative Thinking and Computing Skills to Graduate Students in the Life Sciences – Melanie I. Stefan – PLOS Computational Biology

On the ‘benefits’ of Postdocs – Michelle Collins – The Spectroscope

Claiming sexism in science is over is just wishful thinking – Lisa Grossman – New Scientist

Bik’s Picks

Through This Chemical Loop, Dogs Win Our Hearts – Ed Yong – National Geographic

Octopuses Have Moves, But No Rhythm – Laura Geggel – Live Science

The Roomba for Lawns Is Really Pissing Off Astronomers – Davey Alba – Wired

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