Category Archives: General Microbiome

August 21, 2015

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Gut microbiota in Malaysian children, humanized microbiota mice, and ecosystem productivity in surface marine waters. Happy weekend!

Human respiratory microbiome

Association of Mucosal Organisms with Patterns of Inflammation in Chronic Rhinosinusitis – Thanit Chalermwatanachai – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Relatively little data given on socioeconomic status, but that appears to be much greater factor than ehtnicity – if you read scarce information in methods.
Effect of ethnicity and socioeconomic variation to the gut microbiota composition among pre-adolescent in Malaysia – Chun Wie Chong – Scientific Reports

Review: Intestinal Fucose as a Mediator of Host–Microbe Symbiosis – Joseph M. Pickard – The Journal of Immunology

Animal models

Characterization of the Genital Microenvironment of Female Rhesus Macaques Prior to and After SIV Infection – Whitney A. Nichols – American Journal of Reproductive Immunology

Humanized microbiota mice as a model of recurrent Clostridium difficile disease – James Collins – Microbiome

Water microbiome

Ecosystem productivity is associated to bacterial phylogenetic distance in surface marine waters – Pierre E. Galand – Molecular Ecology

Waste water microbiology

Thesis: The Effects of Perturbations on Microbial Community Dynamics and Process Performance in Wastewater Bioreactors – Hari Seshan – University of California, Davis

Techniques

Review: Molecular biology-based methods for quantification of bacteria in mixed culture: perspectives and limitations – Karthiga Nagarajan – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Microbes in the news

Autoimmune eye infection caused by bacteria in the gut – Mohan Garikiparithi – Bel Marra Health

The Brain-Gut Axis, Part 3 – The Gut Microbiota In Disease – Sara Adaes – Brain Blogger

Workshop on microbiology conducted – The Hindu

Podcast: Forensic Microbiology Part 2: Secrets of Soil – SocGenMicro at Soundcloud

How long have primates been infected with viruses related to HIV? – EurekAlert

Bik’s Picks

‘Mutant’ Lice More Hype Than Headache: Treatment failure doesn’t equal clinical resistance – Hanneke Weitering – MedPageToday

Doctors Behaving Badly: Annals of Internal Medicine published an anonymous essay recounting two appalling incidents – Roni Caryn Rabin – New York Times

Humans are now a unique class of ‘super-predators’ thanks to ‘wickedly efficient killing technology’: study – Randy Shore – National Post

Most Of Us Have Disgusting Contact Lens Habits – Rachael Rettner – LiveScience

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August 19, 2015

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Guidelines and principles to use “holobionts”, microbiome and provoking autoimmunity in uveitis, bacteria in confiscated passerines, and ecology of the Miscellaneous Crenarchaeotic Group archaea.

General microbiome

Host Biology in Light of the Microbiome: Ten Principles of Holobionts and Hologenomes – Seth R. Bordenstein , Kevin R. Theis – PLOS Biology

Human eye microbiome

Uveitis (Eye): Microbiota-Dependent Activation of an Autoreactive T Cell Receptor Provokes Autoimmunity in an Immunologically Privileged Site – Reiko Horai – Immunity

Human gut microbiome

Review: Diagnostic and Prognostic Microbial Biomarkers in IBD – Marla Dubinsky – Gastroenterology

Letter to the editor: Can inflammatory bowel disease really be solved by the multiple -omics and meta-omics analyses? – Xiaofa Qin – Immunology Letters

Animal models

In vivo imaging and tracking of host–microbiota interactions via metabolic labeling of gut anaerobic bacteria – Naama Geva-Zatorsky – Nature Medicine

Associative patterns among anaerobic fungi, methanogenic archaea, and bacterial communities in response to changes in diet and age in the rumen of dairy cows – Sanjay Kumar – Frontiers in Microbiology

Diet- and Genetically-Induced Obesity Differentially Affect the Fecal Microbiome and Metabolome in Apc1638N Mice – Anna C. Pfalzer – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

Detection of bacteria and fungi and assessment of the molecular aspects and resistance of E. coli isolated from confiscated passerines intended for reintroduction programs – Patricia Braconaro – Microbial Pathogenesis

Mining of luxS genes from rumen microbial consortia by metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches – Ines Ghali – Animal Science Journal

Isolation and identification of marine fish tumour (odontoma) associated bacteria – Ramalingam Vijayakumar – Journal of Coastal Life Medicine

A facultative endosymbiont in aphids can provide diverse ecological benefits – E. R. Heyworth andJ. Ferrari – Journal of Evolutionary Biology

Not sure why a study on RNAseq and 16S rRNA PCR on voles in France was published in PLOS NTD: A Comparison between Transcriptome Sequencing and 16S Metagenomics for Detection of Bacterial Pathogens in Wildlife – Maria Razzauti – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Plant, roots, and soil microbiome

Assembly of Active Bacterial and Fungal Communities Along a Natural Environmental Gradient – Rebecca C Mueller – Microbial Ecology

Effects of imidacloprid on soil microbial communities in different saline soils– Qingming Zhang – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Water microbiome

Microbial Communities Can Be Described by Metabolic Structure: A General Framework and Application to a Seasonally Variable, Depth-Stratified Microbial Community from the Coastal West Antarctic Peninsula – Jeff S. Bowman – PLOS ONE

Diazotrophic bacterial community variability in a subtropical deep reservoir is correlated with seasonal changes in nitrogen – Lina Wang – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Built environment microbiome

Assessment of contamination using an ATP bioluminescence assay on doorknobs in a university-affiliated hospital in Japan – Naoko Kajigaya – BMC Research Notes

Diversity and antibiotic resistance profiles of Pseudomonads from a hospital wastewater treatment plant – D.O. Santoro – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Cleanroom Maintenance Significantly Reduces Abundance but Not Diversity of Indoor Microbiomes – Alexander Mahnert – PLOS ONE

Archaea

Insights in the ecology and evolutionary history of the Miscellaneous Crenarchaeotic Group lineage – Mireia Fillol – ISME Journal

Metabolomics

Plasma metabolomic profiles enhance precision medicine for volunteers of normal health –
Lining Guo – PNAS

Techniques

Single-Molecule Real-Time Sequencing Combined with Optical Mapping Yields Completely Finished Fungal Genome – Luigi Faino – mBio

Microbes in the news

Bacteria’s secret weapon against pesticides and antibiotics revealed – Aarhus University – EurekAlert

Die, Bacteria! Engineered particles deliver targeted antibiotics – Helen Knight – Technology Review

Bacteria with synthetic DNA create protein never found in Nature – For when the usual four nucleotides can’t give you what you want – Alexandra Ossola – PopSci

Second Plague Case Traced to Yosemite National Park – Maggie Fox – NBC News

Science, publishing, and career

Increasing disparities between resource inputs and outcomes, as measured by certain health deliverables, in biomedical research – Anthony Bowena and Arturo Casadevall – PNAS
Return on Investment Slipping in Biomedical Research – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Science Week Australia: UNSW moves to strengthen women’s role in science – Marcus Strom – Sydney Morning Herald

Bik’s Picks

Stanford’s Angel of Grief Statue Has Arm Chopped Off By Vandals: The arm, made of fine Italian marble, is worth an estimated $20,000 – NBC Bay Area

Hummingbird tongues are way weirder than we thought – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

Can’t go to Mars? At least sign the card – Jillian Kestler-D’Amours – The Star

Flying Spiders Found—and They Can Steer in Mid-Air – Traci Watson – National Geographic

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August 18, 2015

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New paper from our lab about human microbiota during pregnancy, association between obesity and cervical microflora, Argentina soil metagenomes, proteomics library, and microbiology during mozzarella cheese making.

Events and conferences

ECCMID: 26th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases: April 2016, Istanbul, Turkey

General microbiome

Review: Fulfilling the Promise of Microbiomics to Revolutionize Medicine – Traci L Testerman – J Microbiol Exp

Review: Cross-kingdom similarities in microbiome functions – Rodrigo Mendes – ISME Journal

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

From our lab: Temporal and spatial variation of the human microbiota during pregnancy – Daniel B. DiGiulio – PNAS

Maternal group B Streptococcus and the infant gut microbiota – A. E. Cassidy-Bushrow – Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

The stool microbiota of insulin resistant women with recent gestational diabetes, a high risk group for type 2 diabetes – Marina Fugmann – Scientific Reports

Human reproductive tract microbiome

Relationship of Specific Bacteria in the Cervical and Vaginal Microbiotas With Cervicitis – Linda M. Gorgos – Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Changes in vaginal microbiota following antimicrobial and probiotic therapy – Jean M. Macklaim – Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease

Association between obesity and cervical microflora dominated by Lactobacillus iners in Korean women – Hea Young Oh – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes and bacterial vaginosis presence in cervical samples from Paraguayan indigenous – Pamela Mongelos – International Journal of Infectious Diseases

The most common isolated microorganisms and its clinical manifestation in hospitalised women suffering from urogenital diseases in Latvia – Anatolijs Naumčiks – International Journal of Reproduction, Contraception, Obstetrics and Gynecology

Human respiratory microbiome

Conference abstract: Profiling of lung microbial communities in lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients – Yanhong Liu – Cancer Research

Human oral microbiome

Conference abstract: 16S rRNA saliva analysis unveils differences in the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma microbiome before and after surgical resection – Rafael E. Guerrero-Preston – Cancer Research

Human gut microbiome

Variable alterations of the microbiota, without metabolic or immunological change, following faecal microbiota transplantation in patients with chronic pouchitis – J. Landy – Scientific Reports

Review: Systematic Review of the Relation Between Intestinal Microbiota and Toll-Like Receptors in the Metabolic Syndrome: What Do We Know So Far? – José Pedro Portela-Cidade – GE Portuguese Journal of Gastroenterology

Review: Commensal Microbiome Promotes Resistance to Local and Systemic Infections – Nan Zhang – Chinese Medical Journal

Animal microbiome

High diversity of viable bacteria isolated from lymph nodes of slaughter pigs and its possible impacts for food safety – Evelyne Mann – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Geographic patterns in the bacterial microbiome of the glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homalodisca vitripennis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) – E. W. Welch – Symbiosis

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Using direct amplification and next-generation sequencing technology to explore foliar endophyte communities in experimentally inoculated western white pines – Lorinda S. Bullington – Fungal Ecology

Maize lines with different nitrogen use efficiency select bacterial communities with different β-glucosidase-encoding genes and glucosidase activity in the rhizosphere – Shamina I. Pathan – Biology and Fertility of Soils

Fire severity shapes plant colonization effects on bacterial community structure, microbial biomass, and soil enzyme activity in secondary succession of a burned forest – Joseph E. Knelman – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Diversity of hydrolases from hydrothermal vent sediments of the Levante Bay, Vulcano Island (Aeolian archipelago) identified by activity-based metagenomics and biochemical characterization of new esterases and an arabinopyranosidase – Antonio Placido – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Consistent responses of soil microbial communities to elevated nutrient inputs in grasslands across the globe – Jonathan W. Leff – PNAS

Soil Metagenomes from Different Pristine Environments of Northwest Argentina – Christina B. McCarthy – Genome Announcements

Relationships between the density and activity of microbial communities possessing arylsulfatase activity and soil sulfate dynamics during the decomposition of plant residues in soil – Séverine Piutti – European Journal of Soil Biology

Food microbiology

Microbial changes of natural milk cultures for mozzarella cheese during repeated propagation cycles – Angela Guidone – LWT – Food Science and Technology

No paper, just abstract, no pathogens appear to have been found: Culture-independent Pathogenic Bacterial Communities in Bottled Mineral Water – Hamdy A. Hassan – Renewable Energy & Sustainable Development

A diagnosis of the microbiological quality of dehydrated bee-pollen produced in Brazil – Adriane Alexandre Machado De-Melo – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

HipMer: An Extreme-Scale De Novo Genome Assembler – Evangelos Georganas

Functional metagenomic discovery of bacterial effectors in the human microbiome and isolation of commendamide, a GPCR G2A/132 agonist – Louis J. Cohen – PNAS

Proteomics and metabolomics

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory library of bacterial and archaeal proteomic biodiversity – Samuel H. Payne – Scientific Data

Monitoring microbial metabolites using an inductively coupled resonance circuit – Daniil Karnaushenko – Scientific Reports

Extremophiles

Biotechnological applications of extremophiles, extremozymes and extremolytes – Noura Raddadi – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Microbes in the news

Mothers facing C-sections look to vaginal ‘seeding’ to boost their babies’ health – Aimee Molloy – The Guardian

Bacterial community in pregnant women linked to preterm birth, study finds – Erin Digitale – Stanford Medicine
Stanford preterm birth study counters Detroit findings – Karen Bouffard – The Detroit News
Microbe Mix May Play Role In Preterm Birth Risk – Rob Stein – NPR

Biologist investigates how gene-swapping bacteria evade antibiotics – University of Texas at Dallas – EurekAlert

Methane and Climate Change: Arctic Bacteria Might Eat Methane? – Nature World News

How beneficial bacteria protect intestinal cells – Quinn Eastman – Emory News Center

Researchers Identify Metaproteomic Differences between Obese, Non-Obese Individuals – Adam Bonislawski – Genomeweb

How does Cincinnati Children’s Hospital use the microbiome to study lupus? A look inside with Diana Taft – Megan McGrath – DNA Genotek

Science, publishing, and career

A Scientific Look at Bad Science – Bourree Lam – The Atlantic

Bik’s Picks

Photos: Ancient Flowering Plant May Have Lived with Dinosaurs – Live Science

First-Ever Salamander in Amber Found in Caribbean – Richard Farrell – Discovery

Nasa awards $200,000 grant to a research project aimed at turning astronaut poo into food – Independent

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August 12, 2015

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Drug metabolism by gut microbiota, nature vs. nurture in inbred strains of mice, gnotobiotic Drosophila, bat virome, and influence of protist predation on marine microbiomes.

General microbiome

Short-chain fatty acids in control of body weight and insulin sensitivity – Emanuel E. Canfora – Nature Reviews Endocrinology

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Streptococcal Diversity of Human Milk and Comparison of Different Methods for the Taxonomic Identification of Streptococci – Virginia Martín – Journal of Human Lactation

Human gut microbiome

Editorial: Drug Metabolism by the Host and Gut Microbiota: A Partnership or Rivalry?
Hollie I Swanson – Drug Metabolism and Disposition
Review: Mechanisms of How the Intestinal Microbiota Alters the Effects of Drugs and Bile Acids – Curtis D. Klaassen – Drug Metabolism and Disposition

Comparison of the gut microbiota composition between obese and non-obese individuals in a Japanese population, as analyzed by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and next-generation sequencing – Chika Kasai – BMC Gastroenterology

Animal and other models

Microbiota in 110 diverse inbred strains of mice: Genetic and environmental control of host-gut microbiota interactions – Elin Org – Genome Research

Co-culturing Escherichia coli O157:H7 with a non-pathogenic E. coli strain increases toxin production and virulence in a germ-free mouse model – Kakolie Goswami – Infection and Immunity

Ovariectomy results in differential shifts in gut microbiota in low versus high aerobic capacity rats – Kimberly A. Cox-York – Physiological Reports

Studying host-microbiota mutualism in Drosophila: Harnessing the power of gnotobiotic flies – Dali Ma – Biomedical Journal

MyD88 Signaling Regulates Steady-State Migration of Intestinal CD103+ Dendritic Cells Independently of TNF-α and the Gut Microbiota – Karin Hägerbrand – The Journal of Immunology

Animal microbiome

Deciphering the bat virome catalog to better understand the ecological diversity of bat viruses and the bat origin of emerging infectious diseases – Zhiqiang Wu – ISME Journal

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Host promiscuity in symbiont associations can influence exotic legume establishment and colonization of novel ranges – Metha M. Klock – Diversity and Distributions

Temporal and spatial influences incur reconfiguration of Arctic heathland soil bacterial community structure – Richard Hill – Environmental Microbiology

Water microbiome

Marine bacterial community structure resilience to changes in protist predation under phytoplankton bloom conditions – Federico Baltar – ISME Journal

Waste and water treatment microbiology

The activated sludge ecosystem contains a core community of abundant organisms – Aaron M Saunders – ISME Journal

Core-satellite populations and seasonality of water meter biofilms in a metropolitan drinking water distribution system – Fangqiong Ling – ISME Journal

More microbes

Levels and limits in artificial selection of communities – Manuel Blouin – Ecology Letters

Editorial: Origin of the Yeast Whole-Genome Duplication – Kenneth H. Wolfe – PLOS Biology
Beyond the Whole-Genome Duplication: Phylogenetic Evidence for an Ancient Interspecies Hybridization in the Baker’s Yeast Lineage – Marina Marcet-Houben – PLOS Biology

Microbes in the news

Global Human Microbiome Market: Asia is expected to show high growth rates by 2020 – MedGadget

Things I Tell My Mom: Five ways for you to participate in science – Cathy Seiler – Ahwatukee Foothills News

Why making and taking fermented drinks is becoming popular again – John McKenna – The Irish Times

Protein Goes Green: Can Algae Become The Next Soy? – Jessie Rack – NPR

Cultured Coffee offers the flavor of poop-brewed coffee without the crap – TJ Dietsch – Geek

Making kefir at home is easy, healthy – Kit Waskom Pollard – Baltimore Sun

‘Genomic Archaeology’ Reveals That Lager Yeast Was Born More Than Once – Andrea Alfano -Tech Times

Researchers resurrect extinct virus to use for gene therapy: Evolutionary ancestors remade based on current viruses – Ars Technica

Science, publishing, and career

Make Peer Review Public: How to make science faster and more robust – Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky – Slate

Despite concerted effort, barriers to women in science remain – Jennifer Ann Thomson – The Conversation

Outreach: Primary School outreach – inspiring young minds with science – Mariya Lobanovska – SGM

Physics: She did it all: Val Gibson enjoys the autobiography of Mary K. Gaillard, the first female physics professor at Berkeley – Val Gibson – Nature

Bik’s Picks

Octopus Genome Offers Insights Into One Of Ocean’s Cleverest Oddballs – Nell Greenfieldboyce – NPR

Meteor time! How to watch the big Perseid shower – Paul Rogers – San Jose Mercury News

MIT tackling more serious science: they program beer-delivering robots – ZME Science

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August 7, 2015

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Viral infections in coral mucus, microbiology of wind-erosion, cable bacteria in fresh-water sediments, viruses in swimming pools, update on ITS2 database, and specialist taxa.

General human microbiome

Review: Social behavior and the microbiome – Elizabeth A Archie – Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences

Editorial: Germs and joints: the contribution of the human microbiome to rheumatoid arthritis – Geraint B Rogers – Nature Medicine

Microbiome models

In mice: Pancreatic β-Cells Limit Autoimmune Diabetes via an Immunoregulatory Antimicrobial Peptide Expressed under the Influence of the Gut Microbiota – Jia Sun – Immunity

Re: Gut microbiota depletion from early adolescence in mice: Implications for brain and behavior – Zongxin Ling – Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

Animal microbiome

Coral Mucus Is a Hot Spot for Viral Infections – Hanh Nguyen-Kim – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Microbiology of wind-eroded sediments: Current knowledge and future research directions – V. Acosta-Martínez – Aeolian Research

Water microbiome

The “Melosira years” of Lake Baikal: Winter environmental conditions at ice onset predict under-ice algal blooms in spring – Stephen L. Katz – Limnology and Oceanography

Cable Bacteria in Freshwater Sediments – Nils Risgaard-Petersen – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

First detection of Papillomaviruses and Polyomaviruses in swimming pool waters: unrecognized recreational water-related pathogens? – G La Rosa – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Bioinformatics

ITS2 database V: Twice as much – Markus J. Ankenbrand – Molecular Biology and Evolution

Informatics for RNA Sequencing: A Web Resource for Analysis on the Cloud – Malachi Griffith – PLOS Computational Biology

Microbial ecology and other microbiology

Microbial ecosystems are dominated by specialist taxa – Mahendra Mariadassou – Ecology Letters

Review: Physiological and Transcriptional Responses of Different Industrial Microbes at Near-Zero Specific Growth Rates – Onur Ercan – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

The United States Culture Collection Network (USCCN): Enhancing Microbial Genomics Research through Living Microbe Culture Collections – Kyria Boundy-Mills – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

A New Strategy for Smoking Cessation: Characterization of a Bacterial Enzyme for the Degradation of Nicotine – Song Xue – Journal of the American Chemical Society

Microbes in the news

Airplane Poop Could Help Track Global Disease Outbreaks – Sarah Zhang – Wired

2 min podcast: Microbes Deep under Seafloor Reflect Ancient Land Origins – Cynthia Graber – Scientific American

This week in Microbiology: Precision Killing: use of antimicrobial peptides to target specific bacteria in the microbiome, and how the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia selectively kills male hosts.

“Happy Days Study” meets the microbiome – Terry Devitt – University of Wisconsin-Madison

Gut Microbiome After Weight-Loss Surgery – Amanda B. Keener – The Scientist

TSRI Chemists Report Nicotine-Chomping Bacteria May Hold Key to Anti-Smoking Therapy – The Scripps Research Institute

Science, publishing, and career

Biology, wet and dry: an interview with Sarah Teichmann – Elisabeth Pain – Science

“Anyone who photographs a bear will get sent home immediately” Don’t mess with the bears – Eli Kintisch – Science

Australia’s remarkable female scientists highlighted in new exhibition in Canberra – Clarissa Thorpe – ABC Australia

Bik’s Picks

Deepwater Horizon, 5 years on – Samantha B. Joye – Science

Devil Tree Threatens the World’s Rarest Zebras – John R. Platt – Scientific American

Facial expressions in horses: EquiFACS: The Equine Facial Action Coding System – Jen Wathan – PLOS ONE

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August 4, 2015

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Diet-induced metabolic changes, rhythmicity of mouse gut microbiome, the microbiome of Lake Michigan, and chicken skin virome.

General microbiome

Antibiotics, microbiota and health: are there dangers hiding in plain sight? – A. Clinton White Jr – Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases

Short Course in the Microbiome: Meeting Dispatch – Kimberly Falana – Journal of Circulating Biomarkers

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Influence of Intrapartum Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Group B Streptococcus on Gut Microbiota in the First Month of Life – Corvaglia, Luigi – Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition

Human gut microbiome

Quantifying Diet-Induced Metabolic Changes of the Human Gut Microbiome – Saeed Shoaie – Cell Metabolism

Effect of daily intake of pomegranate juice on fecal microbiota and feces metabolites from healthy volunteers – Juana I. Mosele – Molecular Nutrition & Food Research

Gut microbiota richness promotes its stability upon increased dietary fiber intake in healthy adults – Julien Tap – Environmental Microbiology

Review: The intestinal microbiome and health – Susan Tuddenham – Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases

Review: Trimethylamine N-Oxide From Gut Microbiota in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients: Focus on Diet – Cristiane Moraes – Journal of Renal Nutrition

Review: Gut permeability, its interaction with gut microflora and effects on metabolic health are mediated by the lymphatics system, liver and bile acid – Cuong D Tran – Future Medicine

Microbiome models

Rhythmicity of the intestinal microbiota is regulated by gender and the host circadian clock – Xue Liang – PNAS

Viability of gut microbes as a complementary earthworm biomarker of metal exposure – Shin Woong Kim – Ecological Indicators

Adaptation of the human aryl hydrocarbon receptor to sense microbiota-derived indoles – Troy D. Hubbard – Scientific Reports

Which games are growing bacterial populations playing? – Xiang-Yi Li – Interface

Animal microbiome

Chicken skin virome analyzed by high-throughput sequencing shows a composition highly different from human skin – Caroline Denesvre – Virus Genes

Variations in microbiota of culex (melanoconion) ocossa and culex (culex) declarator across periurban and rural environments – M Nelson Starkey – Honors Thesis – Andrews University

Plasmids from the gut microbiome of cabbage root fly larvae encode SaxA that catalyzes the conversion of the plant toxin 2-phenylethyl isothiocyanate – Cornelia U. Welte – Environmental Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Successional Trajectories of Rhizosphere Bacterial Communities over Consecutive Seasons
Shengjing Shi – mBio

Compositional differences in simulated root exudates elicit a limited functional and compositional response in soil microbial communities – Michael S. Strickland – Frontiers in Microbiology

Changes in soil microbial community functionality and structure in a metal-polluted site: The effect of digestate and fly ash applications – M. Garcia-Sánchez – Journal of Environmental Management

Metatranscriptome analysis reveals host-microbiome interactions in traps of carnivorous Genlisea species – Hieu X. Cao – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbial composition alters the response of litter decomposition to environmental change – Kristin L. Matulich – Ecology

Plant community richness and microbial interactions structure bacterial communities in soil – Daniel C. Schlatter – Ecology

Plant diversity effects on soil microbial functions and enzymes are stronger than warming in a grassland experiment – Katja Steinauer – Ecology

Persistence of the dominant soil phylum Acidobacteria by trace gas scavenging – Chris Greening – PNAS

Review: Current overview on the study of bacteria in the rhizosphere by modern molecular techniques: a mini‒review – L. Lagos – Journal of soil science and plant nutrition

Review: Harnessing phytomicrobiome signaling for rhizosphere microbiome engineering – Liliana Quiza – Frontiers in Plant Science

Water microbiome

The quality of organic matter shapes the functional biogeography of bacterioplankton across boreal freshwater ecosystems – Clara Ruiz-González – Global Ecology and Biogeography

Dissimilatory Arsenate Reduction and In Situ Microbial Activities and Diversity in Arsenic-rich Groundwater of Chianan Plain, Southwestern Taiwan – Suvendu Das – Microbial Ecology

Freshwater ice as habitat: Partitioning of phytoplankton- and bacteria between ice and water in central European reservoirs – R.M.L. McKay – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Urban microbial ecology of a freshwater estuary of Lake Michigan – Jenny C. Fisher – Elementa

Review: Bacterial microcompartments: widespread prokaryotic organelles for isolation and optimization of metabolic pathways – Thomas A. Bobik – Molecular Microbiology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

SuRankCo: supervised ranking of contigs in de novo assemblies – Mathias Kuhring – BMC Bioinformatics

More microbe research

Species-wide whole genome sequencing reveals historical global spread and recent local persistence in Shigella flexneri – Thomas R Conno – eLIFE

The Cipher Code of Simple Sequence Repeats in “Vampire Pathogens” – Geng Zou – Scientific Reports

Analysis of IS6110 insertion sites provide a glimpse into genome evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis – Tanmoy Roychowdhury – Scientific Reports

Protein synthesis by ribosomes with tethered subunits – Cédric Orelle – Nature

Long-term social dynamics drive loss of function in pathogenic bacteria – Sandra Breum Andersen – PNAS

New approaches to understanding the immune response to vaccination and infection –
David Furman – Vaccine

Microbes in the news

Would You Wear a Face Mask Made From Bacteria? – Jenna Rosenstein – Allure

Times-Picayune asks – Did a moldy building kill 4 New Orleans Professors – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBEnet

How the bugs in your gut keep you healthy – Keri Wiginton – Chicago Tribune

Scientists successfully breed symbiotic bacteria in mosquitoes to control dengue fever – ZeeNews India

Weight-Loss Surgery Changes Gut Bacteria – Rachael Rettner – Live Science

Volcanic bacteria take minimalist approach to survival – Otago University

Science, publishing, and career

Achieving Speaker Gender Equity at the American Society for Microbiology General Meeting – Arturo Casadevall – mBio

Bik’s Picks

This one was striking: Lightning strike as a possible cause of mortality of Australian sea lions, Neophoca cinerea – Peter D. Shaughnessy – Marine Mammal Science

Chilly at Work? Office Formula Was Devised for Men – Pam Belluck – New York Times
Belongs to: Energy consumption in buildings and female thermal demand – Boris Kingma & Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt – Nature Climate Change

This Map Shows How New Yorkers View The Rest Of The United States. Finally, proof! – Carly Ledbetter – Huffington Post

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August 1, 2015

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So many new papers, so here is another Saturday installment of The Digest. Several papers on microbiome during pregnancy or the first months of life, ear infections, having older siblings, rhizosphere on volcanic islands, and aquatic fungal communities.

General human microbiome

A Year of Infection in the Intensive Care Unit: Prospective Whole Genome Sequencing of Bacterial Clinical Isolates Reveals Cryptic Transmissions and Novel Microbiota – David J. Roach – PLOS Genetics

Opinion: The human–microbe metaorganism, evolution and extraterrestrial colonization – Leonard A Mermel – Future Microbiology

Frailty and the Microbiome – Meehan C.J. – Frailty in Aging

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Secretor Status Is Strongly Associated with Microbial Alterations Observed during Pregnancy – Himanshu Kumar – PLOS ONE

Longitudinal Survey of Microbiota in Hospitalized Preterm Very Low Birth Weight Infants – Patel, Aloka L. – Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition

Lactation and Intestinal Microbiota: How Early Diet Shapes the Infant Gut
Felicia Goldsmith – Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia

DGGE: Distinctive Intestinal Lactobacillus Communities in Six-Month-Old Infants From Rural Malawi and South-Western Finland – Aakko, Juhani – Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition

Early Gut Colonization with Lactobacilli and Staphylococcus in Infants: the Hygiene Hypothesis Extended – Salminen, Seppo – Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition

Association between positive urine cultures and necrotizing enterocolitis in a large cohort of hospitalized infants – Leslie C. Pineda – Early Human Development

Human oral microbiome

Strains of Enterococcus faecalis differ in their ability to coexist in biofilms with other root canal bacteria – L. E. Chávez de Paz – International Endodontic Journal

Human respiratory microbiome

Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis Sputum Can Be Chemically Dynamic, Anoxic, and Extremely Reduced Due to Hydrogen Sulfide Formation – Elise S. Cowley – mBio

Human skin and ear microbiome

The microbiome of otitis media with effusion in Indigenous Australian children – Jake Jervis-Bardy – International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology

Review: Probiotics in personal care products – Mei-Chiung Jo Huang – Microbiology Discovery

Human gut microbiome

Having older siblings is associated with gut microbiota development during early childhood – Martin Frederik Laursen – BMC Microbiology

Serum Trimethylamine-N-Oxide is Elevated in CKD and Correlates with Coronary Atherosclerosis Burden – Jason R. Stubbs – Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

Probiotics modify human intestinal mucosa-associated microbiota in patients with colorectal cancer – Zhiguang Gao – Molecular Medicine Reports

A Survey on the Developmental Intestinal Microbiota Research in China: the history, funding, and frontiers of gut bacteria – Hui Min Chen – Journal of Digestive Diseases

Review: Gut microorganisms as promising targets for the management of type 2 diabetes – Nathalie M. Delzenne – Diabetologia

Microbiome models

Systems Modeling of Interactions between Mucosal Immunity and the Gut Microbiome during Clostridium difficile Infection – Andrew Leber – PLOS ONE

Evaluation of mucositis induced by irinotecan after microbial colonization in germ-free mice – Silvia H S P Pedroso – Microbiology

Animal microbiome

Exploring the microbial diversity of the distal intestinal lumen and mucosa of farmed rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum) using next generation sequencing (NGS) – Philip P. Lyons – Aquaculture Research

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Rhizosphere on volcanic islands: Metagenomic analysis of soil fungal communities on Ulleungdo and Dokdo Islands – Yoon-Jong Nam – The Journal of General and Applied Microbiology

Effect of Agricultural Amendments on Cajanus cajan (Pigeon Pea) and Its Rhizospheric Microbial Communities – A Comparison between Chemical Fertilizers and Bioinoculants – Rashi Gupta – PLOS ONE

Vulnerability of Soil and Its Associated Organic Matter to Degradation in a Subtropical Region: A Study From São Paulo State, Brazil – Alexandre Marco da Silva – Environment Quality Management

Effects of historical logging on soil microbial communities in a subtropical forest in southern China – Piao Song – Plant and Soil

Effects of rotifers, copepods and chironomid larvae on microbial communities in peatlands – Tomasz Mieczan – European Journal of Protistology

Methanogenic microbial community of the Eastern Paris Basin: Potential for energy production from organic-rich shales – Margaux Meslé – International Journal of Coal Geology

All ecosystems potentially host electrogenic bacteria – Nicolas Chabert – Bioelectrochemistry

Phylogenetic structure of arbuscular mycorrhizal community shifts in response to increasing soil fertility – Yongjun Liu – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Water and extremophile microbiome

Phytoplankton–bacterial interactions mediate micronutrient colimitation at the coastal Antarctic sea ice edge – Erin M. Bertrand – PNAS

Effects of hydrostatic pressure on yeasts isolated from deep-sea hydrothermal vents – Gaëtan Burgaud- Research in Microbiology

Identification of Habitat-Specific Biomes of Aquatic Fungal Communities Using a Comprehensive Nearly Full-Length 18S rRNA Dataset Enriched with Contextual Data – Katrin Panzer – PLOS ONE

Metaproteomics of aquatic microbial communities in a deep and stratified estuary – David Colatriano – Proteomics

Waste treatment microbiology

Review: Meta-omics approaches to understand and improve wastewater treatment systems – Elisa Rodríguez – Reviews in Environmental Science and Bio/Technology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Growth dynamics of gut microbiota in health and disease inferred from single metagenomic samples – Tal Korem – Science

Spaced seeds improve k-mer-based metagenomic classification – Karel Břinda – Bioinformatics

Microbial Ecology

Resource pulses can alleviate the biodiversity–invasion relationship in soil microbial communities – Cyrus A. Mallon – Ecology

Not sure if I like this term: Tritagonist as a new term for uncharacterised microorganisms in environmental systems – Florian M Freimoser – ISME Journal

Microbes in the news

Bacteria on chicken, turkey, pork linked to bladder infections – Lynne Terry – Oregon Live

Byproduct of intestinal bacteria may jeopardize heart health in kidney disease patients – Medical Xpress

Oregon architecture researchers to study indoor air quality in 72 homes – EurekAlert

Research spotlights a previously unknown microbial ‘drama’ playing in the Southern Ocean – Science Daily

Government of Canada Invests in New Western Canadian Microbiome Centre – Sys-Con Media

A Video of the destruction can be seen here: Wood-Decay Fungus Identified as Culprit Consuming Pomona Family’s Home – LA Testing

Microbes and Art

Don’t Be Grossed Out, The Bacteria On These Petri Dish Plates Is Art – Andrew Liszewski – Gizmodo

Call for Entries! ASM’s 2015 Agar Art Contest: Submit your work by September 3th – MicrobeWorld

Bik’s Picks: drought edition

Puget Sound sweltering from the drought and Blob – Department of Ecology – Courier Herald

Extreme Droughts Weaken Trees’ Ability to Soak Up Carbon – William R L Anderegg – Gizmodo

It’s Raining Spiders! Weirdest Effects of California Drought – Tia Ghose – Live Science

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July 30, 2015

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Correct vocabulary of microbiome research, microbiome during mosquito development, microbes on Granada’s Royal Chapel stone, and microbes in Atacama desert.

General microbiome

About the proper use of “16S”, “microbiome”, and “microbiota”, and why “microflora” is not correct. Note Elies: But “microbiota” is a plant too!
The vocabulary of microbiome research: a proposal – Julian R. Marchesi – Microbiome

Human oral microbiome

Host response mechanisms in periodontal diseases – Nora Silva – Journal of Applied Oral Science

Human respiratory microbiome

The airway microbiome in patients with severe asthma: Associations with disease features and severity – Yvonne J. Huang – The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Human gastric microbiome

The Evolution of Stomach Acidity and Its Relevance to the Human Microbiome – DeAnna E. Beasley – PLOS ONE

Microbiome models

Network analysis of temporal functionalities of the gut induced by perturbations in new-born piglets – Nirupama Benis – BMC Genomics

Animal microbiome

Developmental succession of the microbiome of Culex mosquitoes – Dagne Duguma – BMC Microbiology

Review: The Microbiome: The Trillions of Microorganisms That Maintain Health and Cause Disease in Humans and Companion Animals – A. Rodrigues Hoffmann – Veterinary Pathology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi affect plant community structure under various nutrient conditions and stabilize the community productivity – Gaowen Yang – Oikos

Complementarity in both plant and mycorrhizal fungal communities are not necessarily increased by diversity in the other – Cameron Wagg – Journal of Ecology

Diversity of endophytic and rhizoplane bacterial communities associated with exotic Spartina alterniflora and native mangrove using Illumina amplicon sequencing –
Youwei Hong – Canadian Journal of Microbiology

Genetic analysis reveals diversity and genetic relationship among Trichoderma isolates from potting media, cultivated soil and uncultivated soil – Abdullah M. Al-Sadi – BMC Microbiology

Mineralogy: Geochemical evidence of microbial activity within ooids – Mara R. Diaz – Sedimentology

Phylogenetic Diversity of Diazotrophs along an Experimental Nutrient Gradient in Mangrove Sediments – Isabel C. Romero – Journal of Marine Science and Engineering

Inexplicable Arsenic: Human Dimensions of Soil, Water, Food and Microbial
Resources – Ramakrishnan B – Journal of Environmetnal and Analytical Toxicology

Water microbiome

Structure of the archaeal community in the Black Sea photic zone – A. Y. Merkel – Microbiology

Review: Bridging the gap between omics and earth system science to better understand how environmental change impacts marine microbes – Thomas Mock – Global Change Microbiology

Extremophiles

Bacterial Diversity in Microbial Mats and Sediments from the Atacama Desert – Maria Cecilia Rasuk – Microbial Ecology

Thesis: Microbial Ecology, Biogeochemistry, and Signatures of Life at Low Temperature in Arctic Thermokarst Lake Sediments and High Sierra Snow Fields – Matheus Carnevali, Paula B – University of Nevada, Reno

Waste and built environment microbiology

Temporal and Spatial Stability of Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea and Bacteria in Aquarium Biofilters – Samik Bagchi – PLOS ONE

Molecular Tools for Monitoring the Ecological Sustainability of a Stone Bio-Consolidation Treatment at the Royal Chapel, Granada – Fadwa Jroundi – PLOS ONE

Seasonal Variation on Microbial Community and Methane Production during Anaerobic Digestion of Cattle Manure in Brazil – Juliana Alves Resende – Microbial Ecology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

deFUME: Dynamic exploration of functional metagenomic sequencing data – Eric van der Helm – BMC Research Notes

Microbial Ecology

An Economic Framework of Microbial Trade – Joshua Tasoff – PLOS ONE

Microbes in the news

Kingdoms are so 20th century: The tree of life gets a makeover: Schoolroom kingdoms are taking a backseat to life’s supergroups – Susan Milius – Science News

Soil-Dwelling Fungus Rode Joplin Tornado to Unexpected Human Home – Jennifer Frazer – Scientific American

Agave extracts show ability to shift gut microbiota: Ingredion study – Stephen DANIELLS – Nutraingredients

Bacterial Find Sheds Light on Digestive Issues, Diabetes, Obesity – American Crystallographic Association

Water At Some Olympic Venues In Rio de Janeiro Reportedly Contain Virus Levels On Par With Raw Sewage – Brad Brooks and Jeny Barchfield – Huffington Post

LASA students developing bacteria to improve carbon monoxide detectors – Calily Bien – KXAN

Bik’s Picks

A tragic death leaves just four northern white rhinos living and little hope for the species – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

‘Once in a Blue Moon’ Happens on Friday — Why? – Geoff Gaherty – Discovery

How did you get that job: designing a parachute for NASA’s Mars rover – Elizabeth Lopatto – The Verge

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July 24, 2015

Posted on by

A review about small molecules produced by human microbiota, layers of microbial life in Dead Sea sediments, fungus making “hair ice”, exploring deep microbial life in the sea, and bacterial diversity at the North Pole.

Events

3rd Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Forum: USA, San Diego, September 10-11, 2015

WAO Symposium on Food Allergy & the Microbiome – 5-6 December 2015, Miami, FL

Microbiome reviews

Small molecules from the human microbiota – Mohamed S. Donia, Michael A. Fischbach – Science

Editorial: Microbiota-induced T cells block allergic inflammation – Yvonne Bordon – Nature Reviews Immunology

Perspective: Promise and pragmatism in clinical microbiome research – Nadim J. Ajami – Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry

Review: The Role of Intestinal Microbiota in Graft versus Host Disease – no authors listed – Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry

Editorial: Protective role of gut microbial SCFAs – Ellen F. Carney – Nature Reviews Nephrology

Human oral microbiome

In vitro work: Low-dose irradiation affects the functional behavior of oral microbiota in the context of mucositis – Barbara WA Vanhoecke – Experimental Biology and Medicine

Human gut microbiome

Agave Inulin Supplementation Affects the Fecal Microbiota of Healthy Adults Participating in a Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Trial – Hannah D Holscher – Journal of Nutrition

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Impact of paleoclimate on the distribution of microbial communities in the subsurface sediment of the Dead Sea – C. Thomas – Geobiology

Evidence for biological shaping of hair ice – D. Hofmann – Biogeosciences

Water and extremophile microbiome

Exploring deep microbial life in coal-bearing sediment down to ~2.5 km below the ocean floor – F. Inagaki – Science

Morphological and phylogenetic diversity of thermophilic cyanobacteria in Algerian hot springs – Samia Amarouche-Yala – Extremophiles

Bacterial diversity in snow on North Pole ice floes – Aviaja L. Hauptmann – Extremophiles

Identifying the sources of nitrate contamination of groundwater in an agricultural area (Haean basin, Korea) using isotope and microbial community analyses – Heejung Kim – Science of the Total Environment

Selection Maintains Low Genomic GC Content in Marine SAR11 Lineages – Haiwei Luo – Molecular Biology and Evolution

Built environment microbiome

Microbiological characterization of 3193 French dwellings of Elfe cohort children – S. Rocchi – Science of The Total Environment

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

For plant/animal assemblages, but might be of interest: cati: an R package using functional traits to detect and quantify multi-level community assembly processes – Adrien Taudiere – Ecography

Metabolomics and proteomics

Metaproteomics and metabolomics analyses of chronically petroleum-polluted sites reveal the importance of general anaerobic processes uncoupled with degradation – Rafael Bargiela – Proteomics

Microbes in the news

‘It’s like going to Pluto and seeing McDonald’s: ‘These microbes live more than 2 kilometers below the sea floor off the coast of Japan – Mitch Leslie – Science

It takes a village… to ward off dangerous infections? New microbiome research suggests so – MedicalXpress

Pathogenic microbiome bacteria change shape to adapt to nasopharyngeal environment – American Microbiome Institute

Rotting Fungus Creates Beautiful, Glistening ‘Hair Ice’ – Elizabeth Goldbaum – LiveScience

Not endorsing this one, full of errors and false claims: Discovery of Microbiome “Third Brain” Confirmed by Scientific Research in Japan – BusinessWire

Science, publishing, and career

New life for old bones: inventing ways to apply the DNA sequencing revolution to tissues ravaged by time. – Elizabeth Culotta – Science

Songwriting and science: Pitching songs, however, has taught me a few practical lessons about pitching papers and grant proposals: – C. Neal Stewart Jr. – Science

Bik’s Picks

Comparisons of life-history parameters between free-ranging and captive killer whale (Orcinus orca) populations for application toward species management – Todd R. Robeck – Journal of Mammalogy

Kiwi genome provides insights into evolution of a nocturnal lifestyle – Diana Le Duc – Genome Biology

A medical-toxicological view of tattooing – Peter Laux – The Lancet

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July 7, 2015

Posted on by

A personal perspective on microbiome research, phenotypic heterogeneity in microorganisms, ruling out viruses as causes for necrotizing enterocolitis, and Robert Edgar’s USEARCH.

Job openings

Philipps-Universität Marburg and the Max-Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology are looking for 2 postdocs (one experimentalist and one bioinformatician)

General microbiome

Personal perspective: From cell biology to the microbiome: An intentional infinite loop – Wendy S. Garrett – Journal of Cell Biology

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Cytomegalovirus and other common enteric viruses are not commonly associated with Necrotizing Enterocolitis – Thomas Skeath – Acta Paediatrica

Viremia during pregnancy and risk of childhood leukemia and lymphomas in the offspring: Nested case-control study – Davit Bzhalava – International Journal of Cancer

Human oral microbiome

The Oral Bacterial Communities of Children with Well-Controlled HIV Infection and without HIV Infection – Brittany E. Goldberg – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory microbiome

Sputum Bacterial and Fungal Dynamics during Exacerbations of Severe COPD – Jin Su – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Chemotherapy-driven dysbiosis in the intestinal microbiome – E. Montassier – Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Animal models of microbiome research

Perilipin-2 Modulates Lipid Absorption and Microbiome Responses in the Mouse Intestine – Daniel N. Frank – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

NGS metabarcoding proves successful for quantitative assessment of symbiont abundance: the case of feather mites on birds – J. Diaz-Real

Genetic Structure and Antimicrobial Resistance of Escherichia coli and Cryptic Clades in Birds with Diverse Human Associations – Michaela D. J. Blyton – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Coral transplantation triggers shift in microbiome and promotion of coral disease associated potential pathogens – Jordan M. Casey – Scientific Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Metabarcoding Analysis of Fungal Diversity in the Phyllosphere and Carposphere of Olive (Olea europaea) – Ahmed Abdelfattah – PLOS ONE

High carbon use efficiency in soil microbial communities is related to balanced growth, not storage compound synthesis – Paul Dijkstra – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Earthworms modify microbial community structure and accelerate maize stover decomposition during vermicomposting – Yuxiang Chen – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Water microbiome

Microbial Communities Associated with Zones of Elevated Magnetic Susceptibility in Hydrocarbon-contaminated Sediments – Carol L. Beaver – Geomicrobiology Journal

Bacterial diversity differences along an epigenic cave stream reveal evidence of community dynamics, succession, and stability – Kathleen Brannen-Donnelly – Frontiers in Microbiology

Firmicutes is an Important Component of Microbial Communities in Water-Injected and Pristine Oil Reservoirs; Western Siberia, Russia – Yulia Frank – Geomicrobiology Journal

Functional interactions among filamentous Epsilonproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes in a deep-sea hydrothermal vent biofilm – Runar Stokke – Environmental Microbiology

Temporal Study of the Microbial Diversity of the North Arm of Great Salt Lake, Utah, U.S. – Swati Almeida-Dalmet – Microorganisms

Diversity of the Sediment Microbial Community in the Aha Watershed (Southwest China) in Response to Acid Mine Drainage Pollution Gradients – Weimin Sun – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbial Transport, Retention, and Inactivation in Streams: A Combined Experimental and Stochastic Modeling Approach – Jennifer D. Drummond – Environmental Science & Technology

Extremophile microbiome

Ribosomal tag pyrosequencing of DNA and RNA reveals ‘rare’ taxa with high protein synthesis potential in the sediment of a hypersaline lake in Western Australia – Pascal Weigold – Geomicrobiology Journal

Microbial Diversity in Engineered Haloalkaline Environments Shaped by Shared Geochemical Drivers Observed in Natural Analogues – Talitha C. Santini – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

A New Perspective on Microbiome and Resource Management in Wastewater Systems – Veera Gnaneswar Gude – Biotechnology & Biomaterials

Microbial Ecology

A functional perspective on phenotypic heterogeneity in microorganisms – Martin Ackermann – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Bioinformatics and statistics

USEARCH: Error filtering, pair assembly, and error correction for next-generation sequencing reads – Robert C. Edgar – Bioinformatics

Assessment and Selection of Competing Models for Zero-Inflated Microbiome Data – Lizhen Xu – PLOS ONE

Metabolomics and metatranscriptomics

Functional metabolomics: from biomarker discovery to metabolome reprogramming – Bo Peng – Protein & Cell

Stool metatranscriptomics: A technical guideline for mRNA stabilisation and isolation – Michael Reck – BMC Genomics

Hydrodynamic chronoamperometry for probing kinetics of anaerobic microbial metabolism – case study of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii – Antonin Prévoteau – Scientific Reports

Techniques

A flexible and economical barcoding approach for highly multiplexed amplicon sequencing of diverse target genes – Craig W. Herbold – Frontiers in Microbiology

This paper is not novel at all: An improved method for bacterial identification through 16S rDNA sequencing using double set of primers: a case study – Amanat Ali – Pak. J. Agri. Sci.,

Microbes in the news

How Bacteria Make This Underground, Awe-Inspiring Cave Shine Gold – Michele Lent Hirsch – Smithsonian

Bacteria in a bottle? AOBiome offers ways to stay clean without traditional soap – Nidhi Subbaraman – The Boston Globe

uBiome to Award Grant of up to $100k for Groundbreaking Microbiome Research – PR Web

Bik’s Picks

NASA Releases Time-Lapse Video Of Mars Rover Opportunity’s Journey: 11 Years In Just 8 Minutes – Jim Algar – Tech Times

Self-Driving ‘Robocabs’ Could Help Curb Global Warming – Wendy Koch – National Geographic

‘Vampires’ keep doctors in the dark for fear of stereotyping: study – Reuters

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