January 15, 2021

Today’s digest features a collection of reviews, opinion pieces, discussion on prenatal microbiome, pipeline to extract metabolic models from whole metagenome sequencing data (metaGEM), novel type of colistin resistance genes, mechanisms that shape microbial pangenomes, and more. Check out a list of free web-based microbial seminars. Happy reading/listening!

General microbiome

*Mechanisms That Shape Microbial Pangenomes – Maria Rosa Domingo-Sananes
and James O. McInerney – Trends in Microbiology

Evolution to alternative levels of stable diversity leaves areas of niche space unexplored – Ilan Naftali Rubin – bioRxiv

Prenatal microbiome

*The prenatal in utero microbiome controversy: Microbiome or no microbiome: are we looking at the prenatal environment through the right lens? – W. Florian Fricke and Jacques Ravel – BMC Microbiome

Urinary microbiome

The Urinary Microbiome in Postmenopausal Women with Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections – Monique H. Vaughan – bioRxiv

Alterations in Urobiome in Patients With Bladder Cancer and Implications for Clinical Outcome: A Single-Institution Study – Jiarong Zeng – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Bare Versus Hair: Do Pubic Hair Grooming Preferences Dictate the Urogenital Microbiome? – Geynisman-Tan J – Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgery

Vaginal microbiome

Amylases in the Human Vagina – Kenetta L. Nunn – mSphere

Gut microbiome

Predicting drug-metagenome interactions: Variation in the microbial β-glucuronidase level in the human gut metagenomes – Moamen M. Elmassry – PlosOne

Microbiome and ischemic stroke: A systematic review – Yee Teng Lee – PlosOne

Antimicrobial resistance

*A novel type of colistin resistance genes selected from random sequence space – Michael Knopp – Plos Genetics

Identifying novel β-lactamase substrate activity through in silico prediction of antimicrobial resistance – Kara K. Tsang – Microbial Genomics

A framework for identifying the recent origins of mobile antibiotic resistance genes – Stefan Ebmeyer – Communications Biology

Minimal biophysical model of combined antibiotic action – Bor Kavčič – Plos Computational Biology

Mobilization of antibiotic resistance genes differ by resistance mechanism – Tue Kjaergaard Nielsen – bioRxiv

Carbapenem and Colistin Resistance in Enterobacter: Determinants and Clones – Zhiyong Zong – Trends in Microbiology

Animal microbiome

Fermented traditional Chinese medicine alters the intestinal microbiota composition of broiler chickens – Peng Huang – Research in Veterinary Science

Plant/root/soil microbiome

Coordination between microbiota and root endodermis supports plant mineral nutrient homeostasis – Isai Salas-González – Science

Food microbiome

Metabolic cooperation and spatiotemporal niche partitioning in a kefir microbial community – Sonja Blasche – Nature Microbiology

Generation of lactose and protease positive probiotic Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG by conjugation with Lactococcus lactis NCDO 712 – Nazar Hussain – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Phages and Viruses

Engineered Phage Endolysin Eliminates Gardnerella Biofilm without Damaging Beneficial Bacteria in Bacterial Vaginosis Ex Vivo – Christine Landlinger – Pathogens

Bioinformatics

*metaGEM: reconstruction of genome scale metabolic models directly from metagenomes – Francisco Zorrilla – bioRxiv

Whole genome phylogenies reflect the distributions of recombination rates for many bacterial species – Thomas Sakoparnig – eLife

CAFE: a software suite for analysis of paired-sample transposon insertion sequencing data – Anna Abramova – Bioinformatics

Finding orthologous gene blocks in bacteria: the computational hardness of the problem and novel methods to address it – Huy N Nguyen – Bioinformatics

Unraveling city-specific signature and identifying sample origin locations for the data from CAMDA MetaSUB challenge – Runzhi Zhang – Biology Direct

RefSeq: expanding the Prokaryotic Genome Annotation Pipeline reach with protein family model curation – Wenjun Li – Nucleic Acids Research

Techniques

A co-culture microplate for real-time measurement of microbial interactions – Charles Jo – bioRxiv

Webinars

Mind, Mood & Microbes Expert Q&A: From Mechanisms to Clinical Applications – Jane Foster, Mauro Costa-Mattioli, John Cryan, Eldin Jašarević, Aletta D. Kraneveld, Filip Scheperjans, Elaine Hsiao – 21 January

SGBUG (Singapore Bacterial Ultra Group) seminar: Silencing bacterial genes with CRISPR-dCas9: from basic insights to high-throughput screens – David Bikard – 21 January

LoopSeq Solo Webinar: High Resolution Metagenomic Sequencing using DADA2 and LoopSeq Long-Read Sequencing – Benjamin Callahan – 21 January

FEMS Yeast Research Webinar on Genomic Insights into Yeast Diversity and Evolution – FEMS – 28 January

SSB Seminar: Double Trouble: Inappropriate Image Duplications in Biomedical Publications – Elisabeth Bik – 29 January

Geomicrobiology Network Seminar Series – The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland

Winter 2021 WESTalks – Weekly seminars related to Water and the Environment with speakers from around the globe – IC-IMPACTS Student Engagement Committee (SEC) and the University of British Columbia’s Future Waters

MicroSeminars 2021 – Free Web-based Microbiology Seminar Series

Conferences &c

1st Microbiome PT Summit – The Portuguese Microbiome Community – 4 February

The 2021 UK Cellular Microbiology Network meeting – The Francis Crick Institute – 1-2 March

The Biology and Physics of Bacterial Chromosomes meeting – 4 March

Symposium Celebrating 100th Birthday and Research Accomplishments of Dr. Evelyn M. Witkin – Waksman Institute of Microbiology – 13 April

Podcast

TWiM 233: Antivirals made by bacteria – Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt – This week in microbiology podcast

January 14, 2021

Greetings from Pittsburgh!

Today’s digest contains lots of microbial ecology articles focused on everything from the impacts of sleep on dental biofilm to the response of soil microbiota to high petroleum pollution. Also included are two articles focused on insect-plant interactions, with the first focusing on gall induction in insects and the second on the intestinal microbiota of the pine defoliator C. chuxiongica.


General microbiome

Novel cyanotoxin-producing Synechococcus in tropical lakes – Yew-Hoong et al. – Water Research

Multi-site human microbiome

Impacts of sleep on the characteristics of dental biofilm – Sotozono et al. – Scientific Reports

Animal experiments

Dysbiosis of rat vagina is efficiently rescued by the vaginal microbiota transplantation or probiotic combination: Vaginal microbiota transplantation rescues dysbiosis in rat vagina – Chen et al. – International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents

Are bacterial symbionts associated with gall induction in insects? – Hammer et al. – Arthropod-Plant Interactions

The diversity and function of intestinal microorganisms in four geographic Cephalcia chuxiongica (a pine defoliator) populations – Yu et al. – Journal of Applied Entomology

Animal microbiome

Linking bacterial communities associated with the environment and the ecosystem engineer Orchestia gammarellus at contrasting salt marsh elevations – Hernández et al. – Microbial Ecology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Response of bacterial and fungal communities to high petroleum pollution in different soils – Galitskaya et al. – Scientific Reports

Enzyme additives influence bacterial communities of Medicago sativa silage as determined by Illumina sequencing – Hu et al. – AMB Express

First reported quantitative microbiota in different livestock manures used as organic fertilizers in the Northeast of Thailand – Wongsaroj et al. – Scientific Reports

Water and extremophile microbiome

Coastal bacterial community response to glacier melting in the Western Antarctic Peninsula – Alcamán-Arias et al. – Microorganisms

Microbial necromass formation, enzyme activities and community structure in two alpine elevation gradients with different bedrock types – Bhople et al. – Geoderma

Exploring the taxonomical and functional profile of As Burgas hot spring focusing on thermostable β-galactosidases – DeCastro et al. – Scientific Reports

The effect of an adsorbent matrix on recovery of microorganisms from hydrocarbon-contaminated groundwater – Taylor et al. – Microorganisms

Built environment

Electrochemical performance and response of bacterial community during phenanthrene degradation in single-chamber air-cathode microbial fuel cells – Hua et al. – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Food microbiology

Combination of Flos Sophorae and chili pepper as a nitrite alternative improves the antioxidant, microbial communities and quality traits in Chinese sausages – Tang et al. – Food Research International

January 12, 2021

Good morning, today we have a quite divers selection of studies. Of special note are the results of the PREDICT 1 study, published in Nature Medicine (Asnicar et al.). Furthermore, we cover among others virome in pregnant women, gut microbiome and PD, some animal microbiome studies, water microbiome, and bioinformatic tools.

General microbiome

[Meeting Report]Microbiome for Mars: surveying microbiome connections to healthcare with implications for long-duration human spaceflight, virtual workshop, July 13, 2020 – LaPelusa et al. – Microbiome

Identifying background microbiomes in an evidence recovery laboratory: A preliminary study – Neckovic et al. – Science & Justice

Human vaginal microbiome/virome

Comparison of viromes in vaginal secretion from pregnant women with and without vaginitis – Zhang et al. – Virology Journal

Human gut microbiome

Microbiome connections with host metabolism and habitual diet from 1,098 deeply phenotyped individuals – Asnicar et al. – Nature Medicine

Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis Is Associated with Elevated Bile Acids in Parkinson’s Disease – Li et al. – Metabolites

Animal microbiome

The Combined Effects of Magnesium Oxide and Inulin on Intestinal Microbiota and Cecal Short-Chain Fatty Acids – Omori et al. – Nutrients

Effect of host breeds on gut microbiome and serum metabolome in meat rabbits – Ye et al. – BMC Veterinary Research

Differential response of digesta- and mucosa-associated intestinal microbiota to dietary insect meal during the seawater phase of Atlantic salmon – Li et al. – Animal Microbiome

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Diversity and composition of the Panax ginseng rhizosphere microbiome in various cultivation modesand ages – Tong et al. – BMC Microbiology

Water microbiome

Eukaryotic community diversity and pathogenic eukaryotes in a full-scale drinking water treatment plant determined by 18S rRNA and metagenomic sequencing – Li et al. – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Microbial community structure in aquifers associated with arsenic: analysis of 16S rRNA and arsenite oxidase genes – Sonthiphand et al. – PeerJ

Fungi Present in Antarctic Deep-Sea Sediments Assessed Using DNA Metabarcoding – Ogaki et al. – Environmental Microbiology

Built environment

Comparative analysis of impact of human occupancy on indoor microbiomes – Cao et al. – Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering

Bioinformatics

Re-purposing software for functional characterization of the microbiome – Gardiner et al. – Microbiome

[PREPRINT]Mining underutilized whole-genome sequencing projects to improve 16S rRNA databases – Nolan et al. – bioRxiv

Meta-Apo improves accuracy of 16S-amplicon-based prediction of microbiome function – Jing et al. – BMC Genomics

Techniques

Exploring protocol bias in airway microbiome studies: one versus two PCR steps and 16S rRNA gene region V3 V4 versus V4 – Drengenes et al. – BMC Genomics

Quantitative image analysis of microbial communities with BiofilmQ – Hartmann et al. – Nature Microbiology

Microbes in the news (popular press, EurekAlert, ScienceDaily, Youtube, NPR, etc)

Do the bugs in our guts make us sick, sad and obese? – Sismondo – Toronto Star

New microbiome research finds associations between microbes, diet, and metabolic health – Krawiec – Nutritional outlook

January 06, 2021

Good morning, today we selected papers about the cancer microbiome atlas, detection of blood parasites, antibiotics and gut microbiome, metabolome and a new binning approach for metagenomic data using auto-encoders.

General microbiome

The cancer microbiome atlas: a pan-cancer comparative analysis to distinguish tissue-resident microbiota from contaminants – Dohlaman et al. – Cell Host & Microbe

Human nearly-sterile sites (blood, organs, brain)

Sensitive universal detection of blood parasites by selective pathogen-DNA enrichment and deep amplicon sequencing – Flaherty et al. – Microbiome

Human gut microbiome

Long-Term Impact of Suppressive Antibiotic Therapy on Intestinal Microbiota – Escudero-Sanchez et al. – genes

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

Metagenomics dataset used to characterize microbiome in water and sediments of the lake Solenoe (Novosibirsk region, Russia) – Bryanskaya et al. – Data in Brief

*Metabolome

Changes in the Serum Metabolome of Patients Treated With Broad-Spectrum Antibiotics – Kaskiw et al. – Pathogens and Immunity

Walnut Consumption, Plasma Metabolomics, and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease – Guasch-Ferre et al. – The Journal of Nutrition

Bioinformatics

Improved metagenome binning and assembly using deep variational autoencoders – Nissen et al. – Nature Biotechnology

December 31, 2020

General microbiome

Review: Brain-gut axis: From the conditioned reflex to the microbiota-gut-brain communication system – Klara Gyires – Integrative Physiology

Human skin microbiome

Microbiological profile of diabetic foot ulcers in Kuwait – Asma Alhubail – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory microbiome

The airways microbiome of individuals with asthma treated with high and low doses of inhaled corticosteroids – Matthew J Martin – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

The beneficial or detrimental fluoride to gut microbiota depends on its dosages – Guijie Chen – Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

Review: Synthetic Gut Microbiome: Advances and Challenges – Humphrey A. Mabwi – Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

Review: Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis as a Regulator of Reward Process – Rubén García-Cabrerizo – Journal of Neurochemistry

Review: Modulatory effects of gut microbiome in cancer immunotherapy: A novel paradigm for blockade of immune checkpoint inhibitors – Sama Rezasoltani – Cancer Medicine

Animal experiments

Effects of heat-killed Enterococcus faecalis T-110 supplementation on gut immunity, gut flora, and intestinal infection in naturally aged hamsters – Takio Inatomi – PLOS ONE

Nasal Tissue Extraction Is Essential for Characterization of the Murine Upper Respiratory Tract Microbiota – L Patrick Schenck – mSphere

Animal microbiome

Review: Gut microbiota of animals living in polluted environments are a potential resource of anticancer molecules – Morhanavallee Soopramanien – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Metabarcoding on both environmental DNA and RNA highlights differences between fungal communities sampled in different habitats  – Martino Adamo – PLOS ONE

Changes in microbial communities at different soil depths through the first rainy season following severe wildfire in North China artificial Pinus tabulaeformis forest – Qianqian Qin – Journal of Environment Management

Shifts in a Phenanthrene-Degrading Microbial Community are Driven by Carbohydrate Metabolism Selection in a Ryegrass Rhizosphere – Longfei Jiang – ACS

Forest gaps mediate the structure and function of the soil microbial community in a Castanopsis kawakamii forest – Xuelin Wang – Ecological Indicators

Review: Herbicide bioremediation: from strains to bacterial communities – Marcos Pileggi – Heliyon

Spatial scale structure soil bacterial communities across an Arctic landscape – Lucie A Malard – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Metagenomic Analysis of Rhizosphere Bacteria in Desert Plant Calotropis procera – Ahmed M Ramadan

Water and extremophile microbiome

Archaeal communities of low and high microbial abundance sponges inhabiting the remote western Indian Ocean island of Mayotte – Ana Rita Moura Polónia – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Preprint: Novel integrative elements and genomic plasticity in ocean ecosystems – Thomas Hackl – bioRxiv

Food microbiology

The diversity of microbial communities in Chinese milk fan and their effects on volatile organic compound profiles – Chen Chen – Journal of Dairy Science

Characterizing Relationship of Microbial Community in Xiaoqu and Volatiles of Light-aroma-type Xiaoqu Baijiu – Zhe Wang – Food Science and Technology Research

Virus and phages

Acquisition, prevalence and clearance of type-specific human papillomavirus infections in young sexually active Indian women: A community-based multicentric cohort study – Richard Muwonge – PLOS ONE

Techniques

Informed sequential pooling approach to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection – Renato Millioni – PLOS ONE

Thesis: Statistical Methods for Longitudinal Data Analysis and Reproducible Feature Selection in – Lingjing Jiang – UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations

MicroGMT: A Mutation Tracker for SARS-CoV-2 and Other Microbial Genome Sequences – Yue Xing – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbes and evolution

Long-term experimental evolution of HIV-1 reveals effects of environment and mutational history – Eva Brons – PLOS BIOLOGY

The role of Ulva fasciata in the evolution of the microbial community and antibiotic resistance genes in maricultural sediments – Yuqin Luo – Marine Pollution Bulletin

Preprint: The Diversity and Evolution of Microbial Dissimilatory Phosphite Oxidation – Sophia D Ewens – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

Synthetic Biologics Inc. (SYN) Soars 5.43% on December 25 – equities.com

The Brain, Gut and Consciousness: Microbiology of Our Mind – Inquiries Journal

Non-microbiology pick

Preprint: National Institutes of Health Institute and Center Award Rates and Funding Disparities – Michael S Lauer – bioRxiv

Communicating risk in human-wildlife interactions: How stories and images move minds – Sarah K Guenther – PLOS ONE

December 23, 2020

Good morning from Northern Germany! It is almost Xmas. Today’s microbiome digest is rather long and comprises some interesting findings about c-section and the gut microbiome in early life, human breast milk, chronic pain, antimicrobial resistance, imbalance of the gut microbiome in relation to Parkinon’s disease and COVID19, diet, honey bees (two pre-prints), roundup, and last but not least some bioinformatic papers. Additionally, we select some interesting reviews. Of specific interest is a study about showing reveals poor correlations in microbial taxonomic abundance between humans and mice after gnotobiotic transfer.

General microbiome

Sequence variant analysis reveals poor correlations in microbial taxonomic abundance between humans and mice after gnotobiotic transfer – Fouladi et al. – The ISME Journal

Application of ecological and evolutionary theory to microbiome community dynamics across systems – McDonald, Marchesi & Koskella – Proceedings of the Royal Society B

[BOOK CHAPTER]Salivary and Urinary Metabolome in Pediatric Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome – Troisi et al. – Obesity and Diabetes

Human early life microbiome

Cesarean delivery is associated with decreased beneficial gut microbes and increased pathobionts and butyrate excretion: a longitudinal study over the first year of life. – Mueller et al – BJOG

Human oral microbiome

[OPINION]Future directions for studying resilience of the oral ecosystem – Zemouri et al. – British Dental Journal

Human milk microbiome

Maternal diet alters human milk oligosaccharide composition with implications for the milk metagenome – Seferovic et al. – Scientific Reports

Mapping the Human Milk Microbiome: Impetus for a Long-Awaited Renaissance in Maternal and Infant Nutrition Research? – McGuire & McGuire – The Journal of Nutrition

[PREVIEW]Breast Milk Modulates Transgenerational Immune Inheritance – Zimmermann & Macpherson – Cell

An Immunologic Mode of Multigenerational Transmission Governs a Gut Treg Setpoint – Ramanan et al. – Cell

Human respiratory/lung microbiome

[REVIEW]The Lung Microbiome and Pneumonia – Pettigrew, Tanner & Harris

[REVIEW]Microbiome: A Supportive or a Leading Actor in Lung Cancer? – Martins, Mendes & Schmitt – Pathobiology

Human skin microbiome

[REVIEW]Skin and Gut Microbiome in Psoriasis: Gaining Insight Into the Pathophysiology of It and Finding Novel Therapeutic Strategies – Chen et al. – Frontiers in Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

An association between chronic widespread pain and the gut microbiome – Freidin et al. – Rheumatology

The Gut Microbiome as a Reservoir for Antimicrobial Resistance – Anthony et al. – The Journal of Infectious Diseases

[REVIEW]Dietary modification of gut microbial metabolism protects the kidney – Carney – Nature Reviews Nephrology

Gut Microbiome Imbalance and Neuroinflammation: Impact of COVID‐19 on Parkinson’s Disease – Follmer – Movement Disorders

US nativity and dietary acculturation impact the gut microbiome in a diverse US population – Peters et al. – The ISME Journal

[REVIEW]Gut Microbiota Status in COVID-19: An Unrecognized Player? – Zeppa et al. – Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.

Animal microbiome

[PREPRINT]Honeybee gut microbiota modulates host behaviors and neurological processes – Zhang et al. – bioaRxiv

[PREPRINT]Honeybee genetics shape the strain-level structure of gut microbiota in social transmission – Wu et al. – bioRxiv

Description of the microbiota in epidermal mucus and skin of sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum and Negaprion brevirostris) and one stingray (Hypanus americanus) – Caballero et al. – PeerJ

Roundup causes embryonic development failure and alters metabolic pathways and gut microbiota functionality in non-target species – Microbiome – Suppa et al. – Microbiome

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Influence of vintage, geographic location and cultivar on the structure of microbial communities associated with the grapevine rhizosphere in vineyards of San Juan Province, Argentina – Aguilar et al. – PLOS One

[REVIEW]Restoring degraded microbiome function with self-assembled communities – Gutierrez et al. – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Combining whole-genome shotgun sequencing and rRNA gene amplicon analyses to improve detection of microbe–microbe interaction networks in plant leaves – Regalado et al. – The ISME Journal

Bioinformatics/Data analysis

A joint modeling approach for longitudinal microbiome data improves ability to detect microbiome associations with disease – PLOS Computation Biology – Luna, Mansbach & Shaw

Predicting Nash equilibria for microbial metabolic interactions – Cai, Tan & Chan – Bioinformatics

microeco: An R package for data mining in microbial community ecology – Liu et al. – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

[REVIEW]Multi-omics data integration considerations and study design for biological systems and disease – Graw et al. – Molecular Omics

Techniques

[PREPRINT]Improved microbial community characterization of 16S rRNA via metagenome hybridization capture enrichment – Beaudry et al. – bioRxiv

December 18, 2020

Greetings from cold and snowy Pittsburgh!

As I type this, my housemate (who is an essential healthcare worker) should be getting the first dose of her COVID-19 vaccine! Although I’m not sure what the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is expected to look like, today’s digest includes an article mapping routine measles vaccination coverage in low- and middle- income countries. I’ve also highlighted a few interesting environmental microbiology preprints, including one on the role of ecosystem engineers in shaping arid soil bacterial communities.

Happy holidays and happy reading!


Events and jobs

Danone North America Gut Microbiome, Yogurt and Probiotics Fellowship Grant – Applications for the 2020-2021 grant are currently open and are due on February 24, 2021.

General microbiome

Mapping routine measles vaccination in low- and middle-income countries – Local Burden of Disease Vaccine Coverage Collaborators – Nature

The functional proteome landscape of Escherichia coli – Mateus et al. – Nature

Preprint: Niche and local geography shape the pangenome of wastewater- and livestock-associated Enterobacteriaceae – Shaw et al. – bioRxiv


Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Preprint: The role of ecosystem engineers in shaping the diversity and function of arid soil bacterial communities – Baubin et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Environmental interactions with amoebae as drivers of bacterial-fungal endosymbiosis and pathogenicity – Itabangi et al. – bioRxiv

December 16, 2020

COVID19

Inferring the effectiveness of government interventions against COVID-19 – Brauner et al. – Science

COVID 19 mortality: Probable role of microbiome to explain disparity – Kumar & Chander – Medical Hyptheses

General microbiome

[PREPRINT] Theory of (antimicrobial) relativity: When competitors determine a species’ drug sensitivity. – Reding – bioRxiv

Human respiratory microbiome

Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing of Nasopharyngeal Specimens Collected from Confirmed and Suspect COVID-19 Patients – Mostafa et al. – mBio

Human oral microbiome

Variation in oral microbiome is associated with future risk of lung cancer among never-smokers – Hosgood et al. – Lung cancer

Human gut microbiome

Effect of an 8-week Exercise Training on Gut Microbiota in Physically Inactive Older Women – Zhong et al. – Int J Sports Med

Vitamin D metabolites and the gut microbiome in older men – Thomas et al. – Nature Communications

Animal microbiome

[PREPRINT] Longitudinal profiling of the macaque vaginal microbiome reveals similarities to diverse human vaginal communities: implications for use as a pre-clinical model for bacterial vaginosis – Rhoades et al. – bioRxiv

The earthworm microbiome is resilient to exposure to biocidal metal nanoparticles – Swart et al. – Environmental Pollution

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Environmental microbiome mapping as a strategy to improve quality and safety in the food industry – Filippis et al. – Current Opinion in Food Science

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

Nitrosophilus alvini gen. nov., sp. nov., a hydrogen-oxidizing chemolithoautotroph isolated from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent in the East Pacific Rise, inferred by a genome-based taxonomy of the phylum “Campylobacterota” – Shiotani et al. – PLOS One

Techniques

A rapid approach to profiling diverse fungal communities using the MinION™ nanopore sequencer – Mafune et al. – BioTechniques

[PREPRINT] Microbe-seq: high-throughput, single-microbe genomics with strain resolution, applied to a human gut microbiome – Zheng et al. – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

Oral Microbiome Diversity and Species Abundance Linked to Lung Cancer in Nonsmokers

December 11, 2020

Have a nice Friday! In this Digest: Fecal microbiota transplant and its impact on immunotherapy-refractory melanoma patients, different reviews about microbiome and COVID19, Obesity and Diabetes; lung microbiome, microbiome relationship with vitamin D; additionally, microbiota studies in sponges, wolves, mosquitos and other animals; finally, we have a set of papers on soil microbiome and a couple of papers covering methods in microbiome sequencing and analysis.    

Human and General Microbiome

Fecal microbiota transplant promotes response in immunotherapy-refractory melanoma patients – Erez N. Baruch – Science

Utilizing microbiome approaches to assist source tracking, treatment and prevention of COVID-19: Review and assessment – Maozhen Han – Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal 

Microbiota Transplant in the Treatment of Obesity and Diabetes: Current and Future Perspectives – Michael Napolitano – Frontiers in Microbiology

The potential role of vitamin D supplementation as a gut microbiota modifier in healthy individuals – Parul Singh – Scientific Reports

Gene Networks Underlying the Resistance of Bifidobacterium longum to Inflammatory Factors – Vladimir A. Veselovsky – Frontiers in Immunology

Microbiome dysbiosis in lung cancer: from composition to therapy – Ning-Ning Liu – npj Precision Oncology 

Strain diversity in the microbiome: Lessons from Bacteroides fragilis – Hannah C. Carrow – PLoS Pathogens 

Bacterial and fungal profiles as markers of infliximab drug response in inflammatory bowel disease – Rebecka Ventin-Holmberg – Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis

Response to faecal microbiota transplantation in ulcerative colitis is not sustained long term following induction therapy – Craig Haifer – Gut (BMJ)

The respiratory microbiota during and following mechanical ventilation for respiratory infections in children – Emma M. de Koff – European Respiratory Journal

Increasing levels of Parasutterella in the gut microbiome correlate with improving low-density lipoprotein levels in healthy adults consuming resistant potato starch during a randomised trial – Jason R. Bush – BMC Nutrition

Preview: Fiber Sets up the Battleground for Intestinal Prevotella – Meng Wu – Cell Host and Microbe

Animal Microbiome

Preprint: Family matters: The genomes of conserved bacterial symbionts provide insight into specialized metabolic relationships with their sponge host – Samantha C Waterworth – BioXriv

Gut Microbiomes Differ Among Dietary Types and Stool Consistency in the Captive Red Wolf ( Canis rufus) – Morgan Bragg – Frontiers in Microbiology

A core microbiota dominates a rich microbial diversity in the bovine udder and may indicate presence of dysbiosis – Davide Porcellato – Scientific Reports

Relative contributions of various endogenous and exogenous factors to the mosquito microbiota – Haikel N. Bogale, – Parasites & Vectors

A Cross-Sectional Study of Dairy Cattle Metagenomes Reveals Increased Antimicrobial Resistance in Animals Farmed in a Heavy Metal Contaminated Environment – Natalia Carrillo Gaeta – Frontiers in Microbiology 

Intestine Bacterial Community Composition of Shrimp Varies Under Low- and High-Salinity Culture Conditions – Dongwei Hou –  Frontiers in Microbiology

Host miRNA-21 promotes liver dysfunction by targeting small intestinal Lactobacillus in mice – André A. Santos – Gut Microbes 

Beneficial Microbes and Compounds

Probiotic Lactobacillus fermentum strain JDFM216 improves cognitive behavior and modulates immune response with gut microbiota – Mi Ri Park – Scientific Reports

Plasmid Vectors for in Vivo Selection-Free Use with the Probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917 – Anton Kan – ACS Synthetic Biology

Purple-leaf tea (Camellia sinensis L.) ameliorates high-fat diet induced obesity and metabolic disorder through the modulation of the gut microbiota in mice – Yu-Chun Lin – BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies

Plant and Soil Microbiome

In Situ Rhizosphere Microbiome in Antarctic Vascular Plants, Modulated by Soil Condition – Claudia Rabert – Microbiology Resource Announcements

Dazomet application suppressed watermelon wilt by the altered soil microbial community – Feiying Zhu – Scientific Reports

Case Study upon Foliar Application of Biofertilizers Affecting Microbial Biomass and Enzyme Activity in Soil and Yield Related Properties of Maize and Wheat Grains – Dragana Latkovic – biology

Biostimulating effect of L-tryptophan on the yield and chemical and microbiological quality of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) herbage and silage for ruminant – Sebastian Wojciech Przemieniecki – Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

Techniques

Evaluation of methods for the reduction of contaminating host reads when performing shotgun metagenomic sequencing of the milk microbiome – Min Yap – Scientific Reports

Systematic evaluation of supervised machine learning for sample origin prediction using metagenomic sequencing data – Julie Chih-yu Chen – Biology Direct

December 10, 2020

Good morning from New Jersey! Only a few new research articles to share with you today, but FOUR new reviews on the microbiome’s role in cancers and periodontal disease. And if you’re feeling adventurous, PLOS ONE just published an article on human postmortem decomposition that includes a brief evaluation of the buried corpse microbiome.

Jobs

A new postdoctoral position was just posted at the University of Minnesota for research on new methods of fecal microbiota transplantation.

General microbiome

Review – Unexpected guests in the tumor microenvironment: microbiome in cancer, Abigail Wong-Rolle et al., Protein Cell

Review – Understanding the microbial components of periodontal diseases and periodontal treatment-induced microbiological shifts, Ioannis Fragkioudakis et al., Journal of Medical Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Identification of a Novel Cobamide Remodeling Enzyme in the Beneficial Human Gut Bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila, Kenny C. Mok et al., mBio

Interpretable Machine Learning Framework Reveals Robust Gut Microbiome Features Associated With Type 2 Diabetes, Wanglong Gou et al., Diabetes Care

Gut microbial ecosystem in Parkinson’s disease: New clinico‐biological insights from multi‐omics, Ai Huey Tan et al., Annals of Neurology

Review – Intervention on Gut Microbiota May Change the Strategy for Management of Colorectal Cancer, Sedigheh Taghinezhad‐S et al., Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Short-Chain Fatty Acid-Producing Gut Microbiota Is Decreased in Parkinson’s Disease but Not in Rapid-Eye-Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder, Hiroshi Nishiwaki et al., mSystems

Animal experiments

Respiratory tissue-associated commensal bacteria offer therapeutic potential against pneumococcal colonization, Soner Yildiz et al., eLife

Effects of Pinus massoniana pollen polysaccharides on intestinal microenvironment and colitis in mice, Niu and Shang et al., Food & Function

A Subset of Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Bacterial Consortium Colonizes the Gut of Nonsurgical Rats without Inducing Host-Microbe Metabolic Changes, Zhigang Liu et al., mSystems

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Preprint – Rapid evolution of bacterial mutualism in the plant rhizosphere, Erqin Li et al., bioRxiv

Review – Coffee Microbiota and Its Potential Use in Sustainable Crop Management, Benoit Duong et al., Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

Bioinformatics

Review – Tissue-associated microbial detection in cancer using human sequencing data, Rebecca M. Rodriguez et al., BMC Bioinformatics

Techniques

Preprint – BIOME-Preserve: A Novel Storage and Transport Medium for Preserving Anaerobic Microbiota Samples for Culture Recovery, Embriette R. Hyde et al., bioRxiv