Category Archives: General Microbiome

July 13, 2020

Posted on by

Greetings from Pittsburgh, PA!

Included is a wide range of microbial ecology articles focused on everything from the human microbiome to soil microbial fuel cells. I want to give a special highlight to the article about how the indoor microbial community changes in response to bed bug infestations. This study incorporates a few of my favorite disciplines including entomology, public health, the built environment, as well as microbiology. If you’re interested in learning more about bed bugs, I’ll also recommend one my favorite reads from a few years ago: Infested: How the bed bug infiltrated our bedrooms and took over the world by Brooke Borel.

Events and jobs

In my last microbiome digest, I gave a special plug for the National Summer Undergraduate Research Project (NSURP). NSURP is a community-driven initiative to create rewarding remote summer research opportunities for BIPOC undergraduate students in the microbial sciences. They have already paired over 140 students with summer research opportunities, but they still need mentors for remaining student applicants. Please apply and share widely!

General microbiome

The beta-diversity of Siganus fuscescens-associated microbial communities from different habitats increases with body weight – Wu et al. – Frontiers in Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Metagenome-wide association analysis identifies microbial determinants of post-antibiotic ecological recovery in the gut – Chng et al. – Nature Ecology & Evolution

The gut microbiome during acute lifestyle transition – Devkota – Nature Medicine

Review: Challenges and emerging systems biology approaches to discover how the human gut microbiome impact host physiology – Wian and Ho – Biophysical Reviews

Animal experiments

The gut and feed residue microbiota changing during the rearing of Hermetia illucens larvae – Cifuentes et al. – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Animal microbiome

Effect of introduced parasites on the survival and microbiota of nestling cactus finches (Geospiza scandens) in the Galápagos Islands – Addesso et al. – Journal of Ornithology

Direct comparison of fecal and gut microbiota in the Blue Mussel (Mytilus edulis) discourages fecal sampling as a proxy for resident gut community – Griffin et al. – Microbial Ecology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Variable microbial communities in the non-hydrothermal sediments of the Mid-Okinawa trough – Cao et al. – Geomicrobiology Journal

Review: Microbial communities from arid environments on a global scale. A systematic review – Vásquez-Dean et al. – Biological Research

Unravelling metabolism and microbial community of a phytobed co-planted with Typha angustifolia and Ipomoea aquatica for biodegradation of doxylamine from wastewater – Xiong et al. – Journal of Hazardous Materials

Built environment

Bed bugs shape the indoor microbial community composition of infested homes – Kakumanu et al. – Science of the Total Environment

Effect of sono-thermal pre-treatment over methane production, specific activities and the microbial community of sludge anaerobic digesters – Neumann et al. – Waste and Biomass Valorization

Effects of anode materials on the performance and anode microbial community of soil microbial fuel cell – Yu et al. – Journal of Hazardous Material

Techniques

Review: Targeted microbiome depletion – Du Toit – Nature Reviews Microbiology

July 10, 2020

Posted on by

Today’s digest contains many exciting articles – gut microbiome in precision medicine for cancer, important review on patent protection in microbiome therapeutics, role of the gut microbiota in sympathetic neurons, interaction of pacemaker neurons with the gut microbiota, gut dysbiosis in lupus and many more….Enjoy reading and happy weekend!

General microbiome

Gut microbiome, big data and machine learning to promote precision medicine for cancer – Giovanni Cammarota – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Co-evolution and Co-speciation of Host-Gut Bacteria Systems – Mathieu Groussin – Cell Host and Microbe

Microbiome therapeutics and patent protection – Mark J. FitzGerald – Nature Biotechnology

Human microbiome

Fecal Microbiota Transplantation is Safe and Effective in Patients with Clostridioides difficile Infection and Cirrhosis – Yao-WenCheng – CLinial Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Association of Gut Microbiota-Dependent Metabolite Trimethylamine N-Oxide with First Ischemic Stroke – Taoping Sun – Journal of Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis

Dietary Strategies for Maintenance of Clinical Remission in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: Are We There Yet? – Konstantinos Gkikas – Nutrients

The duodenal microbiome is altered in small intestinal bacterial overgrowth – Gabriela Leite – PlosOne

Faecal microbiota transplantation: A life-saving therapy challenged by commercial claims for exclusivity – Christian LodbergHvas – EClinical Medicine

Animal experiments

Microbiota modulate sympathetic neurons via a gut–brain circuit – Paul A. Muller – Nature

Prototypical pacemaker neurons interact with the resident microbiota – Alexander Klimovich – PNAS

Gut microbiota dysbiosis and altered tryptophan catabolism contribute to autoimmunity in lupus-susceptible mice – Seung-Chul Choi – Science Translational Medicine

The relationship between gut microbiota and short chain fatty acids in the renal calcium oxalate stones disease – Yu Liu – Faseb Journal

Sodium Butyrate Alleviates Mouse Colitis by Regulating Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis – Xiujing Dou – Animals

Dietary sphinganine is selectively assimilated by members of the mammalian gut microbiome – Min-Ting Lee – Journal of Lipid Research

Commentary: Modulating microbiome metabolites in vivo – Chun-Jun Guo – Science

Plant, root and soil microbiome

Quantitative comparison between the rhizosphere effect of Arabidopsis thaliana and co-occurring plant species with a longer life history – Martinus Schneijderberg – ISME Journal

Water microbiome

Anthropogenic dissolved organic carbon and marine microbiomes – Maria Vila-Costa – ISME Journal

Functional foods

Effect of a functional fibre supplement on glycemic control when added to a year-long medically supervised weight management program in adults with type 2 diabetes – Raylene A. Reimer – European Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Prenatal exposure to the probiotic Lactococcus lactis decreases anxiety-like behavior and modulates cortical cytoarchitecture in a sex specific manner – Natalia Surzenko – PlosOne

Non microbiology picks

SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted via contact and via the air between ferrets – Mathilde Richard – Nature Communications

July 7, 2020

Posted on by

Today’s digest features the mighty sourdough microbiome, AGNOSTOS (a computational workflow for genes annotation using clustering and remote homology detection, contextualizing them with genomic and environmental information), and a new episode of the Bioinformatics Chat podcast about reproducible pipelines and NGLess (a user-friendly domain-specific programming language for NGS data processing), and more. Happy reading/listening!

General microbiome

Microbiome definition re-visited: old concepts and new challenges – Gabriele Berg – Microbiome

Positive interactions are common among culturable bacteria – Jared Kehe – bioRxiv

Gut microbiome

An emerging role of Prevotella histicola on estrogen-deficiency induced bone loss through the gut microbiota-bone axis – Zhongxiang Wang – bioRxiv

Identifying novel high-impact rare disease-causing mutations, genes and pathways in exomes of Ashkenazi Jewish inflammatory bowel disease patients – Yiming Wu – medRxiv

Early prediction of liver disease using conventional risk factors and gut microbiome-augmented gradient boosting – Yang Liu – medRxiv

GWAS of stool frequency reveals genes, pathways, and cell types relevant to human gastrointestinal motility and irritable bowel syndrome – Ferdinando Bonfiglio – medRxiv

Relationships of gut microbiota, short-chain fatty acids, inflammation, and the gut barrier in Parkinson’s disease – Velma Aho – medRxiv

Lung microbiome

Genetically diverse Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations display similar transcriptomic profiles in a cystic fibrosis explanted lung – Adrian Kordes – Nature Communications

Genitourinary microbiome

Architecture and function of human uromodulin filaments in urinary tract infections – Gregor L. Weiss – Science

The structure and diversity of strain level variation in vaginal bacteria – Brett A. Tortelli – bioRxiv

Synchronous genitourinary lichen sclerosus signals a distinct urinary microbiome profile in men with urethral stricture disease – Andrew J. Cohen – World Journal of Urology

Human urine 1H NMR metabolomics reveals alterations of the protein and carbohydrate metabolism when comparing habitual Average Danish diet vs. healthy New Nordic diet – Alessia Trimigno – Nutrition

Animal experiments

Lactobacillus rhamnosus probiotic prevents airway function deterioration and promotes gut microbiome resilience in a murine asthma model – Irina Spacova – Gut Microbes

Food microbiome

*The Sourdough Microbiome – Justine Dees – ASM

Strain-Level Diversity Impacts Cheese Rind Microbiome Assembly and Function – Brittany A. Niccum – mSystems

Bioinformatics

*Light into the darkness: Unifying the known and unknown coding sequence space in microbiome analyses – Chiara Vanni – bioRxiv

Welcome to the dark side of genomes and metagenomes – a blog post about the above mentioned study – Antonio Fernandez-Guerra

GraphBin: refined binning of metagenomic contigs using assembly graphs – Vijini Mallawaarachchi – Bioinformatics

Podcast

*Reproducible pipelines and NGLess with Luis Pedro Coelho – Roman Cheplyaka – The Bioinformatics Chat

July 4, 2020

Posted on by

Greetings from Santiago, Chile! Today in this Digest, we have studies about the influence of alcohol use disorder on the microbiota, several papers about the influence of different compounds (from allicin to DAV132, a colon-targeted antibiotic adsorbent) on the microbiota. Today we have several papers about different models of plant- or soil- associated microbiomes, and a couple of papers from studies with SIV infection models. Have a nice weekend!

Human and General Microbiome

Longitudinal gut microbiome changes in alcohol use disorder are influenced by abstinence and drinking quantity – Nancy Ames et al., – Gut Microbes

Comparative evaluation of peptidome and microbiota in different types of saliva samples – Ce Zhu et al., – Annals of Translational Medicine

Preprint: Microbial control over host diet selection – Brian K Trevelline and Kevin D Kohl – BioRxiv

Functional Compounds and the Microbiome

Hemolysin BL from novel Bacillus toyonensis BV-17 induces antitumor activity both in vitro and in vivo – Jiajia Chen et al., – Gut Microbes

Modeling the effect of DAV132, a novel colon-targeted adsorbent, on fecal concentrations of moxifloxacin and gut microbiota diversity in healthy volunteers – Jinju Guk et al., – Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics

Allicin-induced host-gut microbe interactions improves energy homeostasis – Chuanhai Zhang et al., – The FASEB Journal

Evidence of Microbiome-Drug Interactions between the Antimalarial Lumefantrine and Gut Microbiota in Mice – Matthew M. Ippolito et al., – The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Contrasting effects of viscous and particulate fibers on colonic fermentation in vitro and in vivo, and their impact on intestinal water studied by MRI in a randomized trial – David Gunn et al., – The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Animal Microbiome / Animal Models

A theoretic approach to the mode of gut microbiome translocation in SIV-infected Asian macaques – Wendy Li and Zhanshan (Sam) Ma – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Impact of Initial Feeding and Molting on Tachypleus tridentatus Gut Microbiota – Fengze Miao et al., – Current Microbiology 

Osmotic stress induces gut microbiota community shift in fish – Keng Po Lai et al., – Environmental Microbiology

The Gut-Eye Axis: Lessons Learned from Murine Models – Jason L. Floyd & Maria B. Grant – Ophthalmology and Therapy 

The colonic mucosa-associated microbiome in SIV infection: shift towards Bacteroidetes coincides with mucosal CD4+ T cell depletion and enterocyte damage – Kristina Allers et al., – Scientific Reports  

Plant or Soil Microbiomes

Re-Analysis of 16S Amplicon Sequencing Data Reveals Soil Microbial Population Shifts in Rice Fields under Drought Condition – Seok-Won Jang et al, – Rice 

Integrated network modeling approach defines key metabolic responses of soil microbiomes to perturbations – Ryan S. McClure et al., – Scientific Reports 

Potential microbial bioindicators of phosphorus mining in a temperate deciduous forest – Laura M. Mason et al.,– Journal of Applied Microbiology

Phylogenetic signals and predictability in plant-soil feedbacks – Elizabeth M. Wandrag et al., – New Phytologist

Genomics / Bioinformatics

The compact genome of Giardia muris reveals important steps in the evolution of intestinal protozoan parasites – Feifei Xu et al., – Microbial Genomics 

LEMMI: A continuous benchmarking platform for metagenomics classifiers – Mathieu Seppey et al., – Genome Research

Other papers

Preprint: Metagenome-assembled genomes from Monte Cristo Cave (Diamantina, Brazil) reveal prokaryotic lineages as functional models for life on Mars – Amanda G Bendia et al., – BioRxiv 

Preprint: Exploring metal resistance genes and mechanisms in copper enriched metal ore metagenome – Esmaeil Forouzan Sr. et al., – BioRxiv

SARS-CoV-2 Preprints

Preprint: Alpha-1 antitrypsin inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection – Lukas Wettstein et al., – BioRxiv

July 3rd, 2020

Posted on by

General microbiome

Microbiome definition re-visited: old concepts and new challenges – Berg et al. Microbiome

Large-scale metabolic interaction network of the mouse and human gut microbiota. – Lim et al. Scientific Data

Early life microbiome

Very early-life exposure to microbiota-induced TNF drives the maturation of neonatal pre-cDC1 – Kohler et al. Gut.

Human gut microbiome

Arrhythmic Gut Microbiome Signatures Predict Risk of Type 2 Diabetes – Reitmeier et al. Cell Host & Microbe

Ranking microbiome variance in inflammatory bowel disease: a large longitudinal intercontinental study – Clooney et al. Gut

Cholesterol Metabolism by Uncultured Human Gut Bacteria Influences Host Cholesterol Level – Kenny et al. Cell Host & Microbe

Amending microbiota by targeting intestinal inflammation with TNF blockade attenuates development of colorectal cancer – Yang et al. Nature Cancer

Animal microbiome

A Systematic Analysis of Mosquito-Microbiome Biosynthetic Gene Clusters Reveals Antimalarial Siderophores that Reduce Mosquito Reproduction Capacity – Ganley et al. Cell Chemical Biology

Extremophile microbiome

Microbial succession during the transition from active to inactive stages of deep-sea hydrothermal vent sulfide chimneys – Hou et al. BMC Microbiome

Phages and viruses

Phase-variable capsular polysaccharides and lipoproteins modify bacteriophage susceptibility in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron – Porter et al. Nature Microbiology

Bioinformatics

ATLAS: a Snakemake workflow for assembly, annotation, and genomic binning of metagenome sequence data – Kieser et al. BMC Bioinformatics

Techniques

High-Throughput Stool Metaproteomics: Method and Application to Human Specimens – Gonzalez et al. mSystems

Interindividual Variation in Dietary Carbohydrate Metabolism by Gut Bacteria Revealed with Droplet Microfluidic Culture – Villa et al. mSystems

July 1, 2020

Posted on by

Greetings Everyone,
I want to began the month of July on a note that diversity is the basis for life. I can’t think of anything better to teach us about diversity, co-existence, and evolution than the fascinating Microbiome.
The microbiome affects us right from our birth till the end affecting our mental as well as physical health. The microbiome exhibits all sorts of differences in shape, size, color, metabolic functions in order to sustain life.
Much to learn from these tiny beings!!!!
Today’s Digest comprises of some interesting studies about effect of microbiome on chemotherapy and studies on tumor microbiome. It also includes articles exploring genetics of gut microbiome and the role of microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease. Additionally has a news article about taking microbiome therapies to clinical trials.
Hope you enjoy reading today’s digest!!
“Life on earth is such a good story you cannot afford to miss the beginning… Beneath our superficial differences we are all of us walking communities of bacteria. The world shimmers, a pointillist landscape made of tiny living beings”. – Lynn Margulis

General microbiome
Human Microbiota and Effectiveness of Cancer Chemotherapy – Shvets et al – Experimental Oncology

Immunity to commensal skin fungi promotes psoriasiform skin inflammation – Hurabielle et al – PNAS

Human Tumor microbiome
*Perspective: Probing the tumor micro(b)environment – Atreya et al – Science

Human Eye microbiome
Review: Current Knowledge on the Human Eye Microbiome: A Systematic Review of Available Amplicon and Metagenomic Sequencing Data – Delbeke et al – Acta Ophthalmologica

Human nearly-sterile sites (blood, organs, brain)
Blood Bacterial Profiles Associated with HIV Infection and Immune Recovery – Serranno-Villar et al – The Journal of Infectious Diseases

Human gut microbiome
*Genetics of human gut microbiome composition – Kurilshikov et al – bioRxiv

Review: The microbiome in inflammatory bowel diseases: from pathogenesis to therapy – Liu et al – Protein&Cell

Built environment
Vertical Stratification in Urban Green Space Aerobiomes – Robinson et al – bioRxiv

Food microbiology
Food and mood: how do diet and nutrition affect mental wellbeing? – Firth et al – BMJ

Bioinformatics
DRAM for distilling microbial metabolism to automate the curation of microbiome function – Shaffer et al – bioRxiv

Techniques
MetaRibo-Seq measures translation in microbiomes – Fremin et al – Nature Communications

Microbes on the market
Enterome Secures €46M to Take Microbiome Therapies to Clinical Trials – Helen Albert – Labiotech.eu

Human Microbiome Therapeutics Market Research: Global Status & Forecast by Geography, Type & Application (2016-2026)

June 30, 2020

Posted on by

Hallo und Guten Morgen from Germany! I hope you are well and have the time and energy to enjoy some microbiome related reading hours. I included a number of interesting reviews, related to mental and general health, soil microbiome and amphibian skin microbiome.
There is also a nice variety of new microbe research, including the influence of temperature changes on the microbiome of lizards and the microbiome’s association with heat tolerance, seasonal cycles of microbial communities in the Baltic Sea and the influence of hydrocarbons pollutants on the human skin microbiome.
Enjoy the reading!

SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19

Preprint: Role of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in different cohorts: Can they provide clues for appropriate patient triaging? – Manohar B Mutnal – bioRxiv

General microbiome

Review: Impact of Human Microbiome on Health – Sujata Das – Microbial Diversity, Interventions and Scope

Review: Inflammation in Mental Disorders: Is the Microbiota the Missing Link? – Sophie Ouabbou – Neuroscience Bulletin

Human skin microbiome

Changes of the human skin microbiota upon chronic exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon pollutants – Marcus H. Y. Leung – Microbiome

Human gut microbiome

Review: Current Limitations for the Assessment of the Role of the Gut Microbiome for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) – Andreas Hiergeist – Frontiers in Psychiatry

Animal microbiome

*Lizard gut microbiome changes with temperature and is associated with heat tolerance – Andrew H. Moeller – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Review: The Amphibian Skin Microbiome and Its Protective Role Against Chytridiomycosis – Eria A. Rebollar – Herpetologica

Bacterial diversity associated with the abdomens of naturally Plasmodium-infected and non-infected Nyssorhynchus darlingi – Tatiane Marques Porangaba Oliveira – BMC Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Review: Deliberate introduction of invisible invaders: A critical appraisal of the impact of microbial inoculants on soil microbial communities – Panji Cahya Mawarda – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Plant microbiota modified by plant domestication – Esperanza Martínez-Romero – Systematic and Applied Microbiology

Water and extremophile microbiome

A genomic view of trophic and metabolic diversity in clade-specific Lamellodysidea sponge microbiomes – Sheila Podell – Microbiome

Functional Associations and Resilience in Microbial Communities – Maria-Luisa Avila-Jimenez – Microorganisms

*Autumn to spring microbial community in the northern Baltic Sea: temporal variability in bacterial, viral and nanoflagellate abundance during the cold-water season – Laura Kaikkonen – Polar Biology

Food microbiology

Reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance genes in retail raw milk – Jinxin Liu – Microbiome

Bioinformatics

Correlation-Centric Network (CCN) representation for microbial co-occurrence patterns: new insights for microbial ecology – Pengshuo Yang – NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics

Review: From bag-of-genes to bag-of-genomes: metabolic modelling of communities in the era of metagenome-assembled genomes – Clémence Frioux – Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

June 22, 2020

Posted on by

General microbiome
Impact of feeding and stirring regimes on the internal stratification of microbial communities in the fermenter of anaerobic digestion plants – Robert Heyera – Bioresource Technology

Human microbiome
REVIEW: Role of the Microbiome in Allergic Disease Development – Andrea C. Aguilera, – Pediatric Allergy and Immunology

Optimization and standardization of the culturomics technique for human microbiome exploration – Ami Diakite – Scientific Reports

Human skin microbiome
The microbiome of diabetic foot ulcers: a comparison of swab and tissue biopsy wound sampling techniques using 16S rRNA gene sequencing – J. Travis – BMC Microbiology

Human gut microbiome
Interpersonal Gut Microbiome Variation Drives Susceptibility and Resistance to Cholera Infection – Salma Alavi – Cell

EDITORIAL: Gut microbes effects on host metabolic alterations in health and disease – Suzana D. Savkovic – Gut Microbes

Revealing links between gut microbiome and its fungal community in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus among Emirati subjects: A pilot study – Mohammad Tahseen Al Bataineh – Scientific Reports

Alterations in the Gut Microbiome in the Progression of Cirrhosis to Hepatocellular Carcinoma – Yelena Lapidot – mSystems

Human respiratory microbiome
Taxonomic diversity of sputum microbiome in lung cancer patients and its relationship with chromosomal aberrations in blood lymphocytes – V. G. Druzhinin – Scientific Reports

Pregnancy and early life
Human milk microbiota development during lactation and its relation to maternal geographic location and gestational hypertensive status – Yi Wan – Gut Microbes

Maternal Microbiota, Cortisol Concentration, and Post-PartumWeight Recovery Are Dependent on Mode of Delivery – Marta Selma-Royo – Nutrients

Human ancient microbiome
Analysis of oral microbiome from fossil human remains revealed the significant differences in virulence factors of modern and ancient Tannerella forsythia – Anna Philips – BMC Genomics

Animal experiments
Zebrafish microbiome studies make waves – Keaton Stagaman – Lab Animal

Animal microbiome
An Insight into Diversity and Functionalities of Gut Microbiota in Insects – Shengchen Wang – Current Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome
Microbial assimilation dynamics differs but total mineralization from added root and shoot residues is similar in agricultural Alfisols – Yingde Xu – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Effects of increasing concentrations of unamended and gypsum modified bauxite residues on soil microbial community functions and structure – A mesocosm study – Camille Fourrier – Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

Microbiome approaches provide the key to biologically control postharvest pathogens and storability of fruits and vegetables – Peter Kusstatscher – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Variations of rhizospheric soil microbial communities in response to continuous Andrographis paniculata cropping practices – Junren Li – Botanical Studies

Seed Metabolism and Pathogen Resistance Enhancement in Pisum sativum During Colonization of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi: An Integrative Metabolomics-Proteomics Approach – Nima Ranjbar Sistani – Frontiers in Plant Science

Water microbiome
Differential Responses of a Coastal Prokaryotic Community to Phytoplanktonic Organic Matter Derived from Cellular Components and Exudates – Hiroaki Takebe – Microbes and Environments

Built environment
MINI-REVIEW: Microorganisms populating the water-related indoor biome – Monika Novak Babič – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Pre-print
Shotgun metagenomics reveals signicant gut microbiome features in different grades of acute pancreatitis – Shanshan Yu – Research Square

Characteristics of Esophagus Flora in Patients with Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Central China – Shuixiang He – Research Square

Can root-associated fungi mediate the impact of abiotic conditions on the growth of a High Arctic herb? – Magdalena Wutkowska – bioRxiv

Microbes on the market
Finch Therapeutics Announces Positive Topline Results from Randomized Controlled Trial of CP101, an Oral Microbiome Drug, for the Prevention of Recurrent C. difficile Infection – Finch Therapeutics

Microbes in the news
Gut reaction: How the gut microbiome may influence the severity of COVID-19 – Shirin Moossavi – The Conversation

June 20th, 2020

Posted on by

Glad midsommar!

Happy midsummer to everyone from Sweden. Today’s digest is heavy on the preprints with a couple of thought-provoking editorials from the journal Nature. You will notice a lot of articles related to COVID-19. There is an interesting study that proposes the use of dogs and their sensory powers to detect CoV infections. More importantly, a preprint discusses the use of a tyrosine kinase as a potential drug and another preprint discusses the results of a massive FDA-approved drug repurposing screen for COVID. Also in the digest is an article where the researchers have shown that the gut microbiome produces neurotransmitters and another article that explains how Streptomyces spores hitchhike. Another article, although not related to our general theme, is super interesting as well. A group of scientists have proposed that the first egg of the dinosaurs was probably soft-shelled and not like the hard eggs we imagined all this time!

I am sorry for doing a lousy job today at providing a proper context and some informative introduction to today’s digest as it is the most awaited Midsommar holiday and the barbecue is calling! I hope everyone is enjoying the summer. Make sure to follow social distancing guidelines!

COVID-19

Preprint: Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib as a potential drug for COVID-19 – Nirmitee Sanjay Mulgaonkar, et al.

Preprint: Variant analysis of SARS-CoV-2 strains in Middle Eastern countries – Khalid M Bindayna and Shane Crinion

Preprint: Polymorphism and selection pressure of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and diagnostic antigens: implications for immune evasion and serologic diagnostic performance – Eric Dumonteil and Claudia Herrera

Preprint: Disruption of Adaptive Immunity Enhances Disease in SARS-CoV-2 Infected Syrian Hamsters – Rebecca Brocato, et al.

Preprint: High-density amplicon sequencing identifies community spread and ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in the Southern United States – Ryan P McNamara, et al.

Preprint: Proteotyping SARS-CoV-2 virus from nasopharyngeal swabs: a proof-of-concept focused on a 3 min mass spectrometry window – Duarte Gouveia, et al.

Preprint: A single dose of recombinant VSV-∆G-spike vaccine provides protection against SARS-CoV-2 challenge – Yfat Yahalom-Ronen, et al.

Preprint: Antiviral treatment of SARS-CoV-2-infected hamsters reveals a weak effect of favipiravir and a complete lack of effect for hydroxychloroquine – Suzanne JF Kaptein, et al.

Preprint: Drug repurposing screens reveal FDA approved drugs active against SARS-Cov-2 – Mark Dittmar, et al.

Preprint: Dog Savior: Immediate Scent-Detection of SARS-COV-2 by Trained Dogs – Omar Vesga, et al.

Preprint: Evaluation of the performance of SARS-CoV-2 serological tools and their positioning in COVID-19 diagnostic strategies. – Aurélie Velay, et al.

General Microbiome

Preprint: Exploring the Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Bacterial Pathobiome – Deborah Iwanowicz, et al.

Preprint: Hi-C deconvolution of a textile-dye degrader microbiome reveals novel taxonomic landscapes and link phenotypic potential to individual genomes – Ayixon Sanchez-Reyes, et al.

A metabolic pathway for bile acid dehydroxylation by the gut microbiome – Masanori Funabashi, et al. – Nature

A neurotransmitter produced by gut bacteria modulates host sensory behaviour – Michael P. O’Donnell, et al. – Nature

Proteome

Preprint: Novel functional insights from the Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite-specific proteome by probabilistic integration of 26 studies – Lisette Meerstein-Kessel, et al.

Bacteria

Preprint: Conjugal DNA transfer in the maternally inherited symbiont of tsetse flies Sodalis glossinidius – Christopher G Kendra, et al.

Preprint: Systematic analysis of REBASE identifies numerous Type I restriction-modification systems that contain duplicated, variable hsdS specificity genes that randomly switch methyltransferase specificity by recombination. – John M. Atack, et al.

Preprint: The role of LmeA, a mycobacterial periplasmic protein, in stabilizing the mannosyltransferase MptA and its product lipomannan under stress – Kathryn C Rahlwes, et al.

Preprint: Microbial piggy-back: how Streptomyces spores are transported by motile soil bacteria – Alise R. Muok, et al.

Viruses

Preprint: Herbivore-induced activation of viral phosphatase disarms plant antiviral immunities for pathogen transmission – Pingzhi Zhao, et al.

Preprint: Quantifying the acquisition and retention of lumpy skin disease virus by haematophagus insects and the implications for transmission and control – Beatriz Sanz-Bernardo, et al.

Preprint: Identification of a critical horseshoe-shaped region in the nsp5 (Mpro, 3CLpro) protease interdomain loop (IDL) of coronavirus mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) – Benjamin C. Nick, et al.

Preprint: A sweep of earth’s virome reveals host-guided viral protein structural mimicry; with implications for human disease – Gorka Lasso, et al.

Others

The first dinosaur egg was soft – Mark A. Norell, et al. – Nature

Junior researchers hit by coronavirus-triggered hiring freezes – Chris Woolston – Nature

Peer review should be an honest, but collegial, conversation – Nature

June 18, 2020

Posted on by

Greetings from Pittsburgh!

Today’s digest is unintentionally themed around change. Included is an article on the metabolic versatility of Salmonella enterica and another on the genetic diversification of Escherichia coli. If you’re more interested in the big picture, there is also an article about the evolution of ecological niches in plant-associated microbes as well as an article about the impacts of global change on soil microbial diversity and functionality.

Here’s to hoping that we are just as resilient as the microbes we study!

Events and jobs

A special plug for the National Summer Undergraduate Research Project (NSURP). NSURP is a community-driven initiative to create rewarding remote summer research opportunities for BIPOC undergraduate students in the microbial sciences. They are actively recruiting mentors and students for this summer, with the hope to match pairs by June 22nd.

General microbiome

Salmonella finds a way: Metabolic versatility of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium in diverse host environments – Taylor and Winter – PLOS Pathogens

Phylogenetic background and habitat drive the genetic diversification of Escherichia coli – Touchon et al. – PLOS Genetics

Human skin microbiome

The microbiome of diabetic foot ulcers: a comparison of swab and tissue biopsy wound sampling techniques using 16S rRNA gene sequencing – Travis et al. – BMC Microbiology

Animal experiments

MAPK-dependent hormonal signaling plasticity contributes to overcoming Bacillus thuringiensis toxin action in an insect host – Guo et al. – Nature Communications

Investigation of the effects of probiotic, Bacillus subtilis on stress reactions in laying hens using infrared thermography – Soroko and Zaborski – PLOS ONE

Gut carriage of antimicrobial resistance genes in women exposed to small-scale poultry farms in rural Uganda: A feasibility study – Weil et al. – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

Anti-microbial activity of whole blood and plasma collected from Anna’s Hummingbirds (Calypte anna) against three different microbes – DeRogatis et al. – PLOS ONE

Bacteriophages specific to Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli exist in goat feces and associated environments on an organic produce farm in Northern California, USA – Lennon et al. – PLOS ONE

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Survival of Escherichia coli O157 in autoclaved and natural sandy soil mesocosms – Baker et al. – PLOS ONE

Geometry and evolution of the ecological niche in plant-associated microbes – Chaloner et al. – Nature Communications

Meta-analysis of the impacts of global change factors on soil microbial diversity and functionality – Zhou et al. – Nature Communications

Food microbiology

Neighboring plants divergently modulate effects of loss-of-function in maize mycorrhizal phosphate uptake on host physiology and root fungal microbiota – Fabiańska et al. – PLOS ONE

Phages and viruses

Comparative analysis of viruses in four bee species collected from agricultural, urban, and natural landscapes – Olgun et al. – PLOS ONE

Bioinformatics

bigPint: A Bioconductor visualization package that makes big data pint-sized – Rutter and Cook – PLOS Computational Biology

Techniques

Subduing the influence of PCR inhibitors on amplifying aged, degraded, and low copy number DNA: PCR enhancer cocktail-p and rescue PCR – Kemp et al. – PLOS ONE

Click-to-Capture: A method for enriching viable Staphylococcus aureus using bio-orthogonal labeling of surface proteins – Shalizi et al. – PLOS ONE