Category Archives: Human reproductive or urinary

April 28, 2016

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A special issue of Science with 2 papers on lifestyle factors that determine composition of the stool microbiome in large human cohorts, variation in microbiome LPS immunogenicity contributes to autoimmunity, SEM analysis of cave speleothem microbial communities, and saliva bacteria in Chicha (Ecuadorian beer).

Jobs and Events

Early Career Microbiome Meal, during European Respiratory Society Meeting 2016 London, September 2016

Caporaso Lab is hiring a software engineer to work on QIIME and scikit-bio – Greg Caporaso – MicroBEnet

General microbiome

A special Science Issue called The Microbiota At Work: Screen Shot 2016-04-28 at 12.42PM, Apr 28 1.jpg

Introduction: Manipulating the Microbiota – Caroline Ash, Kristen Mueller  – Science

Review: Cross-species comparisons of host genetic associations with the microbiome – Julia K. Goodrich – Science

Review: How colonization by microbiota in early life shapes the immune system – Thomas Gensollen – Science

Review: Antibiotic use and its consequences for the normal microbiome – Martin J. Blaser – Science

Review: The healthy human microbiome – Jason Lloyd-Price – Genome Medicine

Pregnancy and birth

Infant formula with galacto-oligosaccharides (OM55N) stimulates the growth of indigenous bifidobacteria in healthy term infants – T. Matsuki – Beneficial Microbes

Human oral microbiome

Comparison of Boiling and Robotics Automation Method in DNA Extraction for Metagenomic Sequencing of Human Oral Microbes – Junya Yamagishi – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory microbiome

[PDF] The impact of different methods of DNA extraction on microbial community measures of BALF samples based on metagenomic data – Yan Wen – Am J Transl Res

Human reproductive tract microbiome

[PDF] Barcoded sequencing reveals diverse intrauterine microbiomes in patients suffering with endometrial polyps – Rui-Li Fang – Am J Transl Res

Opinion: Cervicovaginal Microbiomes–Threats and Possibilities – Gregor Reid – Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism

Review: Foodomics as part of the host-microbiota-exposome interplay – Lorenza Putignani – Journal of Proteomics

Human gut microbiome

Population-level analysis of gut microbiome variation – Gwen Falony – Science

Population-based metagenomics analysis reveals markers for gut microbiome composition and diversity – Alexandra Zhernakova – Science

Durable coexistence of donor and recipient strains after fecal microbiota transplantation – Simone S. Li – Science

Review: Resurrecting the intestinal microbiota to combat antibiotic-resistant pathogens – Eric G. Pamer – Science

Associations between dietary flavonoid intake and gut microbiota in a group of adults with cystic fibrosis (CF) – L. Li – Journal of Nutrition & Intermediary Metabolism

Variation in Microbiome LPS Immunogenicity Contributes to Autoimmunity in Humans – Tommi Vatanen – Cell

Gut Bacteria Metabolism Impacts Immune Recovery in HIV-infected Individuals – Sergio Serrano-Villar – EBioMedicine

Serologic microbial associated markers can predict Crohn’s disease behaviour years before disease diagnosis – R. S. Choung – Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Impact of age and sex on the composition and abundance of the intestinal microbiota in individuals with and without enteric infections – Pallavi Singh – Annals of Epidemiology

Review: Human gut microbiota and healthy aging: Recent developments and future prospective – Manish Kumar – Nutrition an Healthy Aging

Animal and other models

Soluble and Insoluble Fiber Differentially Impact Canine Fecal Microbiome and Circulating Metabolome – Matthew Irick Jackson – The FASEB Journal

Germ-free and antibiotic-treated mice are highly susceptible to epithelial injury in DSS colitis – Cristina Hernández-Chirlaque – Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis

High intensity exercise training increases the diversity and metabolic capacity of the mouse distal gut microbiota during diet-induced obesity – Emmanuel Denou – American Journal of Physiology

Induction of Subacute Ruminal Acidosis Affects the Ruminal Microbiome and Epithelium – Joshua C. Mccann – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Oral microbial biofilm models and their application to the testing of anticariogenic agents – Christina P.C. Sim – Journal of Dentistry

Animal microbiome

Patterns of bacteria-host associations suggest different ecological strategies between two reef building cold-water coral species – Anne-Leila Meistertzheim – Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Characterizing and handling different kinds of AM fungal spores in the rhizosphere – Xueguang Sun – World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Illumina-based analysis of the rhizosphere microbial communities associated with healthy and wilted Lanzhou lily (Lilium davidii var. unicolor) plants grown in the field – Qianhan Shang – World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Microbial community structures and metabolic profiles response differently to physiochemical properties between three landfill cover soils – Xi-En Long – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

The effects of host age and spatial location on bacterial community composition in the English Oak tree (Quercus robur) – S. Meaden – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Universal indicators for oil and gas prospecting based on bacterial communities shaped by light-hydrocarbon microseepage in China – Chunping Deng – Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Performance of 16s rRNA primer pairs in the study of rhizosphere and endosphere bacterial microbiomes in metabarcoding studies – Bram Beckers – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water and extremophiles

The unexpected extremophile: Tolerance to fluctuating salinity in the green alga Picochlorum – Fatima Foflonker – Algal Research

Microbial communities in a range of carbon dioxide fluxes from a natural volcanic vent in Campo de Calatrava, Spain – Irena Fernández-Montiel – International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

On the use of high-throughput sequencing for the study of cyanobacterial diversity in Antarctic aquatic mats – Igor Stelmach Pessi – Journal of Phycology

Quorum sensing plays a complex role in regulating the enzyme hydrolysis activity of microbes associated with sinking particles in the ocean – Andreas Krupke – Frontier in Marine Science

Succession of bacterial community structure during the early stage of biofilm development in the Antarctic marine environment – Yung Mi Lee – Korean Journal of MIcrobiology

Using scanning electron microscopy to study microbial communities in speleothem samples collected from Iron Curtain Cave – Cohord Mason – The Journal of Experimental Microbiology & Immunology

Large differences in potential denitrification and sediment microbial communities across the Laurentian great lakes – Gaston E. Small – Biogeochemistry

Built environment microbiome

Ecological succession of the microbial communities of an air conditioning cooling coil in the tropics – Enzo Acerbi – Indoor Air

Web Alert: Microbiology in archaeology: An annotated selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to the topics in environmental microbiology – Lawrence P. Wackett – Environmental Microbiology

Food microbiology

Bacteria associated with human saliva are major microbial components of Ecuadorian indigenous beers (chicha) – Ana L. Freire – PeerJ

A method to isolate bacterial communities and characterize ecosystems from food products: Validation and utilization in as a reproducible chicken meat model – Amélie Rouger – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

BaitFisher: A Software Package for Multispecies Target DNA Enrichment Probe Design – Christoph Mayer – Molecular Biology and Evolution

Microbial ecology

The Evolution of Quorum Sensing as a Mechanism to Infer Kinship – Jonas Schluter – PLOS Computational Biology

Co-existence facilitates interspecific biofilm formation in complex microbial communities – Jonas S Madsen – Environmental Microbiology

Viruses and phages

Molecular evolution of epizootic hemorrhagic disease viruses in North America based on historical isolates using motif fingerprints – W. C. Wilson – Virus Genes

Techniques

[Video Protocol] Efficient Nucleic Acid Extraction and 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing for Bacterial Community Characterization – Melis N. Anahtar – Journal of Visualized Experiments

Comparison of Boiling and Robotics Automation Method in DNA Extraction for Metagenomic Sequencing of Human Oral Microbes – Junya Yamagishi – PLOS ONE

The impact of different methods of DNA extraction on microbial community measures of BALF samples based on metagenomic data – Yan Wen – Am J Transl Res

Microbes in the news

Your gut bacteria are more than what you eat – Elizabeth Pennisi – Science

With quotes from me! New research confirms thriving gut bacteria is linked to a healthier body – Russell Brandom – The Verge

Want more good bugs in your gut? Try yogurt. And coffee – Patrick Skerrett – STAT News

This Bacteria Strain Offers a Curious Mix of Hope and Danger. The Elizabethkingia strain could cure malaria, but it’s also sickened dozens in Wisconsin – Lisa Margonelli – Slate

Bacteria beneficial to plants have spread across California – UC Riverside study shows spread of Bradyrhizobium has important implications for biofertilizers – EurekAlert

The Benefits of Slathering Your Newborn Baby with Vaginal Bacteria – Rebecca Schiller – Vice Broadly

A Timely Gut Check. At the American Museum of Natural History, meet your microbiome – Ralph Gardner – The Wall Street Journal

A Comprehensive Survey of Pre-Clinical Microbiology Curricula Among United States Medical Schools – Dora Melber – Clinical Infectious Diseases

Mayo Clinic Ventures Firm Explores Commercialization Of Gut Microbe Treatment – Don Jacobson – Twin City Business

Microbes and art

Quilting with soil: soil microorganisms had “painted” their efforts on the cloth in an unexpected variety of colors. – Martha Pings – Soils

Science, publishing, and career

Is most published research really false? – Jeffrey T Leek, Leah R Jager – bioRxiv

Who’s downloading pirated papers? Everyone. In rich and poor countries, researchers turn to the Sci-Hub website – John Bohannon – Science

The frustrated science student behind Sci-Hub – John Bohannon – Science

Plagiarism: A worm poking holes into the quality of our academic work – Christine Osae – The New Times

Bik’s Picks
Doctor ready to perform first human head transplant – Ross Kenneth Urken – News Week

April 27, 2016

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Cervical microbiome during cancer, distinct gut microbiome in kidney stone formers? (unclear due to vaguely formulated control group), culturing marine microbes in artificial seawater, codon usage to predict pathogenicity.

Events

Science Diplomats to present ‘Trust Your Gut: How Helpful Bacteria Impact Health’ – Free talk given 3 times at Yale in May

Pregnancy and birth

News & Views: Immunology: Mum’s microbes boost baby’s immunity – Mihir Pendse & Lora V. Hooper – Nature

Human respiratory microbiome

Culture based: Microbiology of peritonsillar abscess in the South Estonian population – Risto Vaikjärv – Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease

Human reproductive tract microbiome

Cervical Microbiome and Cytokine Profile at Various Stages of Cervical Cancer: A Pilot Study – Astride Audirac-Chalifour – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Note that the control group is poorly described: Evidence for a distinct gut microbiome in kidney stone formers compared to non-stone formers – Joshua M. Stern – Urolithiasis

Review: Macrobiota — helminths as active participants and partners of the microbiota in host intestinal homeostasis – William C Gause – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Review: The possible mechanisms of the human microbiome in allergic diseases – Kagan Ipci – European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology

Review: Towards a functional hypothesis relating anti-islet cell autoimmunity to the dietary impact on microbial communities and butyrate production – David Endesfelder – Microbiome

Animal and bioreactor models

Biochar, Bentonite and Zeolite Supplemented Feeding of Layer Chickens Alters Intestinal Microbiota and Reduces Campylobacter Load – Tanka P. Prasai – PLOS ONE

Applying theories of microbial metabolism for induction of targeted enzyme activity in a methanogenic microbial community at a metabolic steady state – Jutta Speda – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

A humanized microbiota mouse model of ovalbumin-induced lung inflammation – Marie-Claire Arrieta – Gut Microbes

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Gall-ID: tools for genotyping gall-causing phytopathogenic bacteria – Edward W. Davis II – PeerJ Preprint

Water and extremophile microbiome

Artificial Seawater Media Facilitate Cultivating Members of the Microbial Majority from the Gulf of Mexico – Michael W. Henson – mSphere

Salinity shapes microbial diversity and community structure in surface sediments of the Qinghai-Tibetan Lakes – Jian Yang – Scientific Reports

Genomic resolution of a cold subsurface aquifer community provides metabolic insights for novel microbes adapted to high CO2 concentrations – Alexander J. Probst – Environmental Microbiology

Metabolome-mediated biocryomorphic evolution promotes carbon fixation in Greenlandic cryoconite holes – J.M. Cook – Environmental Microbiology

Pollution and waste microbiology

Microbial density and diversity in constructed wetland systems and the relation to pollutant removal efficiency – Yang Zhang – Water Science & Technology

A mesophilic anaerobic digester for treating food waste: process stability and microbial community analysis using pyrosequencing – Lei Li – Microbial Cell Factories

Microbial ecology

Inhibitory interactions promote frequent bistability among competing bacteria –
Erik S. Wright – Nature Communications

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Protocol: Big Data, Evolution, and Metagenomes: Predicting Disease from Gut Microbiota Codon Usage Profiles – Maja Fabijani – Data Mining Techniques for the Life Sciences

Review: High definition for systems biology of microbial communities: metagenomics gets genome-centric and strain-resolved – Dmitrij Turaev – Current Opinion in Biotechnology

Microbes in the news

Elizabethkingia: The bacteria strain that could kill you. Or cure malaria. Small Science: Genomic data is showing us how little we know – Lisa Margonelli – Houston Chronicle

New Anti-Biofilm Nano Coating Prevents Bacterial Growth on Metal Surfaces – Azo Nano

Quick mapping of our microbiomes and metabolomes – Science Daily

Viral Skin Infections – Tomislav Meštrović – News Medical

Bacteria pill is ‘better than statins’ in the war on cholesterol, say researchers – Joe Smith – Mirror UK

Bacterial virulence is stimulated by burns – EurekAlert

Science, publishing, and career

Meet The New CEO Of The $22 Billion Genomics Company You’ve Never Heard Of: Francis deSouza to lead Illumina – Christina Farr – Fast Company

What Happened When I Pushed Myself to Interview More Women: Increasing the breadth of sources in journalism – John R. Platt – Motherboard

The quiet revolutionary: How the co-discovery of CRISPR explosively changed Emmanuelle Charpentier’s life. The microbiologist spent years moving labs and relishing solitude. Then her work on gene-editing thrust her into the scientific spotlight – Alison Abbott – Nature

Speak up about subtle sexism in science: Female scientists face everyday, often-unintentional microaggression in the workplace, and it won’t stop unless we talk about it – Tricia Serio – Nature

Bik’s Picks

Effects of a Closed Space Environment on Gene Expression in Hair Follicles of Astronauts in the International Space Station – Masahiro Terada – PLOS ONE

April 25, 2016, back in Cali

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Arrived back at SFO, and enough material for another digest. Longitudinal assessment of sputum microbiome, patient perspectives on FMT,  blue whale feces, and decontamination of amplicon datasets.

Events

Microbiome & Mice 2016, Advancing Microbiome Research Symposium – April 26, New York

Human oral microbiome

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

The gut and oral microbiome in HIV disease: a workshop report – DL Moyes – Oral Diseases

Modulation of the orodigestive tract microbiome in HIV-infected patients – D Saxena – Oral Diseases

Human vaginal microbiome

Molecular assessment of bacterial vaginosis by Lactobacillus abundance and species diversity – Joke A. M. Dols – BMC Infectious Diseases

Human gut microbiome

Patient Perspectives on Fecal Microbiota Transplantation for Clostridium Difficile Infection – Caroline Zellmer – Infectious Diseases and Therapy

Animal models

Effects of a diet high in resistant starch on fermentation end-products of protein and mucin secretion in the colons of pigs – Liping Zhou – Starch

Extensive Mobilome-Driven Genome Diversification in Mouse Gut-Associated Bacteroides vulgatus mpk – Anna Lange – Genome Biology and Evolution

Animal microbiome

Analysis of the microbial diversity in faecal material of the endangered blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus – Olivia Guass – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Water microbiome

Effects of land use on the structure and function of leaf-litter microbial communities in boreal streams – Caroline E. Emilson – Freshwater Biology

Biological responses to environmental heterogeneity under future ocean conditions – Philip W. Boyd – Global Change Biology

Techniques

Decontamination of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence datasets based on bacterial load assessment by qPCR – Vladimir Lazarevic – BMC Microbiology

Microbes in the news

“Amazing. If I ever want to know what city I’m in, all I need is a microscope!” Study: Cities Have Unique ‘Bacterial Fingerprints’ – American Voices – The Onion
Cities Are Microbial Wastelands Built On Dead Skin – Laurie Winkless – Forbes

How researchers teach bacteria new behaviors – Science Daily

A Very Precious Free Gift For a Newborn Baby – Toni Harman – Huffington Post

Have exploding cells blown up MV dogma? – Naomi Attar – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Science, publishing and career

BMJ editor Fiona Godlee takes on corruption in science – CBC News

April 23, 2016

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Pint of Science, oral microbiome dynamics, rheumatoid arthritis, mineral turnover in the rhizosphere, and the subzero microbiome.

Events

Pint of Science San Francisco Bay Area (also in other cities all over the world): 23-25 May 2016, combining beer and science

Pregnancy and birth

Microbiome and Fetus: A Relationship for Life – Janet Teodori – Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health

The Tree(s) of Life: The Human Placenta and My Journey to Learn More about It – Carolyn B. Coyne – PLOS Pathogens

Human oral microbiome

Ultra-deep and quantitative saliva proteome reveals dynamics of the oral microbiome – Niklas Grassl – Genome Biology

Human vaginal microbiome

Effects of low dose estrogen therapy on the vaginal microbiomes of women with atrophic vaginitis – Jian Shen – Scientific Reports

Human gut microbiome

Plasmid metagenomics reveals multiple antibiotic resistance gene classes among the gut microbiomes of hospitalised patients – Tossawan Jitwasinkul – Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance

Bifidobacteria Abundance-Featured Gut Microbiota Compositional Change in Patients with Behcet’s Disease – Jun Shimizu – PLOS ONE

An expansion of rare lineage intestinal microbes characterizes rheumatoid arthritis – Jun Chen – Genome Medicine

Microbial Culturomics to Map Halophilic Bacterium in Human Gut: Genome Sequence and Description of Oceanobacillus jeddahense sp. Nov. – Khelaifia Saber – OMICS

Review: Bugging inflammation: role of the gut microbiota – Sj Shen – Clinical & Translational Immunology

Review: Modulating Composition and Metabolic Activity of the Gut Microbiota in IBD Patients – Mario Matijašić – MDPI Int J Mol Sci

Animal models

Effect of Dietary Carboxymethyllysine on glucose and insulin sensitivity, cecal fatty acids and the plasma metabolome in mice fed the Total Western Diet – Robert Edwin Ward – The FASEB Journal

Animal microbiome

The Microbiome of Animals: Implications for Conservation Biology – Simon Bahrndorff – International Journal of Genomics

Review: Herbivore dung as food for dung beetles: elementary coprology for entomologists – Peter Holter – Ecological Entomology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Plant–Microbiota Interactions as a Driver of the Mineral Turnover in the Rhizosphere – R. Alegria Terrazas – Advances in Applied Microbiology

Dynamics of endophytic bacteria in plant in vitro culture: quantification of three bacterial strains in Prunus avium in different plant organs and in vitro culture phases – Mona Quambusch – Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)

Evaluating the lingering effect of livestock grazing on functional potentials of microbial communities in Tibetan grassland soils – Mengmeng Wang – Plant and Soil

Nitrogen fertilization affects bacteria utilizing plant-derived carbon in the rhizosphere of beech seedlings – Silvia Gschwendtner – Plant and Soil

Temporal dynamic of parasite-mediated linkages between the forest canopy and soil processes and the microbial community – Ana Mellado – New Phytologist

Rhizosphere priming effect on soil organic carbon decomposition under plant species differing in soil acidification and root exudation – Xiaojuan Wang – New Phytologist

Water and extremophile microbiome

Viral metabolic reprogramming in marine ecosystems – Bonnie L Hurwitz – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Review: The subzero microbiome: Microbial activity in frozen and thawing soils – Mrinalini P. Nikrad – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Gene expression profiling of microbial activities and interactions in sediments under haloclines of E. Mediterranean deep hypersaline anoxic basins – Virginia P Edgcomb – The ISME Journal

Waste and pollution microbiology

Effect of thermal pretreatment on the biogas production and microbial communities balance during anaerobic digestion of urban and industrial waste activated sludge – Hajer Ennouri – Bioresource Technology

The Arsenite Oxidation Potential of Native Microbial Communities from Arsenic-Rich Freshwaters – Stefano Fazi – Microbial Ecology

Microbial communities from different subsystems in biological heap leaching system play different roles in iron and sulfur metabolisms – Yunhua Xiao – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Community Structure in Methanogenic Enrichments Provides Insight into Syntrophic Interactions in Hydrocarbon-Impacted Environments – S. Jane Fowler – Frontiers in Microbiology

Food microbiology

The Potential of the Incorporation of Essential Oils and Their Individual Constituents to Improve Microbial Safety in Juices: A Review – Evandro Leite de Souza – Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

The Metagenomic Pizza: a simple recipe to introduce bioinformatics to the layman – Marie-Claude Blatter – EMBnet

MOCAT2: a metagenomic assembly, annotation and profiling framework – Jens Roat Kultima – Bioinformatics

Temporal microbiome road-maps guided by perturbations – Beatriz García-Jiménez – bioRxiv

Fundamental Limits of Pooled-DNA Sequencing – A. Najafi – ArXiv

A perspective on 16S rRNA operational taxonomic unit clustering using sequence similarity – Nam-Phuong Nguyen – NPJ Biofilms

Microbial Ecology

Influence of dormancy on microbial competition under intermittent substrate supply: insights from model simulations – Konstantin Stolpovsky – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Viruses and phages

Giant viruses at the core of microscopic wars with global impacts – Adrien Villai – Current Opinion in Virology

Environmental surveillance of viruses by tangential flow filtration and metagenomic reconstruction – V Furtak – Eurosurveillance

Metabolomics

Review: Microbial metabolism of dietary components to bioactive metabolites: opportunities for new therapeutic interventions – Linda S. Zhang – Genome Medicine

Microbes in the news

Your office is a veritable petri dish of bacteria – Sarah Kaplan – The Washington Post

We’re home to trillions of cells that aren’t ours and they’re keeping us alive – Katherine Ellen Foley – Quartz

These oral bacteria are linked to an increased chance of getting pancreatic cancer – Laurie McGinley – The Washington Post

April 20, 2016

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Posting from SJC: The reproductive tract microbiome from heterosexual couples, olfactory epithelium changes in GF mice, and life in the twilight zone.

Jobs

Post doc positions in human microbiome research in the Lynch Lab at #UCSF – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBEnet

Human respiratory microbiome

Culture-Independent Identification of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria in Cystic Fibrosis Respiratory Samples – Lindsay J. Caverly – PLOS ONE

Human reproductive tract microbiome

Rationale and Safety Assessment of a Novel Intravaginal Drug-Delivery System with Sustained DL-Lactic Acid Release, Intended for Long-Term Protection of the Vaginal Microbiome – Hans Verstraelen – PLOS ONE

Bacterial communities in penile skin, male urethra, and vaginas of heterosexual couples with and without bacterial vaginosis – Marcela Zozaya – Microbiome

Human gut microbiome

Review: Antibiotics, obesity and the link to microbes – what are we doing to our children? – Olli Turta – BMC Medicine

Review: Microbiome mediation of infections in the cancer setting – Ying Taur – Genome Medicine

Review: Moody microbes or fecal phrenology: what do we know about the microbiota-gut-brain axis? – Paul Forsythe – BMC Medicine

Animal models

Olfactory epithelium changes in germfree mice – Adrien François – Scientific Reports

Association between Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Gut Microbiota – Yanjie Guo – PLOS ONE

Effect of fidaxomicin versus vancomycin on susceptibility to intestinal colonization with vancomycin-resistant enterococci and Klebsiella pneumoniae in mice – Abhishek Deshpande – Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy

Intestinal microbiota and oral administration of Enterococcus faecium associated with the growth performance of new-born piglets – Y.B. Wang – Beneficial Microbes

Animal microbiome

Impact of the Chromatin Remodeling Factor CHD1 on Gut Microbiome Composition of Drosophila melanogaster – Johanna Sebald – PLOS ONE

Minireview: Lower Termite Associations with Microbes: Synergy, Protection, and Interplay – Brittany F. Peterson – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Volatile compounds emitted by diverse phytopathogenic microorganisms promote plant growth and flowering through cytokinin action – Ángela María Sánchez-López – Plant, Cell & Environment

Quantifying the associations between fungal endophytes and biocontrol-induced herbivory of invasive purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria L.) – Aaron S David – Mycologia

Effect of CaMSRB2-Expressing Transgenic Rice Cultivation on Soil Microbial Community – Soo-In Sohn – Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Water microbiome

Marine protist associations and environmental impacts across trophic levels in the twilight zone and below – VP Edgcomb – Current Opinion in Microbiology

The Arsenite Oxidation Potential of Native Microbial Communities from Arsenic-Rich Freshwaters – Stefano Fazi – Microbial Ecology

Probiotics

Review: Probiotic approach to prevent antibiotic resistance – Arthur C. Ouwehand – Annals of Medicine

Infection microbiology

Metataxonomic and Metagenomic Approaches vs. Culture-Based Techniques for Clinical Pathology – Sarah K. Hilton – Frontiers in Microbiology

More microbiology
A Generalized Spatial Measure for Resilience of Microbial Systems – Ryan S. Renslow – Frontiers in Microbiology

Community assembly and coexistence in communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi – Kriszta Vályi – The ISME Journal

Microbes in the news

Exploding bacteria could help in our battle against superbugs: Aussie researchers have discovered that some bacteria explode to share useful resources with others, causing the whole group to become nastier. – Signe Dean – SBS

Phylo.io: interactive viewing and comparison of large phylogenetic trees on the web – Oscar Robinson – Molecular Biology and Evolution

April 5, 2016

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Differences in myelination and gene expression in prefrontal cortex between GF and conventional mice, migratory passerines, metagenomics of probiotics, and megaviromes.

Events

NAS Meeting: Microbiomes of the Built Environment: From Research to Application – David Coil – MicroBEnet

Human oral microbiome

Impact of age and sex on the composition and abundance of the intestinal microbiota in individuals with and without enteric infections – Pallavi Singh – Annals of Epidemiology

Review [PDF]: Oral Microbial Shift: Factors affecting the Microbiome and Prevention of Oral Disease – Namrata Dagli – Journal of Contemporary Dental Practice

Human reproductive tract microbiome

Review: Incorporating microbiota data into epidemiological models: Examples from vaginal microbiota research – Janneke van de Wijgert – Annals of Epidemiology

Combined effect of diet and cervical microbiome on the risk of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia – Sang-Soo Seo – Clinical Nutrition

Human gut microbiome

Diversified mcr-1-Harbouring Plasmid Reservoirs Confer Resistance to Colistin in Human Gut Microbiota – Huiyan Ye – mBio

Animal models

Regulation of prefrontal cortex myelination by the microbiota – AE Hoban – Translational Psychiatry

Responses of fecal bacterial communities to resistant starch intervention in diabetic rats – Zhongkai Zhou – Starch

Resveratrol Attenuates Trimethylamine-N-Oxide (TMAO)-Induced Atherosclerosis by Regulating TMAO Synthesis and Bile Acid Metabolism via Remodeling of the Gut Microbiota – Ming-liang Chen – mBio

Commentary: Policing of gut microbiota by the adaptive immune system – Laurent Dollé – BMC Medicine

Animal microbiome

Sample processing impacts the viability and cultivability of the sponge microbiome – Ana I. Esteves – Frontiers in Microbiology

Characterization of the gut microbiota of migratory passerines during stopover along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico – William B. Lewis – Journal of Avian Biology

Highlight: Microbes matter: herbivore gut endosymbionts play a role in breakdown of host plant toxins – Franziska Beran – Environmental Microbiology

Selective feeding by the giant barrel sponge enhances foraging efficiency – Steven E. McMurray – Limnology and Oceanography

PhD Thesis: Molecular investigation of Australian termites and their gut symbionts – Nurdyana Abdul Rahman – University of Queensland

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Distance-dependent effects of pathogenic fungi on seedlings of a legume tree: impaired nodule formation and identification of antagonistic rhizosphere bacteria –  Lan Liu – Journal of Ecology

Bacterial community dynamics during ensiling of perennial ryegrass at two compaction levels monitored by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism – K. Graf – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Microsite differentiation drives the abundance of soil ammonia oxidizing bacteria along aridity gradients – Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo – Frontiers in Microbiology

Not exactly microbes but sounded interesting: Do tropical rain forest soils have greater nematode diversity than High Arctic tundra? A metagenetic comparison of Malaysia and Svalbard – Dorsaf Kerfahi – Global Ecology and Biogeography

Use of two spatially separated plant species alters microbial community function in horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands – Mark Button – Ecological Engineering

Water microbiome

Spatio-temporal interdependence of bacteria and phytoplankton during a Baltic Sea spring bloom – Carina Bunse – Frontiers in Microbiology

Protist-bacteria associations: Gammaproteobacteria and Alphaproteobacteria are prevalent as digestion-resistant bacteria in ciliated protozoa – Jun Gong – Frontiers in Microbiology

Particulate matter stoichiometry driven by microplankton community structure in summer in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean – M. Rembauville – Limnology and Oceanography

Waste and pollution microbiome

Functional Metagenomics of a Biostimulated Petroleum-Contaminated Soil Reveals an Extraordinary Diversity of Extradiol Dioxygenases – Laura Terrón-González – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Lateral Gene Transfer in a Heavy Metal-Contaminated-Groundwater Microbial Community – Christopher L. Hemme – mBio

Built environment microbiome

A novel, optical, on-line bacteria sensor for monitoring drinking water quality – Bo Højris – Scientific Reports

Food and probiotics microbiology

Culture-Independent Metagenomic Surveillance of Commercially Available Probiotics with High-Throughput Next-Generation Sequencing – Jennifer N. Patro – mSphere

Unravelling the effect of clostridia spores and lysozyme on microbiota dynamics in Grana Padano cheese: A metaproteomics approach – Alessio Soggiu – Journal of Proteomics

Viruses and phages / metagenomics

VIP: an integrated pipeline for metagenomics of virus identification and discovery – Yang Li – Scientific Reports

Antibiotic Resistome: Improving Detection and Quantification Accuracy for Comparative Metagenomics – Ali H. A. Elbehery – OMICS

Themed Issue of Current Opinion in Microbiology: Environmental microbiology/Megaviromes
Review: Giants among larges: how gigantism impacts giant virus entry into amoebae – Rodrigo Araújo Lima Rodrigues – Current Opinion in Microbiology
Review: Updating strategies for isolating and discovering giant viruses – Jacques Yaacoub Bou Khalil
Review, but not sure about what: Persistent virus and addiction modules: an engine of symbiosis – Luis P Villarreal

Metabolomics

In silico methods for linking genes and secondary metabolites: The way forward – Shradha Khater – Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology

Techniques and bioinformatics

It’s all relative: analyzing microbiome data as compositions – Gregory B. Gloor – Annals of Epidemiology

Not metagenomics but about a not-clearly defined 16S rRNA gene amplification pipeline. Not a good paper: Snapshot on a pilot metagenomic study for the appraisal of gut microbial diversity in mice, cat and men – Coline Plé – Gastroenterology Research and Practice

More microbiology

Expression of arsenic resistance genes in the obligate anaerobe Bacteroides vulgatus ATCC 8482, a gut microbiome bacterium – Jiajiao Li – Anaerobe

Cholesterol Analogs with Degradation-resistant Alkyl Side Chains Are Effective Mycobacterium tuberculosis Growth Inhibitors – Daniel J. Frank – The Journal of Biological Chemistry

Microbiology and art

This Artist Paints With Bacteria, And It’s Strangely Beautiful – Jacqueline Howard – Huffington Post

Microbes in the news

With a quote from me! Gut bacteria regulate nerve fibre insulation – Mo Costandi – The Guardian

Europe’s Microbiology Society’s Annual Conference 2016: the Twitter story – Microbepost

Antibiotic soap can alter a baby’s gut bacteria – Tim Sandle – Digital Journal

The fridge that detects bacteria in your food – NZ Herald

About COPD: Take a deep breath – your lung microbiome will appreciate it – GSK

Microbiome and the modern environment: a global drift toward dysbiosis? – Susan Prescott and Alan Logan – BioMed Central blog

Biofilm researcher: New Faces: Boo Shan Tseng: This Life Sciences professor is all about communities – University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Study by the University of Kaiserslautern: Viruses cause bacteria to produce pink pigments – AlphaGalileo

Promising new method inhibits TB–causing bacteria – Phys.org

Bacteria Hysteria

Do you know how clean your lean workout is? The DEADLY bacteria found in your gym mat – Kat Romero – Express

Bik’s Picks

Cellular telephone use during free-living walking significantly reduces average walking speed – Jacob E. Barkley – BMC Research Notes

So cool: The Cemetery as Archive: A 177-year-old cemetery is preparing to digitize millions of records that shed light on New York City’s shifting demographics – Jessica Leigh Hester

April 4, 2016

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Gut microbiome of Australian sea lions, Trichoderma fungi in endemic plants, and digging for microbial proof of Hannibal’s route over the alps.

Human vaginal microbiome

Comment: Translating the vaginal microbiome: gaps and challenges – Jacques Ravel – Genome Medicine

Human respiratory microbiome

Review: The lung microbiome: the perfect culprit for COPD exacerbations? – Carine Gomez – European Respiratory Journal

Animal models

Frogs: Short-term exposure to coal combustion waste has little impact on the skin microbiome of adult spring peepers, Pseudacris crucifer – Myra C. Hughey – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Short bowel syndrome (SBS)-associated alterations within the gut-liver axis evolve early and persist long-term in the piglet model of short bowel syndrome – Prue M. Pereira-Fantini – Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Maternal Antibiotic Treatment Impacts Development of the Neonatal Intestinal Microbiome and Antiviral Immunity – Gabriela Gonzalez-Perez – The Journal of Immunology

Generation and Characterization of Indoor Fungal Aerosols for Inhalation Studies – Anne Mette Madsen – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Correspondence: The premature invocation of a ‘gut-lung axis’ may obscure the direct effects of respiratory microbiota on pneumonia susceptibility – Robert P Dickson – Gut

Animal microbiome

Colony location and captivity influence the gut microbial community composition of the Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) – Tiffany C. Delport – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

DGGE: Decreased microbial diversity and Lactobacillus group in the intestine of geriatric giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) – Zhirong Peng – World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Germs within Worms: Localization of Neorickettsia sp. within Life Cycle Stages of the Digenean Plagiorchis elegans – Stephen E. Greiman – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Comparison of the abundance and community structure of ammonia oxidizing prokaryotes in rice rhizosphere under three different irrigation cultivation modes – Jinping Zhang – World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Endemic plants harbour specific Trichoderma communities with an exceptional potential for biocontrol of phytopathogens – Christin Zachow – Journal of Biotechnology

Water microbiome

Diverse and temporally-variable particle-associated microbial communities are insensitive to bulk seawater environmental parameters – Cheuk-Man Yung – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Pollution and waste microbiology

Similar Microbial Consortia and Genes Are Involved in the Biodegradation of Benzalkonium Chlorides in Different Environments – Emine Ertekin – Environmental Science & Technology

Biofilm and Planktonic Bacterial and Fungal Communities Transforming High-Molecular-Weight Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons – Benjamin D. Folwell – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbes and art

These petri dish “paintings” reveal the hidden beauty of bacteria – Julia Belluz – Vox

After Effects: A series of architectural scale models constructed with black paper and covered with flour and a layer of mould to create the effect of old abandoned buildings – Daniele Del Nero.

Microbes in the news

Scarlett Fever: A 19th-century disease is on the rise in the UK—and nobody knows why – Akshat Rathi – Quartz

The truth about Hannibal’s route across the Alps. How exactly did the Carthaginian general and his elephants reach Italy? Scientists have got their hands dirty to come up with an answer – Philip Ball – The Guardian

Gender differences in antibiotic prescribing in the community: a systematic review and meta-analysis – Wiebke Schröder – Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

Microbes Meet Cancer. Understanding cancer’s relationship with the human microbiome could transform immune-modulating therapies – Kate Yandell – The Scientist

Guts and Glory. An open mind and collaborative spirit have taken Hans Clevers on a journey from medicine to developmental biology, gastroenterology, cancer, and stem cells – Anna Azvolinsky – The Scientist

Science, pubilishing, and career

Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2016 – Carol Peckham – MedScape

Bik’s Picks

It turns out this planet has three suns in its sky – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

April 1, 2016 (the serious one)

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Make sure to check out my special April 1st post about the creative use of human-derived microbes in food and beverage production. Today’s serious update is about a twin study on oral microbiota and the effects of host genetics and smoking, microbes in floral nectar along an urbanization gradient, plankton biogeography among alpine lakes, and classification of metagenomics data.

General microbiome

Review: Compositional Data Analysis of the Microbiome: Fundamentals, Tools, and Challenges – Matthew C.B. Tsilimigras – Annals of Epidemiology

Review: Gut Microbiotas and Host Evolution: Scaling Up Symbiosis – Michael Shapira – Trends in Ecology and Evolution

Pregnancy and birth

Conference abstract: Neonatal microbiota in health and disease – P. Panigrahi – International Journal of Infectious Diseases

Human oral microbiome

Analysis of the association between host genetics, smoking, and sputum microbiota in healthy humans – Mi Young Lim – Scientific Reports

Human cervical microbiome

Combined effect of diet and cervical microbiome on the risk of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia – Sang-Soo Seo – Clinical Nutrition

Human gut microbiome

Review: The effect of NOD2 on the microbiota in Crohn’s disease – Mackenzie L Lauro – Current Opinion in Biotechnology

Animal models

Prebiotics and Bioactive Milk Fractions Affect Gut Development, Microbiota and Neurotransmitter Expression in Piglets – Kirsten Berding – Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition

Isolation of Lactobacillus reuteri from Peyer’s patches and their effects on sIgA production and gut microbiota diversity – Panpan Wang – Molecular Nutrition & Food Research

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Ectomycorrhizal fungal richness declines toward the host species’ range edge – Richard A. Lankau – Molecular Ecology

Diversity and temporal dynamics of the epiphytic bacterial communities associated with the canopy-forming seaweed Cystoseira compressa (Esper) Gerloff & Nizamuddin – Francesco Paolo Mancuso – Frontiers in Microbiology

Do rhizosphere priming effects enhance plant nitrogen uptake under elevated CO2? –
Ming Nie – Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

Evidence for foliar endophytic nitrogen fixation in a widely distributed subalpine conifer – Andrew B. Moyes – New Phytologist

Microbial diversity in the floral nectar of Linaria vulgaris along an urbanization gradient – Jacek Bartlewicz – BMC Ecology

Water and pollution microbiome

Microbial eukaryote plankton communities of high-mountain lakes from three continents exhibit strong biogeographic patterns – Sabine Filker – Molecular Ecology

Nutrient uplift in a cyclonic eddy increases diversity, primary productivity and iron demand of microbial communities relative to a western boundary current – Martina A Doblin – PeerJ preprint

Connectivity between surface and deep waters determines prokaryotic diversity in the North Atlantic Deep Water – Alexander H. Frank – Environmental Microbiology

Chemical multi-contamination drives benthic prokaryotic diversity in the anthropized Toulon Bay – Benjamin Misson – Science of The Total Environment

Phylogenetic clustering of fungal communities in human-disturbed streams – H. Mykrä – Ecosphere

Built environment microbiome

Changes in bacterial composition of biofilm in a metropolitan drinking water distribution system – R. P. Revetta – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Food microbiology

Biodiversity and technological-functional potential of lactic acid bacteria isolated from spontaneously fermented quinoa sourdoughs – L. Ruiz Rodríguez – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Bioreactor microbiology

Genome-based microbial ecology of anammox granules in a full-scale wastewater treatment system – Daan R. Speth – Nature Communications

An exploratory study on the influence orange juice on gut microbiota using a dynamic colonic model – Ana Luiza Rocha Faria Duque – Food Research International

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

FOCUS2: agile and sensitive classification of metagenomics data using a reduced database – Genivaldo Silva – BioRxiv

Microbial Ecology

Microbial diversity arising from thermodynamic constraints – Tobias Großkopf – The ISME Journal

Techniques

Genetic circuit design automation: Programming circuitry for synthetic biology –
Alec A. K. Nielsen – Science

Review: Exploring the Secretomes of Microbes and Microbial Communities Using Filamentous Phage Display – Dragana Gagic – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Your Cat’s Poop Might Help Save Lives: KittyBiome – Lisa Richman – Catster

Pine Bacteria Getting a Closer Look From Scientists – Lorena Anderson – UC Merced

Episode 2: Peek inside a lab trying to create living medicine — from bugs in your gut – Carl Zimmer – STAT News

Poop paper flushed due to possible sample contamination – Shannon Palus – Retraction Watch

About the minimal cell: Breakthrough in synthetic biology is far from ‘playing God’ – New Scientist

Commense Advances Microbiome Platform Targeting Early Childhood Health – Businesswire

New research supports previous findings in the placental microbiome – Baylor College of Medicine

Forensic microbiology from an entomological perspective – SFAM – Microbe Blog
New Potent Nanodrug to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Infections – University of Arkansas

Vedanta Biosciences Announces License Agreement with RIKEN and other Japanese Institutions for New Immune Boosting Microbiome Technology – Pipeline Review

Brewers Claim They’ve Made Ice-Cold Beer With Vaginal Bacteria; In Theory It Works – Dana Dovey – Medical Daily

Beer brewed with vaginal bacteria is the draft we didn’t ask for – Justina Huddleston – She Knows

Scientists create ‘programming language for bacteria’ – BT.com

‘Listeria on Rye’? Many U.S. Deli Meat Slicers Cut Corners on Cleanliness – Health Day

Retail Deli Slicer Cleaning Frequency — Six Selected Sites, United States, 2012 – Laura G. Brown – CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)

Science, publishing, and career

Life in the lab, book review of “Lab Girl” by Hope Jahren – Meg Lowman – Science

How to Make Psychology Studies More Reliable – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

Hilda Bastian: She speaks — and draws — truth to scientific power – Karen Weintraub – STAT news

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March 22, 2016

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Eye microbiota and contact lenses, leaf-cutter ant dumps, bacteria help with platinum transformation, metagenomics from a Swedish cave, extreme habitats at home, bacteria on board the ISS, a special issue on Megaviromes, and a recipe for Poop Peeps.

Jobs

Lecturership in Human Microbiome Studies – University of Reading, UK

Pregnancy and birth

Effect of Infant Formula Containing a Low Dose of the Probiotic Bifidobacterium lactis CNCM I-3446 on Immune and Gut Functions in C-Section Delivered Babies: A Pilot Study – L. Baglatzi – Clinical Medicine Insights: Pediatrics

Infection, immunology, and transplantion microbiology

Metagenomic analysis of bloodstream infections in patients with acute leukemia and therapy-induced neutropenia – P. Gyarmati – Scientific Reports

Rifaximin preserves intestinal microbiota balance in patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation – D Weber – Bone Marrow Transplantation

Gut microbiome–derived metabolites modulate intestinal epithelial cell damage and mitigate graft-versus-host disease – Nathan D Mathewson – Nature Immunology

Crosstalk between microbiota, pathogens and the innate immune responses – Claudia Günther – International Journal of Medical Microbiology

Human oral microbiome

Commentary: Microbiota-derived metabolites modulate tissue homeostasis: relevance to the oral cavity? – Hervé Le Moual – Oral Diseases

Human eye and skin microbiome

Changes in the Eye Microbiota Associated with Contact Lens Wearing – Hakdong Shin – mBio

Human vaginal microbiome

Improvement and automation of a real-time PCR assay for vaginal fluids – E. De Vittori – Forensic Science International

Human gut microbiome

Conference report: Talking about cross-talk: the immune system and the microbiome: A report on the first EMBO conference entitled “Next Gen Immunology—From Host Genome to the Microbiome: Immunity in the Genomic Era”, Feb 2016 – David Zeevi – Genome Biology

Review: An (Anti)-Inflammatory Microbiota: Defining the Role in Inflammatory Bowel Disease? – Burman S. – Digestive Diseases

Review: Gut Microbiota: The Brain Peacekeeper – Chunlong Mu – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review [PDF]: The intestinal microbiota and its role in human health and
disease – Keiko Kataoka – The Journal of Medical Investigation

Editorial: The microbiome as a possible target to prevent celiac disease – Maureen M Leonard – Expert Review of Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Animal models

Mice: Arthritis-induced alveolar bone loss is associated with changes in the composition of oral microbiota – Jôice Dias Corrêa – Anaerobe

Chickens: Dietary High Fluorine Alters Intestinal Microbiota in Broiler Chickens – Qin Luo – Biological Trace Element Research

Tilapia: Abrupt suspension of probiotics administration may increase host pathogen susceptibility by inducing gut dysbiosis – Zhi Liu – Scientific Reports

Animal microbiome

Cellulose-Enriched Microbial Communities from Leaf-Cutter Ant (Atta colombica) Refuse Dumps Vary in Taxonomic Composition and Degradation Ability – Gina R. Lewin – PLOS ONE

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Relic DNA is abundant in soil and obscures estimates of soil microbial diversity – Paul Carini – bioRxiv

Biological role in the transformation of platinum-group mineral grains – Frank Reith – Nature Geoscience

Associations between ectomycorrhizal fungi and bacterial needle endophytes in Pinus radiata: implications for biotic selection of microbial communities – Megan A. Rúa – Frontiers in Microbiology

Functional composition of plant communities determines the spatial and temporal stability of soil microbial properties in a long-term plant diversity experiment – Tanja Strecker – Oikos

No synergistic effects of water and nitrogen addition on soil microbial communities and soil respiration in a temperate desert – Yan Gui Su – CATENA

The role of phosphorus, magnesium and potassium availability in soil fungal exploration of mineral nutrient sources in Norway spruce forests – Nicholas P. Rosenstock – New Phytologist

Climate and edaphic controllers influence rhizosphere community assembly for a wild annual grass – Erin E. Nuccio – Ecology

Temporal distance decay of similarity of ectomycorrhizal fungal community composition in a subtropical evergreen forest in Japan – Shunsuke Matsuoka – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Review: The Functioning of Rhizosphere Biota in Wetlands – a Review – Amir Neori – Wetlands

Water and extremophile microbiome

Experimental evidence that microbial activity lowers the albedo of glaciers – M. Musilova – Geochemical Perspectives Letters

Transcriptional analysis of sulfate reducing and chemolithoautotrophic sulfur oxidizing bacteria in the deep subseafloor – William D. Orsi – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Cave microbiome

Metagenomic Analysis from the Interior of a Speleothem in Tjuv-Ante’s Cave, Northern Sweden – Marie Lisandra Zepeda Mendoza – PLOS ONE

Built environment microbiology

Microbial diversity of extreme habitats in human homes – Amy M. Savage – PeerJ preprint

Growth of 48 built environment bacterial isolates on board the International Space Station (ISS) – David A. Coil – PeerJ

Food microbiology

Isolation and identification of biocellulose-producing bacterial strains from Malaysian acidic fruits – Wen Yi W. V – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Bioinformatics, techniques, and metagenomics

Strain-level microbial epidemiology and population genomics from shotgun metagenomics – Matthias Scholz – Nature Methods

Improving the microbial community reconstruction at the genus level by multiple 16S rRNA regions – Shengqin Wang – Journal of Theoretical Biology

A framework for inferring biological communities from environmental DNA – Andrew Olaf Shelton – Ecological Applications

Review: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) in the microbiological world: How to make the most of your money – Antony T. Vincent – Journal of Microbiological Methods

Metagenomics and viruses

A Next-Generation Sequencing Data Analysis Pipeline for Detecting Unknown Pathogens from Mixed Clinical Samples and Revealing Their Genetic Diversity – Yu-Nong Gong – PLOS ONE

Exploring the virome of cattle with non-suppurative encephalitis of unknown etiology by metagenomics – Daniel Wüthrich – Virology

The Intestinal Eukaryotic Virome in Healthy and Diarrhoeic Neonatal Piglets – Oskar E. Karlsson – PLOS ONE

Special issue of Current Opinion in Microbiology: Megaviromes
Review: Giant viruses come of age – Matthias G Fischer
Review: Giant viruses and the origin of modern eukaryotes – Patrick Forterre

To be or not to be alive: How recent discoveries challenge the traditional definitions of viruses and life – Patrick Forterre – Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

More microbiology

The mystery of plague in medieval Iceland – Chris Callow – Journal of Medieval History

Microbes in the news

HT: Tomer Altman: Poop Peeps: Today we’re going to make Poop Peeps. Marshmallow Peeps that are shaped like the poop emoji.– Matthew Cetta – Nomageddon

Elizabethkingia, the rare and deadly bacteria that’s sickening people in the Midwest, explained – Julia Belluz – Vox

Forest resilience; can microbes help combat climate change issues faster than genetic adaptations? – Armand Séguin

Controversial New Push to Tie Microbes to Alzheimer’s Disease. A journal article says herpes virus and Lyme disease bacteria are behind the mind-robbing illness, but not all researchers are convinced – Melinda Wenner Moyer – Scientific American

Bacteria Are Revolutionizing Biotech–Here’s Why We Need To Talk About It – Catherine Feuillet – Forbes

Contact Lenses Fill Your Eyes With Bacteria – Mandy Oaklander – Time

Killing Bacteria With Gold Nanodisks And Light – Jennifer Hicks – Forbes

Space gives bacteria room to grow – Dan Satherley – NewsHub

Uncovering bacterial role in platinum formation – University of Adelaide

Top Science Fair Projects Put Stream Data, Bacteria to Work – Dan Swanson – News Channel Nebraska

The Daily Startup: Startups Look to ‘New Frontier’ of Microbiomes to Fight Disease – Wall Street Journal

The Human Microbiome Handbook – Edited by Jason Tetro, Emma Allen-Vercoe

New Bioinformatic Approach Enables Strain-Level Microbial Profiling From Metagenomic Data – Genome Web

Ulcerative Colitis Improves in Multidonor Fecal Transplant Trial – Damian McNamara – MedScape

Blog posts by me:

New papers, March 22, 2016 – Elisabeth Bik – MicroBEnet

Extreme environments at home – Elisabeth Bik – MicroBEnet

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March 15, 2016

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Intrapartum antibiotics and newborn gut microbiota, the seminal fluid microbiome, and xenobiotic metabolism by gut microbes.

General microbiome

Review: The interplay between the microbiome and the adaptive immune response in cancer development – Edda Russo – Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology

Pregnancy and birth

Evaluation of the effects of intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis on newborn intestinal microbiota using a sequencing approach targeted to multi hypervariable 16S rDNA regions – Irene Aloisio – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Human respiratory microbiome

Neonatal Gastrointestinal and Respiratory Microbiome in Cystic Fibrosis: Potential Interactions and Implications for Systemic Health – Juliette C. Madan – Clinical Therapeutics

Review: Host-microbiome interactions in acute and chronic respiratory infections – Steven Taylor – Cellular Microbiology

Human reproductive tract microbiome

Discovery of a Novel Seminal Fluid Microbiome and Influence of Estrogen Receptor Alpha Genetic Status – Angela B. Javurek – Scientific Reports

Human gut microbiome

Bloom and bust: intestinal microbiota dynamics in response to hospital exposures and Clostridium difficile colonization or infection – Caroline Vincent – Microbiome

Upper Versus Lower Gastrointestinal Delivery for Transplantation of Fecal Microbiota in Recurrent or Refractory Clostridium difficile Infection: A Collaborative Analysis of Individual Patient Data From 14 Studies – Luis Furuya-Kanamori – Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology

Similar depletion of protective Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in psoriasis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease, but not in Hidradenitis Suppurativa – Hester Eppinga – Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis

Review: The role of the gastrointestinal tract and microbiota on uremic toxins and chronic kidney disease development – David Briskey – Clinical and Experimental Nephrology

Review: The microbial pharmacists within us: a metagenomic view of xenobiotic metabolism – Peter Spanogiannopoulos – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Animal microbiome

Vertebrate hosts as islands: dynamics of selection, immigration, loss, persistence and potential function of bacteria on salamander skin – Andrew H. Loudon – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Altered carbon turnover processes and microbiomes in soils under long-term extremely high CO2 exposure – Felix Beulig – Nature Microbiology

Metagenomic and functional analyses of the consequences of reduction of bacterial diversity on soil functions and bioremediation in diesel-contaminated microcosms – Jaejoon Jun – Scientific Reports

Bacterial Community Succession in Pine-Wood Decomposition – Anna M. Kielak – Frontiers in Microbiology

Cave microbiome

MiSeq HV4 16S rRNA gene analysis of bacterial community composition among the cave sediments of Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot – Surajit De Mandal – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Water microbiome

Bacterial diversity and distribution in seven different estuarine sediments of Poyang Lake, China – Ping Sheng – Environmental Earth Sciences

Built environment microbiology

Detection of Balamuthia mandrillaris DNA in the storage case of contact lenses in Germany – Carsten Balczun – Parasitology Research

Viruses and phages

Characterization of Viral Communities of Biting Midges and Identification of Novel Thogotovirus Species and Rhabdovirus Genus – Sarah Temmam – MDPI Viruses

Metagenomic analysis demonstrates the diversity of the fecal virome in asymptomatic pigs in East Africa – Joshua O. Amimo – Archives of Virology

Bacteriophages to reduce gut carriage of antibiotic resistant uropathogens with low impact on microbiota composition – Matthieu Galtier – Environmental Microbiology

Review: Mutualistic viruses and the heteronomy of life – Thomas Pradeu – Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

Microbial Ecology

Engineering microbial consortia for controllable outputs – Stephen R Lindemann – ISME Journal

Review: The Anthropocene: a conspicuous stratigraphical signal of anthropogenic changes in production and consumption across the biosphere – Mark Williams – Earth’s Future

Book, all chapters written by Thomas CG Bosch and David J Miller. Not free of plagiarism and self-citing: The Holobiont Imperative: Perspectives from Early Emerging Animals – Springer

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Illumina error profiles: resolving fine-scale variation in metagenomic sequencing data – Melanie Schirmer – BMC Bioinformatics

Microbes in the news

Bacterial biofilms in hospital water pipes may show pathogenic properties – Phys.org

Developed in Prince William, ISOThrive feeds human microbiome – Potomac Local

The first Truth is already not true: 3 Truths and a Lie About the Microbiome. Stick to the science if you want a healthy gut. – Megan Meyer – US News

The microbial death clock – Kai Kupferschmidt – Science
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