October 13, 2016

Ethics and microbiome research, oversimplifying microbiome studies, viruses destroy archaea in the deep seafloor, Clostridium difficile in patients sharing hospital beds.

General microbiome

Perspective: Ethical issues in microbiome research and medicine – Rosamond Rhodes – BMC Medicine

Interview: Science communication: the dangers of oversimplifying microbiome studies – Interview with Lauren Freeman and Saray Ayala – Ben Johnson – NPJ Biofilms Community

Human gut microbiome

Preview: Making It Stick: A Compelling Case for Precision Microbiome Reconstitution – David Berry – Cell Host & Microbe

Preview: A Commensal Protozoan Strikes a Balance in the Gut – P’ng Loke – Cell Host & Microbe

Animal models

Intestinal microbiota could transfer host Gut characteristics from pigs to mice – H. Diao – BMC Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Review: How lichens impact on terrestrial community and ecosystem properties – Johan Asplund – Biological Reviews

Water (and coral) microbiology

Virus-mediated archaeal hecatomb in the deep seafloor – Roberto Danovaro – Science Advances

Press: Deep-Sea Viruses Destroy Archaea. Viruses are responsible for the majority of archaea deaths on the deep ocean floors, scientists show – Ruth Williams – The Scientist

Multifaceted impacts of the stony coral Porites astreoides on picoplankton abundance and community composition – Sean P. McNally – Limnology and Oceanography

Food microbiology

Ultrasound improves chemical reduction of natural contaminant microbiota and Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica on strawberries – Denes Kaic Alves do Rosário – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Techniques

Greater than X kb: a quantitative assessment of preservation conditions on genomic DNA quality, and a proposed standard for genome-quality DNA – Daniel G. Mulcahy – PeerJ

Metagenomics

Diverse Intestinal Bacteria Contain Putative Zwitterionic Capsular Polysaccharides with Anti-inflammatory Properties – C. Preston Neff – Cell Host & Microbe

Other microbiology

Division of labour in microorganisms: an evolutionary perspective – Stuart A. West – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Receipt of Antibiotics in Hospitalized Patients and Risk for Clostridium difficile Infection in Subsequent Patients Who Occupy the Same Bed – Daniel E. Freedberg – JAMA

Press: Antibiotics Encourage Spread of C.diff To Subsequent Patients Who Occupy the Same Bed and Haven’t Received Antibiotics: Interview with Daniel Freedberg – Medical Research

Microbes in the news

The Conversation Gut Series:

RI Hospital receives $500,000 CDC grant to research new approach for combating antibiotic resistanceMicrobiome research will help prevent ongoing spread of multi-drug resistant bacteria – EurekAlert

Science, publishing, and career

How Are Scientists Using Social Media in the Workplace? – Kimberley Collins – PLOS ONE

5 retractions and a sack for Pfizer lead cancer researcher Min-Jean Yin – Leonid Schneider – For Better Science
Pfizer fires employee, requests five retractions – Alison McCook – Retraction Watch

Bik’s non-microbiology Picks

Genomics is failing on diversity – Alice B. Popejoy & Stephanie M. Fullerton – Nature
The Simons Genome Diversity Project: 300 genomes from 142 diverse populations – Swapan Mallick – Nature

October 12, 2016

Infants with bronchiolitis, vitamin D receptor GWAS study, long-term effects of stool transplants, genome reduction in insect endosymbionts, San Francisco Bay denitrifying communities, resistomes in metagenomic datasets, Picodroplet WGA for metagenomics.

Jobs and events

Scientist/Senior Scientist opening at WholeBiome

Upcoming mothur and R workshops – Pat Schloss – Mothur

Pregnancy and early life

Rapid change of fecal microbiome and disappearance of Clostridium difficile in a colonized infant after transition from breast milk to cow milk – Manli Y. Davis – Microbiome

Human general and multisite microbiome

Multi-Body-Site Microbiome and Culture Profiling of Military Trainees Suffering from Skin and Soft Tissue Infections at Fort Benning, Georgia – Jatinder Singh – mSphere

Review: The human gastrointestinal tract and oral microbiota in inflammatory bowel disease: a state of the science review – Rosario Lucas López – APMIS

Human oral microbiome

Does obesity influence the subgingival microbiota composition in periodontal health and disease? – Suellen da Silva Maciel – Journal of Clinical Periodontology

Human respiratory microbiome

Throat Swabs and Sputum Culture as Predictors of P. aeruginosa or S. aureus Lung Colonization in Adult Cystic Fibrosis Patients – Darius Seidler – PLOS ONE

Association of nasopharyngeal microbiota profiles with bronchiolitis severity in infants hospitalised for bronchiolitis – Kohei Hasegawa – European Respiratory Journal

Human urinary tract microbiome

Changes in Urinary Microbiome Populations Correlate in Kidney Transplants With Interstitial Fibrosis and Tubular Atrophy Documented in Early Surveillance Biopsies
B. D. Modena – American Journal of Transplantation

Human reproductive tract microbiome

Evidence that the endometrial microbiota has an effect on implantation success or failure – Immaculada Moreno – American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology

Human gut microbiome

Integrated multi-omics of the human gut microbiome in a case study of familial type 1 diabetes – Anna Heintz-Buschart – Nature Microbiology

Genome-wide association analysis identifies variation in vitamin D receptor and other host factors influencing the gut microbiota – Jun Wang – Nature Genetics

A Pair of Identical Twins Discordant for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Differ in Physiological Parameters and Gut Microbiome Composition – Ludovic Giloteaux – American Journal of Case Reports

Unique Features of Ethnic Mongolian Gut Microbiome revealed by metagenomic analysis – Wenjun Liu – Scientific Reports

Long-term effects on luminal and mucosal microbiota and commonly acquired taxa in faecal microbiota transplantation for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection – Jonna Jalanka – BMC Medicine

Press: Healing effect of fecal microbiota transplantation lasts for long – Science Daily

Integrity of the Human Faecal Microbiota following Long-Term Sample Storage – Elahe Kia – PLOS ONE

Review: Signals from the gut microbiota to distant organs in physiology and disease -Bjoern O Schroeder – Nature Medicine

Review: The Gut Microbiome as Therapeutic Target in Central Nervous System Diseases: Implications for Stroke – Katarzyna Winek – Neurotherapeutics

Review: The Multibiome: The Intestinal Ecosystem’s Influence on Immune Homeostasis, Health, and Disease – Heather A Filyk – EBioMedicine

Commentary: Microbiome: Should we diversify from diversity? – Katerina V.-A. Johnson – Gut Microbes

Review: I-Cubed (Infection, Immunity, and Inflammation) and the Human Microbiome – David S. Younger – Neurologic Clinics

Animal models

Microbiota of the Small Intestine Is Selectively Engulfed by Phagocytes of the Lamina Propria and Peyer’s Patches – Masatoshi Morikawa – PLOS ONE

Spatial and Temporal Shifts in Bacterial Biogeography and Gland Occupation during the Development of a Chronic Infection – Daniela Keilberg – mBio

Altered gut microbiota in female mice with persistent low body weights following removal of post-weaning chronic dietary restriction – Jun Chen – Genome Medicine

Animal microbiome

Mosquitoes host communities of bacteria that are essential for development but vary greatly between local habitats – Kerri L. Coon – Molecular Ecology

Review: Dissecting genome reduction and trait loss in insect endosymbionts – Amparo Latorre – Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Review: Beneficial microorganisms for honey bees: problems and progresses – Daniele Alberoni – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

The interplay between soil structure, roots, and microbiota as a determinant of plant–soil feedback – Joana Bergmann – Ecology and Evolution

Soil type determines the distribution of nutrient mobilizing bacterial communities in the rhizosphere of beech trees – O. Nicolitch – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Bacterial selection for biological control of plant disease: criterion determination and validation – Monalize Salete Mota – Brazilian Journal of Microbiology

Killing two birds with one stone: Natural rice rhizospheric microbes reduce arsenic uptake and blast infections in rice – Venkatachalam Laksmanan – Frontiers in Plant Science

Bioenergy cropping systems that incorporate native grasses stimulate growth of plant-associated soil microbes in the absence of nitrogen fertilization – Lawrence G. Oates – Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

Microbiome and Exudates of the Root and Rhizosphere of Brachypodium distachyon, a Model for Wheat – Akitomo Kawasaki – PLOS ONE

Review: Chatting With a Tiny Belowground Member of the Holobiome: Communication Between Plants and Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria – R. Sharifi – Advances in Botanical Research

Water and extremophile microbiome

Spatiotemporal Characterization of San Francisco Bay Denitrifying Communities: a Comparison of nirK and nirS Diversity and Abundance – Jessica A. Lee – Microbial Ecology

Molecular diversity of plankton in a tropical crater lake switching from hyposaline to subsaline conditions: Lake Oloidien, Kenya – Wei Luo – Hydrobiologia

Distinct biogeographical patterns of marine bacterial taxonomy and functional genes – John Matthew Haggerty – Global Ecology and Biogeography

Waste and pollution microbiology

The shift of microbial communities and their roles in sulfur and iron cycling in a copper ore bioleaching system – Jiaojiao Niu – Scientific Reports

Comparison of the microbial community composition of pristine rock cores and technical influenced well fluids from the Ketzin pilot site for CO2 storage – Linda Pellizzari – Environmental Earth Sciences

Food microbiology

Microbial Succession and Flavor Production in the Fermented Dairy Beverage Kefir – Aaron M. Walsh – mSystems

Spatial and compositional variation in the fungal communities of organic and conventionally grown apple fruit at the consumer point-of-purchase – Ahmed Abdelfattah – Horticulture Research

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Picodroplet partitioned whole genome amplification of low biomass samples preserves genomic diversity for metagenomic analysis – Maria Hammond – Microbiome

The structure and diversity of human, animal and environmental resistomes – Chandan Pal – Microbiome

 

TreeScaper: Visualizing and Extracting Phylogenetic Signal from Sets of Trees – Wen Huang – Molecular Biology and Evolution

 

Proteomics

Mining gut microbiome oligopeptides by functional metaproteome display – Jonas Zantow – Scientific Reports

More microbiology

Multiple Signals Govern Utilization of a Polysaccharide in the Gut Bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron – Nathan D. Schwalm III – mBio

Living together in biofilms: the microbial cell factory and its biotechnological implications – Mercedes Berlanga – Microbial Cell Factories

Microbes in the news

The Virus With Spider DNA. How did part of a black-widow venom gene end up in a virus that infects one of the world’s most successful bacteria? – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

The Human Microbiome – ASM Cultures microbiome special featuring top scientists and biotech companies

The superhero in your vagina – Kendall Powell – Mosaic Science

Legionella Bacteria Detected at 4 American Airlines Hangars – ABC News

Study Sees Link Between Allergies and the Infant Gut – Robert Lee Hotz – Wall Street Journal

Breasts have their own microbiome – and it could influence your cancer risk
Your breast has its own unique ecosystem – Bec Crew – Science Alert

Researchers restored a colony of microbes in the gut – Ian Graber-Stiehl – Popular Science

Microbes and money

Second Genome Partners with King’s College London to Evaluate the Influence of the Microbiome in Landmark EAT Study – PR Newswire

MicroBiome Therapeutics’ NM504 For Improving Blood Glucose Regulation Is First Microbiome Modulator to Receive U.S. Patent Allowance – PR Web

Seres’s pioneering microbiome drug fails mid-stage trial – Mark Ratner

Farmers Are Manipulating Microbiomes to Help Crops Grow – Sarah Zhang – Wired

October 10, 2016

A Mostly Male Microbiome meeting, host genetics and microbiota in IBD, dysbiosis in dogs and humans, airport door handles, and surfing the world for microbes. I’m back!

Events

I wish I could recommend this, but it has only 2 of the 27 invited speakers are women. This is so sad. See Jonathan Eisen’s blog post about this. Second Annual Human Microbiome Congress in San Diego / North American Microbiome Congress – 24/25 January 2017 – San Diego.

Human gut microbiome

Interplay of host genetics and gut microbiota underlying the onset and clinical presentation of inflammatory bowel disease – Floris Imhann – Gut

Effect of dietary interventions on the intestinal microbiota of Mongolian hosts – Jing Li – Science Bulletin

Animal models

Dog and human inflammatory bowel disease rely on overlapping yet distinct dysbiosis networks – Yoshiki Vázquez-Baeza – Nature Microbiology

Acute Infectious Gastroenteritis Potentiates a Crohn’s Disease Pathobiont to Fuel Ongoing Inflammation in the Post-Infectious Period – Cherrie L. Small – PLOS Pathogens

Press: Diarrhea-Causing Bacteria Promote Growth of Crohn’s-Linked Microbe in Mice – ET Healthworld

Neonatal androgen exposure causes persistent gut microbiota dysbiosis related to metabolic disease in adult female rats – Isabel Moreno-Indias – Endocrinology

Exposure to the Functional Bacterial Amyloid Protein Curli Enhances Alpha-Synuclein Aggregation in Aged Fischer 344 Rats and Caenorhabditis elegans – Shu G. Chen – Scientific Reports

Press: Gut microbiota may have role in neurodegenerative diseases: study – CTV News

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Review: Too much or not enough: Reflection on two contrasting perspectives on soil biodiversity – Philippe C. Baveye – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Built environment microbiology

Airport door handles and the global spread of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria: a cross sectional study – Frieder Schaumburg – Clinical Microbiology and Infection

Press: Are Airport Bathrooms Spreading Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Globally? – Alex Berezow – American Council on Science and Health

Food microbiology

Extensive Horizontal Gene Transfer in Cheese-Associated Bacteria – Kevin S. Bonham – bioRxiv

Does fingerprinting truly represent the diversity of wine yeasts? A case study with interdelta genotyping of S. cerevisiae strains – Walter P. Pfliegler – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Microbes in the news

This Surfer/PhD Student Is Scraping Bacteria off Surfers Around the World for Science – Dylan Heyden – The Inertia
Surfing the world for microbes – Erika Johnson, UC San Diego – University of California

Weethinking the role of bacteria in incontinence. Researchers look at the role of bacteria in incontinence – EurekAlert

The Unseen Cloud Makers From The Ocean – Jennifer – The Microbial Menagerie

Marine bacteria are the climate’s wild card – ScienceNordic

Researchers Hunt for a Link Between Microbiome and Autism – KQED

The natural wonder that holds the key to the origins of life – and warns of its destruction – Michael Slezak – The Guardian

Did his artificial hips put him at risk of infection when he saw the dentist? – David Lindley – Washington Post

Millions of craft paint units recalled over bacteria concerns – Morgan Maria Pawl – KDVR

Science, publishing, and career

Scientific Misconduct: The Elephant in the Lab. A Response to Parker et al. – Timothy D. Clark – Trends in Ecology & Evolution

Bik’s non-microbiology Picks

As DNA reveals its secrets, scientists are assembling a new picture of humanity – Carl Zimmer

October 3, 2016

Gut microbiota in a Belgian nursing home,  aspirin and antibiotics, and Enterococcus in fecal samples of wild marine species. Please note that the next couple of days won’t leave me much time to run literature searches after work-hours. I might publish less and shorter posts, but I hope to be back soon!

Pregnancy and birth

Review: Impact of Maternal Nutrition in Pregnancy and Lactation on Offspring Gut Microbial Composition and Function – Derrick M Chu – Gut Microbes

Human oral microbiome

Microbiome in the Apical Root Canal System of Teeth with Post-Treatment Apical Periodontitis – José F. Siqueira Jr, – PLOS ONE

Bacterial community of saliva in adults with and without periodontitis – Jianye Zhou – Int J Clin Exp Med

Human gut microbiome

Longitudinal survey of Clostridium difficile presence and gut microbiota composition in a Belgian nursing home – Cristina Rodriguez – BMC Microbiology

Dysbiosis of small intestinal microbiota in liver cirrhosis and its association with etiology – Yanfei Chen – Scientific Reports

Editorial: Disease-Associated Microbial Communities in Healthy Relatives: A Bacteria-Filled Crystal Ball? – Mark R. Frey – CMGH Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Review: The association between the gut microbiota and the inflammatory bowel disease activity: a systematic review and meta-analysis – Michelle Prosberg – Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology

Animal models

Reduced metabolic activity of gut microbiota by antibiotics can potentiate the antithrombotic effect of aspirin – In Sook Kim – Biochemical Pharmacology

Bacterial Abscess Formation Is Controlled by the Stringent Stress Response and Can Be Targeted Therapeutically – Sarah C. Mansour – EBioMedicine

Press: New weapon for hard-to-treat bacterial infections – Science Daily

Animal microbiome

Enterococcus species diversity in fecal samples of wild marine species by real-time PCR – Aline Weber Medeiros – Canadian Journal of Microbiology

A Metabarcoding Survey on the Fungal Microbiota Associated to the Olive Fruit Fly – Antonino Malacrinò – Microbial Ecology
Drosophila Adaptation to Viral Infection through Defensive Symbiont Evolution – Vitor G. Faria – PLOS Genetics

Press: Evolution of a species also involves the bacteria it carries – Science Daily

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Assemblages of fungi associated with cork oak forests in northwestern Tunisia – Mourad Ben Hassine Ben Ali – Nova Hedwigia

Nutrient enrichment induces dormancy and decreases diversity of active bacteria in salt marsh sediments – Patrick J. Kearns – Nature Communications

Book chapter: Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria: A Good Source for Phytoremediation of Metal-Contaminated Soil – Iqra Munir – Phytoremediation

Water and extremophile microbiome

Differences in the Composition of Archaeal Communities in Sediments from Contrasting Zones of Lake Taihu – Xianfang Fan – Frontiers in Microbiology

Seasonal Variation in an Acid Mine Drainage Microbial Community – Ryan Richard Auld – Canadian Journal of Microbiology

Distribution and Diversity of Microbial Eukaryotes in Bathypelagic Waters of the South China Sea – Dapeng Xu – Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Annotating public fungal ITS sequences from the built environment according to the MIxS-Built Environment standard – a report from a May 23-24, 2016 workshop (Gothenburg, Sweden) – Kessy Abarenkov – MycoKeys

Bioaerosols in the Barcelona subway system – X. Triadó-Margarit – Indoor Air

Metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and bioinformatics

Validation of picogram- and femtogram-input DNA libraries for microscale metagenomics – Christian Rinke – PeerJ

SAMSA: a comprehensive metatranscriptome analysis pipeline – Samuel T. Westreich – BMC Bioinformatics

More microbiology

Resveratrol suppresses NTHi-induced inflammation via up-regulation of the negative regulator MyD88 short – Carla S. Andrews – Scientific Reports

Press: Does red wine have health benefits? – Tim Sandle – Digital Journal
Resveratrol can help to reduce inflammation, study finds – Medical Xpress

Microbes in the news

Does gum disease have a link to cancer, dementia, stroke? – Suzanne Allard Levingston – Washington Post

From smart socks for diabetes to hand rehab: Health 2.0’s most interesting startups. DayTwo seeks to use insights from evaluating users’ microbiome to guide their diet choices – Stephanie Baum – MedCityNews

Graceleigh, Inc. Recalls Sammy’s Milk Baby Food Because of Possible Health Risk – FDA

September 30, 2016

When does a probiotic stick around, microbial diversity in 12 French cheese varieties, effects of field conditions on fecal microbiota.

Events

Microbiome Drug Development Summit Europe – 24-26 January 2017, Paris, France

Human oral microbiome

Changes in the oral ecosystem induced by the use of 8% arginine toothpaste – Jessica E. Koopman – Archives of Oral Biology

Review: Role of oral microbiome on oral cancers, a review – Pourya Gholizadeh – Biomedicine & Pharmatherapy

Human skin microbiome

Novel volatiles of skin-borne bacteria inhibit the growth of Gram-positive bacteria and affect quorum-sensing controlled phenotypes of Gram-negative bacteria – Marie Chantal Lemfack – Systematic and Applied Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Stable Engraftment of Bifidobacterium longum AH1206 in the Human Gut Depends on Individualized Features of the Resident Microbiome – María X. Maldonado-Gómez – Cell Host & Microbe

Press: A Probiotic That Actually Lasts. The bacteria in yogurts have largely failed to live up to their hyped health benefits, but there are other microbes that might – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

Animal microbiome

Consequences of coinfection with protective symbionts on the host phenotype and symbiont titres in the pea aphid system – Mélanie Leclair – Insect Science

CoralsBacterial community diversity of the deep-sea octocoral Paramuricea placomus – Christina A. Kellogg – PeerJ

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Effects of slope exposure on soil physico-chemical and microbiological properties along an altitudinal climosequence in the Italian Alps – Tommaso Bardelli – Science of the Total Environment

Food microbiology

Highlighting the microbial diversity of 12 French cheese varieties – Eric Dugat-Bony – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Microbial ecology and more microbiology

Macroecology for microbiology – Jay T Lennon – PeerJ Preprint

Review: Fungal Super Glue: The Biofilm Matrix and Its Composition, Assembly, and Functions – Kaitlin F. Mitchell – PLOS Pathogens

Techniques

Effects of field conditions on fecal microbiota – Vanessa L. Hale – Journal of Microbiological Methods

A cost-efficient and simple protocol to enrich prey DNA from extractions of predatory arthropods for large-scale gut content analysis by Illumina sequencing – Henrik Krehenwinkel – Methods in Ecology and Evolution

Microbes in the news

The cost of cheap drugs? Toxic Indian lake is ‘superbug hotspot’ – Zeba Siddiqui – Reuters

Effects of maternal stress on newborn health: An Interview with Dr. Connie Mulligan of the University of Florida – DNA Genotek

Gene-engineered gut bacteria successfully treat sick mice — and could treat humans someday – Leah Samuel – STAT News

Microbiology retreat showcases research – Anamika Veeramani – Yale Daily News

Science, publishing, and career

Working life: Doing science while black – Edward J. Smith – Science

September 29, 2016

Two human skin microbiota papers, effects of eating chili powder, methanogens can tolerate Mars-like low pressure, gut microbiota signatures of longevity.

Human skin microbiome

Topical Decolonization Does Not Eradicate the Skin Microbiota of Community-Dwelling or Hospitalized Adults – Carey-Ann D. Burnham – Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy

Evolutionary and Functional Implications of Hypervariable Loci Within the Skin Virome – Geoffrey D Hannigan – bioRxiv

Human gut microbiome

Healthy subjects differentially respond to dietary capsaicin correlating with the specific gut enterotypes – Chao Kang – Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism

Gut microbiota signatures of longevity – Fanli Kong – Current Biology

Shifts in the fecal microbiota associated with adenomatous polyps – Vanessa L Hale – Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention

When pathogenic bacteria meet the intestinal microbiota – Nathalie Rolhion – Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

Review: From homeostasis to pathology: decrypting microbe–host symbiotic signals in the intestinal crypt – Thierry Pédron – Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

Review: Human microbiome as therapeutic intervention target to reduce cardiovascular disease risk – Annefleur M. Koopen – Current Opinion in Lipidology

Review: The microbial epigenome in metabolic syndrome – Marlene Remely – Molecular Aspects of Medicine

Animal and in vitro models

Probiotic legacy effects on gut microbial assembly in tilapia larvae – Christos Giatsis – Scientific Reports

D-Tryptophan from probiotic bacteria influences the gut microbiome and allergic airway disease – Inge Kepert – The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Expression of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor contributes to the establishment of intestinal microbial community structure in mice – Iain A. Murray – Scientific Reports

Animal microbiome

The chicken tracheal microbiome: unexpected preliminary data – Tim Johnson Lab

Contrasting diets reveal metabolic plasticity in the tree-killing beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis (Cerambycidae: Lamiinae) – Charles J. Mason – Scientific Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Structure, Variation, and Co-occurrence of Soil Microbial Communities in Abandoned Sites of a Rare Earth Elements Mine – Yuanqing Chao – Environmental Science & Technology

Fungal endophytes as priority colonizers initiating wood decomposition – Zewei Song – Functional Ecology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Culture-independent study of bacterial communities in tropical river sediment  –
Honglada Thoetkiattikul – Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry

Oligotrophic lagoons of the South Pacific Ocean are home to a surprising number of novel eukaryotic microorganisms – Eunsoo Kim – Environmental Microbiology

Low Pressure Tolerance by Methanogens in an Aqueous Environment: Implications for Subsurface Life on Mars – R. L. Mickol – Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres

Microbes and robots

Did not quite grasp the abstract, but cool picture of a small robot: Bioinspired decision architectures containing host and microbiome processing units – K C Heyde – Bioinspiration & Biomimetics

Microbes in the news
Research Breakthrough Could Help Diagnose, Treat Biofilm Infections – Lorena Anderson – UC Merced

Profile: Dr. Bonnie Bassler, a pioneer who’s investigating how bacteria communicate – Joe Tyrrell – New Jersey Spotlight

World’s Largest MS Research Conference Highlights Advances in Progressive MS, Gut Microbiome, Managing Symptoms, and New Approaches to Restoring Function – National MS Society

Assembly Biosciences Announces Key Additions to Microbiome Team – Globe Newswire

Can’t lose weight? You might be able to blame it on your parents—and their gut bacteria – Akshat Rathi – Quartz
Are Your Genes Making It Hard To Get Into Your Jeans? – Julie Taylor – uBiome blog

Deadly Mud-Dwelling Bacteria Melioidosis Stirs In The Northern Territory – Cayla Dengate – Huffington Post Australia

 

Science, publishing, and career

Young researchers thrive in life after academia. Alternative career paths should be celebrated, not seen as a compromise. – Nature

September 28, 2016

Twins, body fat, and bacteria, dietary zinc and C. diff infections, honey inhibits biofilm formation, microbial life in a Great Lake sinkhole.

Pregnancy and early life

Review: The Eukaryotic Microbiome: Origins and Implications for Fetal and Neonatal Life -William B. Miller Jr. – Frontiers in Pediatrics

Human gut microbiome

Heritable components of the human fecal microbiome are associated with visceral fat – Michelle Beaumont – Genome Biology

Press: Body fat link to bacteria in faeces – BBC
How Gut Bacteria May Predict Belly Fat – Alice Park – Time

Characterisation of the faecal microbiota in Japanese patients with paediatric-onset primary sclerosing cholangitis – Kentaro Iwasawa – Gut

Commentary: Thinking with your stomach? Gut feelings on microbiome modulation of brain structure and function (Commentary on Luczynski et al.) – Anthony J. Hannan – European Journal of Neuroscience

Dietary zinc alters the microbiota and decreases resistance to Clostridium difficile infection – Joseph P Zackular – Nature Medicine

Editorial: Devil in the detail: A closer look at childhood obesity and the gut microbiota – Michael W. Taylor – Environmental Microbiology

News and viewsCulturing: Looking it up in our gut – Clarisse Marotz – Nature Microbiology

Animal microbiome

Spatial Heterogeneity of Gut Microbial Composition along the Gastrointestinal Tract in Natural Populations of House Mice – Taichi A. Suzuki – PLOS ONE

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Using a Control to Better Understand Phyllosphere Microbiota – Andrea R. Ottesen – PLOS ONE

Caves: Microbial contributions to subterranean methane sinks – J. T. Lennon – Geobiology

Diatom blooms and associated vegetation shifts in a subarctic peatland: responses to distant volcanic eruptions? – U. Kokfelt – Journal of Quaternary Science

The Green Tetrahymena utriculariae n. sp. (Ciliophora, Oligohymenophorea) with Its Endosymbiotic Algae (Micractinium sp.), Living in Traps of a Carnivorous Aquatic Plant – Gianna Pitsch – The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology

Differential Communications between Fungi and Host Plants Revealed by Secretome Analysis of Phylogenetically Related Endophytic and Pathogenic Fungi – Xihui Xu – PLOS ONE

Fungal Endophytes as a Metabolic Fine-Tuning Regulator for Wine Grape – Ming-Zhi Yang – PLOS ONE

Water and extremophile microbiome

Groundwater shapes sediment biogeochemistry and microbial diversity in a submerged Great Lake sinkhole – L. E. Kinsman-Costello – Geobiology

Nutrient enrichment induces dormancy and decreases diversity of active bacteria in salt marsh sediments – Patrick J. Kearns – Nature Communications

Adaptive radiation by waves of gene transfer leads to fine-scale resource partitioning in marine microbes – Jan-Hendrik Hehemann – Nature Communications

Proteomics

The impact of sequence database choice on metaproteomic results in gut microbiota studies – Alessandro Tanca – Microbiome

More microbiology

Diluted honey inhibits biofilm formation: potential application in urinary catheter management? – Somadina Emineke – Journal of Clinical Pathology

Press: Manuka honey may help prevent life-threatening urinary infections – Simon Hendel – The Conversation
Honey May Be a Natural Way to Beat Bacteria – Alexandra Sifferlin – Time

Personalized therapeutic cocktail of wild environmental phages rescues mice from A. baumannii wound infections – James M. Regeimbal – Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy

Press: A Cocktail Of Wild Viruses Treats Bacterial Wound Infections In Mice – Alex Berezow – American Council on Science and Health

Microbes in the news

Chicago Shedd Aquarium Studies Microbes’ Effect on Sea Life – Illumina

The 3 Robs: NIH Funds Research to See if Gut Microbiomes of Hispanics/Latinos Influence Their Diabetes Risk – Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Antibiotic resistance can occur naturally in soil bacteria – Science Daily

Science, publishing, and career / Peer review

Author affiliation can bias peer review: Single-blind vs Double-blind Peer Review in the Setting of Author Prestige – Kanu Okike – JAMA

September 27, 2016

Pediatric multiple sclerosis,  Hydra as a microbiome model, species from bat feces, textile wastewater, and sample preparation for metabolomics.

Events

HIV Microbiome Workshop 2016, November 17-18, 2016, NIH Campus, Bethesda, MD. Here is the program

Pregnancy and early life

Association of Chorioamnionitis with Aberrant Neonatal Gut Colonization and Adverse Clinical Outcomes – Kriti Puri – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory microbiome

Translational Aspects of the Human Respiratory Virome – Alicia B Mitchell – American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

Human skin and gut microbiome

The role of skin and gut microbiota in the development of atopic eczema – T. Marrs – British Journal of Dermatology

Associations between the gut microbiota and host immune markers in pediatric multiple sclerosis and controls – Helen Tremlett – BMC Neurology

Intestinal Dysbiosis and Yeast Isolation in Stool of Subjects with Autism Spectrum Disorders – Maria Rosaria Iovene – Mycopathologia

Interactions between Obesity Status and Dietary Intake of Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated Oils on Human Gut Microbiome Profiles in the Canola Oil Multicenter Intervention Trial (COMIT) – Shuaihua Pu – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Diet Influence on the Gut Microbiota and Dysbiosis related to Nutritional Disorders – Maryam Tidjani Alou – Human Microbiome Journal

Review: Role of the Intestinal Microbiota in Host Responses to Stressor Exposure – A.R. Mackos – International Review of Neurobiology

Review: Exploring relationships between host genome and microbiome: new insights from genome-wide association studies – Muslihudeen A. Abdul-Aziz – Frontiers in Microbiology

Animal models

Vitamin D and allergic airway disease shape the murine lung microbiome in a sex-specific manner – Michael Roggenbuck – Respiratory Research

Perspective: Transitioning from microbiome composition to microbial community interactions: the potential of the metaorganism Hydra as an experimental model – Peter Deines – Frontiers in Microbiology

Animal microbiome

BatsSpecies From Feces: Order-Wide Identification of Chiroptera From Guano and Other Non-Invasive Genetic Samples – Faith M. Walker – PLOS ONE

Symbionts modify interactions between insects and natural enemies in the field – Jan Hrček – Journal of Animal Ecology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Cultivated Sub-Populations of Soil Microbiomes Retain Early Flowering Plant Trait – Kevin Panke-Buisse – Microbial Ecology

Effects of Artificial Soil Aeration Volume and Frequency on Soil Enzyme Activity and Microbial Abundance when Cultivating Greenhouse Tomato – Yuan Li – Soil Science Society of America Journal

Water and pollution microbiome

Degradation of crude oil in a contaminated tidal flat area and the resilience of bacterial community – Jaejin Lee – Marine Pollution Bulletin

Assessing the composition of microbial communities in textile wastewater treatment plants in comparison with municipal wastewater treatment plants – Ken Meerbergen – MicrobiologyOpen

Metabolomics

Sample preparation procedures utilized in microbial metabolomics: an overview – Małgorzata Patejko – Journal of Chromatography B

More microbiology

The quest for the minimal bacterial genome – Esteban Martínez-García – Current Opinion in Biotechnology

Microbes in the news

Inaugural lecture will explore some microbes’ invisible war on humans – University of Kansas

 

September 26, 2016

Bifidobacteria, pathogens in oysters, root exudate cocktails.

Human mouth microbiome

Novel strategy to detect and locate periodontal pathogens: The PNA-FISH technique – Luzia Mendes – Microbiological Research

Human gut microbiome

Bifidobacteria—Insight into clinical outcomes and mechanisms of its probiotic action – Amrita Sarkar – Microbiological Research

Animal experiments

Response of germ-free mice to colonization with O. formigenes and altered Schaedler flora – Xingsheng Li – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Animal microbiome

The contribution of marine aggregate-associated bacteria to the accumulation of pathogenic bacteria in oysters: an agent-based model – Andrew M. Kramer – Ecology and Evolution

The Relative Abundance and Transcriptional Activity of Marine Sponge-Associated Microorganisms Emphasizing Groups Involved in Sulfur Cycle – Sigmund Jensen – Microbial Ecology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Root exudate cocktails: the link between plant diversity and soil microorganisms? – Katja Steinauer – Ecology and Evolution

Wastewater and pollution microbiology
Bacterial community analysis of an industrial wastewater treatment plant in Colombia with screening for lipid-degrading microorganisms – Lina Marcela Silva-Bedoya – Microbiological Research

Functional characterization and unique diversity of genes and microorganisms involved in arsenite oxidation from the tailings of a realgar mine – Xian-Chun Zeng – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

More microbes

Forum: Bacteria Are Smartphones and Mobile Genes Are Apps – J. Peter W. Young – Trends in Microbiology

Microbes in the news

How the Air Force Will Attack Its Tiniest Enemy: Plane-Corroding Bacteria – Eric Tegler – Popular Mechanics

Tiny Bacteria Are Eating America’s Fighter Jets – David Tracy – Foxtrotalpha

Body fat link to bacteria in faeces – BBC

Prof Emphasizes Importance of Microbiomes in Regulating Human Health – Shruti Juneha – The Cornell Daily Sun

Does this 25 year-old hold the key to winning the war against superbugs? – Nicola Smith – Telegraph.co.uk

Kissing chickens is bad for your health, CDC warns – Karin Brulliard – Washington Post

September 24, 2016

Eye microbiome, malnutrition and rotavirus, edible insects, vineyard management, and drones.

Human eye / skin microbiome

Impact of Microbiota on Resistance to Ocular Pseudomonas aeruginosa-Induced Keratitis – Abirami Kugadas – PLOS Pathogens

Press (scroll to halfway the page to read this item): Lab chat: Eye bacteria and contact lenses  – Megan Thielking – STAT News

Human gut microbiome

Malnutrition Is Associated with Protection from Rotavirus Diarrhea: Evidence from a Longitudinal Birth Cohort Study in Bangladesh – Hans Verkerke – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Animal models

Immunosuppression, peripheral inflammation and invasive infection from endogenous gut microbiota activate retinal microglia in mouse models – Victoria Maneu – Microbiology and Immunology

Animal microbiome

Phenological asynchrony between host plant and gypsy moth reduces insect gut microbiota and susceptibility to Bacillus thuringiensis – Vyacheslav V. Martemyanov – Ecology and Evolution

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Vineyard soil bacterial diversity and composition revealed by 16S rRNA genes: Differentiation by vineyard management – Kayla N. Burns – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Fungal community composition in soils subjected to long-term chemical fertilization is most influenced by the type of organic matter – Ruibo Sun – Environmental Microbiology

Change in soil fungal community structure driven by a decline in ectomycorrhizal fungi following a mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreak – Gregory J. Pec – New Phytologist

Water microbiome

Dense water plumes modulate richness and productivity of deep sea microbes – Gian Marco Luna – Environmental Microbiology

Food microbiology

The microbiota of marketed processed edible insects as revealed by high-throughput sequencing – Cristiana Garofalo – Food Microbiology

Metagenomics reveals flavour metabolic network of cereal vinegar microbiota – Linhuan Wu – Food Microbiology

Techniques

Detection of food and skin pathogen microbiota by means of an electronic nose based on metal oxide chemiresistors – Estefanía Núñez Carmona – Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical

A one-step matrix application method for MALDI mass spectrometry imaging of bacterial colony biofilms – Bin Li – Journal of Mass Spectrometry

Microbial ecology

The biogeography of kin discrimination across microbial neighbourhoods – Susanne A. Kraemer – Molecular Ecology

More microbiology

Microbes can flyDrone Transport of Microbes in Blood and Sputum Laboratory Specimens – Timothy K. Amukele – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Microbes in the news

New CDC Report Shows One Quarter of Contact Lens-related Eye Infections Due to Improper Use, Modifiable Factors – PR Web

Extremely rare US leprosy case found in California elementary school student – Andrew Dalton – STAT News

How Can Science Benefit from Microbes on the ISS? – Jessica F – Nature World News

New Research Indicates Alzheimer’s and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases Are Contagious – PR Newswire

Deadly Viruses and Bacteria Mistakenly Shipped 21 Times – R. Jeffrey Smith – The Daily Beast

Science, publishing, and career

Meet the world’s top peer reviewer: Jonas Ranstam – Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus – STAT News