September 2, 2016

Correlation between oligosaccharides and gut microbes in infants, metabolic pathways in 10 infant twin pairs, an Open-Source alternative for USEARCH, and an important new FDA rule.

Events

Unfortunately, all of the confirmed speakers are men. Nature Conference on Environmental and Human Microbiomes: Drivers of Future Sustainability, February 12-15, 2017, Singapore

Pregnancy and birth

Identification of Oligosaccharides in Feces of Breast-fed Infants and Their Correlation with the Gut Microbial Community – Jasmine C. C. Davis – Molecular & Cellular Proteomics

Membrane Vesicles of Group B Streptococcus Disrupt Feto-Maternal Barrier Leading to Preterm Birth – Manalee Vishnu Surve – PLOS Pathogens

Press: Bacteria linked to stillbirth: mouse study – Sarah Wiedersehn – Australian Associated Press

Diversity of Gut Microbiota Metabolic Pathways in 10 Pairs of Chinese Infant Twins – Shaoming Zhou – PLOS ONE

A preliminary investigation on the relationship between gut microbiota and gene expressions in peripheral mononuclear cells of infants with autism spectrum disorders – Ryo Inoue – Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry

Human gut microbiome

Commentary: Gut microbiota: Changes in gut microbes and host metabolism: squaring the circle? – Patrice D. Cani – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Animal microbiome

Bacterial diversity of the American sand fly Lutzomyia intermedia using high-throughput metagenomic sequencing – Carolina Cunha Monteiro – Parasites & Vectors

Deep COI sequencing of standardized benthic samples unveils overlooked diversity of Jordanian coral reefs in the northern Red Sea – Mamoon M.D. Al-Rshaidat – Genome

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Metagenomic Analysis of Some Potential Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria in Arable Soils at Different Formation Processes – Agnieszka Wolińska – Microbial Ecology

Water microbiome

Microbial diversity within the Trichodesmium holobiont – Mónica Rouco – Environmental Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

MetaProb: accurate metagenomic reads binning based on probabilistic sequence signatures – Samuele Girotto – Bioinformatics

A heritability-based comparison of methods used to cluster 16S rRNA gene sequences into operational taxonomic units – Matthew A. Jackson – PeerJ

An Open Source alternative for USEARCH: VSEARCH: a versatile open source tool for metagenomics – Torbjørn Rognes- PeerJ Preprint

Using viromes to predict novel immune proteins in non-model organisms – Steven D. Quistad – Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Microbes in the news

FDA issues final rule on safety and effectiveness of antibacterial soaps. Rule removes triclosan and triclocarban from over-the-counter antibacterial hand and body washes – FDA

FDA bans antibacterial soaps; “No scientific evidence” they’re safe, effective
Ban includes soaps with any of 19 chemicals, including triclosan – Beth Mole – ArsTechnica

Living Russian Dolls.They have bacteria in their cells, and smaller bacteria in those bacteria—and that’s not even the weirdest bit – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

Sydney scientists accidentally discover antibiotic to treat koalas with chlamydia – Matt Wordsworth – ABC Australia

High Demand For Antibiotics Leads To Growth In Microbiology Culture Industry In United States – MedGadget

September 1, 2016

Bedouins, urban Saoudis and monkeys, a subglacial lake, and the oldest microbial fossils.

Events

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Workshop on Viruses to be Held in Singapore, January 2017 – David Coil – MicroBEnet

Human respiratory microbiome

News: Does barnyard dust protect Amish children from asthma? – Bryant Furlow – The Lancet

Human gut microbiome

Gut microbiome and dietary patterns in different Saudi populations and monkeys – Emmanouil Angelakis – Scientific Reports

Fecal Microbiota Transplantation is Safe and Efficacious for Recurrent or Refractory Clostridium difficile Infection in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease – Monika Fischer

Animal experiments

High fat diet drives obesity regardless the composition of gut microbiota in mice – Sylvie Rabot – Scientific Reports

Gut Microbiota Promote Angiotensin II–Induced Arterial Hypertension and Vascular Dysfunction – Susanne H. Karbach – Hypertension

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Forest area and connectivity influence root-associated fungal communities in a fragmented landscape – Rachel L. Vannette – Ecology

Review: Comparative phylogenomics of symbiotic associations – Pierre-Marc Delaux – New Phytologist

Water and extremophile

Microbial Community Structure of Subglacial Lake Whillans, West Antarctica – Amanda M. Achberger – Frontiers in Microbiology

Dust microbiome

Poultry houses: DNA from dust: comparative genomics of large DNA viruses in field surveillance samples – Utsav Pandey – bioRxiv

Techniques

Direct 16S rRNA-seq from bacterial communities: a PCR-independent approach to simultaneously assess microbial diversity and functional activity potential of each taxon – Riccardo Rosselli – Scientific Reports

More microbiology

Screen Shot 2016-09-01 at 06.30PM, Sep 01

Geological map and location of microbial structures

Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures – Allen P. Nutman – Nature

Press: Life thrived on young Earth: scientists discover 3.7-billion-year-old fossils – Science Daily
The World’s Oldest Fossils Are 3.7 Billion Years Old. The newly discovered rocks suggest that life arose very quickly after the Earth was formed – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

Microbes in the news

Microbial genomics and the future of food microbiology – Julie Wolf – American Society for Microbiology

Space Microbiome? Yes Please! and I’ll take a minION sequencer as well if you don’t mind – Ben Libberton – NPJ Biofilms Community

Multitalented microbiology student is highly lauded for her scholarship – Western Michigan University

Manuka honey makes bacteria less resistant to antibiotics – Rowena Jenkins – The Conversation

Changes in Gut microflora – early warning of Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS)? – Jackie Bellamy-Zions – Harness Link

uBiome Hires New Vice President of Research and Development: Dr. Audrey Goddard Joins from Genomic Health and Genentech – PR Web

Samorost 3’s fairy tale of microbiology is now on iPhone – Chris Priestman – Kill Screen

Science, publishing, and career

How to Motivate Your Employees: Give Them Compliments and Pizza – Melissa Dahl – New York Magazine

Opinion: Fixing Science’s Human Bias. It’s time to accelerate the conversation about why the research community is still not diverse – Edward Courchaine and Sarah Smaga – The Scientist

Thanks to the glass ceiling breakers – Yarrow Axford – Science

Peer review

HT: Tomer Altman: Stupid Patent of the Month: Elsevier Patents Online Peer Review – Electronic Frontier Foundation

Research Integrity

OMICS vs. The FTC: Plagiarism at a Predatory Publisher – Neuroskeptic – Discover

 

August 31, 2016

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ICU, Rudlavibizon, Flickr

Gut microbiota changes in the ICU, air microbiome of the Gobi desert, host response of human cells to gut microbiota.

Event

Synbiobeta SF2016, October 4-6, South San Francisco, CA

Human gut microbiome

Extreme Dysbiosis of the Microbiome in Critical Illness – Daniel McDonald – mSphere

Press: ICU patients lose helpful gut bacteria within days of hospital admission – Science Daily
Tracking Bacterial Imbalance in the ICU – Stephen Ornes -mBiosphere

Review: The human gut microbiome, diet, and health: “post hoc non ergo propter hoc” – Guus Roeselers – Trends in Food Science & Technology

Review: Interplay between gut microbiota, its metabolites and human metabolism: dissecting cause from consequence – A.V. Hartstra – Trends in Food Science & Technology

Animal and other model experiments

Bidirectional communication between the Aryl hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) and the microbiome tunes host metabolism – Agata Korecka – NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes

Temporal dynamics of bacterial microbiota in the human oral cavity determined using an in situ model of dental biofilms – Nanako Wake – NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes

Normalizing Microbiota-Induced Retinoic Acid Deficiency Stimulates Protective CD8+ T Cell-Mediated Immunity in Colorectal Cancer – Nupur Bhattacharya – Immunity

Genetic and Transcriptional Analysis of Human Host Response to Healthy Gut Microbiota – Allison L. Richards – mSystems

Animal microbiome

Whole gut microbiome composition of damselfish and cardinalfish before and after reef settlement – Darren J Parris – PeerJ

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Specialized Microbiome of a Halophyte and its Role in Helping Non-Host Plants to Withstand Salinity – Zhilin Yuan – Scientific Reports

A native and an invasive dune grass share similar, patchily distributed, root-associated fungal communities – Renee B. Johansen – Fungal Ecology

Bacterial community structure and function shift across a northern boreal forest fire chronosequence – Hui Sun – Scientific Reports

Water microbiome

Complex bacterial communities in the deep-sea sediments of the Bay of Bengal and volcanic Barren Island in the Andaman Sea – Pankaj Verma – Marine Genomics

Neutral processes and species sorting in benthic microalgal community assembly: effects of tidal resuspension – Craig J. Plante – Journal of Phycology

Air microbiome

Variations in the structure of airborne bacterial communities in Tsogt-Ovoo of Gobi desert area during dust events – Teruya Maki – Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

A phylogenetic transform enhances analysis of compositional microbiota data – Justin D Silverman – bioRxiv

Higher classification sensitivity of short metagenomic reads with CLARK-S – Rachid Ounit – Bioinformatics

GRASPx: efficient homolog-search of short peptide metagenome database through simultaneous alignment and assembly – Cuncong Zhong – BMC Bioinformatics

Microbial ecology

Quantifying human impact on Earth’s microbiome – Stephen B. Pointing – Nature Microbiology

Synthetic microbial ecology and the dynamic interplay between microbial genotypes –
Jan Dolinšek – FEMS Microbiology Reviews

Microbes in the news

Engineered gut bacteria protect mice against obesity, improve liver function – Oliver Worsley – Fierce Biotech

You’re probably not doing metagenomics – Mick Watson – Opiniomics

Mayo Adds To Its List Of Gut Microbiome Startup Collaborators – Don Jacobson – Twin Cities Business

Nice analysis of Tweets from #ISME16 by Keith Turner – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBEnet

Peer review and science misconduct

Recognizing Peer Reviewers: a Webinar to Celebrate Editors and Researchers – September 19, 2016 – Elsevier Publishing Campus

Stop ignoring misconduct – Donald S. Kornfeld & Sandra L. Titus – Nature

Bik’s Non-Microbiology Picks

Paperfuge: An ultra-low cost, hand-powered centrifuge inspired by the mechanics of a whirligig toy – M. Saad Bhamla – bioRxiv

August 29b, 2016

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Male grey cockatiel, Wikipedia

Factors that shape early life microbiome, pet birds, robust ambient temperature storage of stool samples, antibacterial activity of wasabi.

Pregnancy and birth

Joint effects of pregnancy, sociocultural, and environmental factors on early life gut microbiome structure and diversity – Albert M. Levin – Scientific Reports

Human gut microbiome

Theoretical Review: The shift work and health research agenda: Considering changes in gut microbiota as a pathway linking shift work, sleep loss and circadian misalignment, and metabolic disease – Amy C. Reynolds – Sleep Medicine Reviews

Review: Mechanisms of inflammation-driven bacterial dysbiosis in the gut – M Y Zeng – Mucosal Immunology

Animal experiments

Review: Experimental Models to Study the Role of Microbes in Host-Parasite Interactions – Megan A. Hahn – Frontiers in Microbiology

Animal microbiome

Comprehensive Molecular Characterization of Bacterial Communities in Feces of Pet Birds Using 16S Marker Sequencing – Jose F. Garcia-Mazcorro – Microbial Ecology

Effects of environment, dietary regime and ageing on the dengue vector microbiota: evidence of a core microbiota throughout Aedes aegypti lifespan – Mariana Rocha David – Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz

Plants, roots, and soil microbiome

Visual Comparative Omics of Fungi for Plant Biomass Deconstruction – Shingo Miyauchi – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bacterial Abilities and Adaptation Toward the Rhizosphere Colonization – Lucas D. Lopes – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Advances in research on Epichloë endophytes in Chinese native grasses – Hui Song – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water microbiome

Phytoplankton-associated bacterial community composition and succession during toxic diatom bloom and non-bloom events – Marilou P. Sison-Mangus – Frontiers in Microbiology

Distinct distribution patterns of prokaryotes between sediment and water in the Yellow River estuary – Guangshan Wei – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Waste and pollution microbiome

Evaluating robustness of a diesel-degrading bacterial consortium isolated from contaminated soil – Mateusz Sydow – New Biotechnology

Metagenomic analysis of an ecological wastewater treatment plant’s microbial communities and their potential to metabolize pharmaceuticals – Ian N. Balcom – F1000 Research Preprint

Food microbiology

Review: Navigating Microbiological Food Safety in the Era of Whole-Genome Sequencing – J. Ronholm – Clinical Microbiology Reviews

Techniques

A robust ambient temperature collection and stabilization strategy: Enabling worldwide functional studies of the human microbiome – Ericka L. Anderson – Scientific Reports

Press: DNA Genotek’s OMNIgene®Ÿ GUT Kit is Proposed as Standardized Test for Worldwide Studies of the Human Microbiome – Globe NewsWire

More microbiology

Antibacterial activities of wasabi against Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Staphylococcus aureus – Zhongjing Lu – Frontiers in Microbiology

Resource Availability Modulates the Cooperative and Competitive Nature of a Microbial Cross-Feeding Mutualism – Tim A. Hoek – PLOS Biology

Microbes in the news

The women who discovered India’s first HIV cases – Geeta Pandey – BBC News

Captivity Makes Monkey Microbiomes More Human-Like – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

Interview with author of The Germ Files – Jason Tetro – Ben Libberton – Nature Microbiology Community

UGent researchers create bacteria that turns organic waste into plastic – Toon Lambrechts – Flanders Today

First DNA Sequencing in Space a Game Changer – NASA

UCSD alumna first to sequence DNA in space – Gary Robbins – San Diego Union Tribune

 

August 27, 2016

Gut microbiome in pre-Columbian mummies, spacecraft assembly cleanrooms, smokeless tobacco products, time series data, and a return of the Musical Microbes.

Human skin microbiome

Skin fungal community and its correlation with bacterial community of urban Chinese individuals – Marcus H. Y. Leung – Microbiome

Human oral microbiome

High-throughput quantitative method for assessing coaggregation among oral bacterial species – E. Levin-Sparenberg – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Taxonomic and predicted metabolic profiles of the human gut microbiome in pre-Columbian mummies – Tasha M. Santiago-Rodriguez – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Note: unclear definition of “redemption”; means that a medication prescription was filled. Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Treatment and Subsequent Childhood Type 1 Diabetes: A Nationwide Danish Cohort Study – Tine D. Clausen – PLOS ONE

Animal experiments

Impact of dietary fibre:starch ratio in shaping caecal archaea revealed in rabbits – Y. Zhu – Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Endolithic microbial diversity in sandstone and granite from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica – Stephen D. J. Archer – Polar Biology

Dry Season Constrains Bacterial Phylogenetic Diversity in a Semi-Arid Rhizosphere System – Rodrigo Gouvêa Taketani – Microbial Ecology

Review: Bacteria in decomposing wood and their interactions with wood-decay fungi – Sarah R. Johnston – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Water microbiome

Multitaxon activity profiling reveals differential microbial response to reduced seawater pH and oil pollution – Francisco J. R. C. Coelho – Molecular Ecology

High-throughput metabarcoding of eukaryotic diversity for environmental monitoring of offshore oil-drilling activities – Anders Lanzén – Molecular Ecology

Microbial source tracking in impaired watersheds using PhyloChip and machine-learning classification – Eric A. Dubinsky – Water Research

Spacecraft microbiome

Functional metagenomics of spacecraft assembly cleanrooms: Presence of virulence factors associated with human pathogens – Mina Bashir – Frontiers in Microbiology

Tobacco microbiome

Bacterial Populations Associated with Smokeless Tobacco Products – Jing Han – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Bacteria in smokeless tobacco products may be a health concern – American Society for Microbiology
http://www.asm.org/index.php/journal-press-releases/94525-bacteria-in-smokeless-tobacco-products-may-be-a-health-concern
Proteomics

Development of an Integrated Pipeline for Profiling Microbial Proteins from Mouse Fecal Samples by LC-MS/MS – Jing Wu – Journal of Proteome Research

Bioinformatics, metagenomics, and statistics

Modeling time-series data from microbial communities – Benjamin J Ridenhour – bioRxiv

Improving ancient DNA genome assembly – Alexander Seitz – PeerJ Preprint

More microbiology

The Musical Microbes are back! Influence of a mono-frequency sound on bacteria can be a function of the sound-level – Vijay Kothari – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

Focus: California drought reducing beach bacteria: Reduced runoff has meant fewer health advisories, data show – Daniel Wheaton – San Diego Union Tribune
Mystery Solved: How Lyme Disease Bacteria Spread Around the Body – Rachael Rettner – LiveScience

In sub-Saharan Africa, cancer can be an infectious disease – ScienceDaily

#BacteriaHysteria: You Should Never Ask For a Slice Of Lemon In Your Drink – Alice Sholl – Yahoo

Science, publishing, and career

There Was A Huge Outpouring Of Support For This Little Girl Who Got Bullied For Loving Bugs. Let Sophia play with her bugs! – Ishmael N. Daro – BuzzFeed

August 26, 2016

MRI scans of colonic contents in setting of diet or defaecation, fecal transplants, the microbiome of ambulances, and a core taxa tool.

Pregnancy and birth

Longitudinal study on clinical and microbial analysis of periodontal status in pregnancy – Fernanda Campos Machado – Brazilian Oral Research

Review: Role of microbiota function during early life and children neurodevelopment – Tomás Cerdó – Trends in Food Science & Technology

Human oral microbiome (also see above)

Evaluation of oral microbiota in undernourished and eutrophic children using checkerboard DNA-DNA hybridization – M. Testa – Anaerobe

Review: Human neutrophils and oral microbiota: a constant tug-of-war between a harmonious and a discordant coexistence – Silvia M. Uriarte – Immunological Reviews

Human skin microbiome

Temporal stability in chronic wound microbiota is associated with poor healing – Michael Loesche – Journal of Investigative Dermatology

Human gut microbiome

Colonic content: effect of diet, meals, and defecation – R. A. Bendezú – Neurogastroenterology & Motility

Gut microbiota associated with HIV infection is significantly enriched in bacteria tolerant to oxygen – Grégory Dubourg – BMJ Open Gastroenterology

Prevalence and genetic diversity of Blastocystis in family units living in the United States – Pauline D. Scanlan – Infection, Genetics and Evolution

Nitrogen fixation and nifH diversity in human gut microbiota – Katsura Igai – Scientific Reports

Letter: Intestinal Microbiota and Health of Adults Who Were Born by Cesarean Delivery – James J. Goedert – JAMA Pediatrics

Opinion: The microbiome, microbial generated pro-inflammatory neurotoxins, and Alzheimer’s disease – Walter J. Lukiw – Journal of Sport and Health Science

Review: Estrogen and Microbiota Crosstalk: Should We Pay Attention? – Karen L. Chen – Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism

Review: Gender, aging and longevity in humans: an update of an intriguing/neglected scenario paving the way to a gender-specific medicine – Rita Ostan – Clinical Science

Fecal transplants

Estimating the risks of faecal transplants – K. Patel – The Journal of Hospital Infection

Effect of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation on Recurrence in Multiply Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection: A Randomized Trial – Colleen R. Kelly – Annals of Internal Medicine

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi communities from tropical Africa reveal strong ecological structure – Susana Rodríguez-Echeverría – New Phytologist

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

Water microbiome

Structure and function of methanogenic microbial communities in sediments of Amazonian lakes with different water types – Yang Ji – Environmental Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Detection and characterization of surface microbial contamination in emergency ambulances – Aketza Varona-Barquin – American Journal of Infection Control

Fitness and recovery of bacterial communities and antibiotic resistance genes in urban wastewaters exposed to classical disinfection treatments – Andrea Di Cesare – Environmental Science & Technology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

PhyloCore: A phylogenetic approach to identifying core taxa in microbial communities – Tiantian Ren – Gene

Microbes in the news

Gut reaction: the surprising power of microbes – Ed Yong – The Guardian

Want to feel better? Be kind to your bugs. Ed Yong’s new book will give you a positive outlook on your body’s trillions of bacteria – Kate Womersley – The Spectator

The world’s largest bacterial study of baby poo – MedicalXpress

What’s in Your Poo? The nonmicrobial components of feces may have important consequences as we try to grapple with microbiome research – Kevin Bonham – Scientific American

Solving a 48-year-old mystery: scientists succeed at growing noroviruses in human intestinal cell cultures in the lab – Graciela Gutierrez – Baylor College of Medicine

MSU researchers spread the buzz about bee viruses – Marshall Swearingen – Montana State University

Science, publishing, and career

Family ties ‘help scientists to get ahead’ in some countries. Levels of nepotism in scientific publishing have been revealed by report – Jack Grove  – Times Higher Education

Supervisors can do a lot more to support PhD students. Many doctoral candidates feel poorly looked after. More awareness and empathy from academics can help fight that – Geoffrey Cantor – Times Higher Education

New leader of NIH’s research watchdog faces staff revolt – Jocelyn Kaiser – Science

August 25, 2016

Microbiome of the Graduate Student Gut, allergic cats, tree phyllosphere, milk tanker trucks, and microbes of soda lakes.

Pregnancy and birth

Review: Role of microbiota function during early life and children neurodevelopment – Tomás Cerdó – Trends in Food Science & Technology

General microbiome

Now published after preprint earlier this year and article in Cell: Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body – Ron Sender – PLOS Biology

Enemies and brothers in arms: Candida albicans and gram-positive bacteria – Toni M. Förster – Cellular Microbiology

Human respiratory microbiome

General antibiotic exposure is associated with increased risk of developing chronic rhinosinusitis – Alice Z. Maxfield – The Laryngoscope

Evidence and Role for Bacterial Mucin Degradation in Cystic Fibrosis Airway Disease – Jeffrey M. Flynn – PLOS Pathogens

Human gut microbiome

Master Thesis: Characterizing Microbiome Changes in the Graduate Student Gut – Justin Roy Lund – University of Oklahoma

Altered Fecal Microbiota Correlates with Liver Biochemistry in Nonobese Patients with Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease – Baohong Wang – Scientific Reports

Prosteatotic and Protective Components in a Unique Model of Fatty Liver: Gut Microbiota and Suppressed Complement System – Long Liu – Scientific Reports

Is there a role for stool metabolomics in cystic fibrosis? – Nadeem O Kaakoush – Pediatrics International

Animal microbiome

Allergic to humans? Characterization of the cutaneous mycobiota in healthy and allergic cats using next generation sequencing – Courtney Meason-Smith – Veterinary Dermatology

Fish: The influence of weight and gender on intestinal bacterial community of wild largemouth bronze gudgeon (Coreius guichenoti, 1874) – Xuemei Li – BMC Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Tree phyllosphere bacterial communities: exploring the magnitude of intra- and inter-individual variation among host species – Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe – PeerJ

Long-Term Recovery of Microbial Communities in the Boreal Bryosphere Following Fire Disturbance – Nick A. Cutler – Microbial Ecology

Autochthonous Microbiota in Arsenic-Bearing Technosols from Zemianske Kostoľany (Slovakia) and Its Potential for Bioleaching and Biovolatilization of Arsenic – Alexandra Šimonovičová – Water, Air, & Soil Pollution

Built environment microbiology

Fungi and Bacteria in Indoor Cultural Heritage Environments: Microbial-related Risks for Artworks and Human Health – Enza Di Carlo – Environment and Ecology Research

Fitness and recovery of bacterial communities and antibiotic resistance genes in urban wastewaters exposed to classical disinfection treatments – Andrea Di Cesare – Environmental Science & Technology

Bacterial diversity and antibiotic resistances of abundant aerobic culturable bacteria in input and output samples of fifteen German biogas plants – Thorsten Schauss – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Food microbiology

The Core and Seasonal Microbiota of Raw Bovine Milk in Tanker Trucks and the Impact of Transfer to a Milk Processing Facility – Mary E. Kable – mBio

Water and extremophile microbiome

Microbial community diversity and composition varies with habitat characteristics and biofilm function in macrophyte-rich streams – Peter S. Levi – Oikos

Evaluation of Alternative High-Throughput Sequencing Methodologies for the Monitoring of Marine Picoplanktonic Biodiversity Based on rRNA Gene Amplicons – Isabel Ferrera- Frontiers in Marine Science

Book Chapter: Bacteria, Archaea and Viruses of Soda Lakes – William D. Grant – Soda Lakes of East Africa

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

ResistoMap – online visualization of human gut microbiota antibiotic resistome – Konstantin Yarygin – bioRxiv

Techniques

Protocols.io: Virtual Communities for Protocol Development and Discussion – Leonid Teytelman – PLOS Biology

More microbiology

The Ecology and Evolution of Microbial Competition – Melanie Ghoul – Trends in Microbiology

Microbes in the news

How Designers and Scientists Are Using Bees to Map NYC’s Microbes – Liz Stinson – Wired

Graphic novel about World War I depicts gross realities of dysentery – Carolyn Webb – The Age Victoria

The newest food trend: fermentation – Ted Weesner – Boston Globe

 

 

August 24, 2016

Revisiting obesity and microbiome links, movies of Vibrio growing in biofilms, and decomposing chickens (yum)!

My apologies for not having had a lot of time to keep up with the literature. I’m now running all searches after work hours. This week we have friends over from Europe, and after 7 pm, my friends go before work ! Here is what I have so far, but it’s not as recent as I would like it to be. Hopefully I will have some time in the weekend to catch up.

Jobs and events

Postdoc Position in Bioinformatics, Metagenomics and the Human Microbiome – Jeroen Raes group, Leuven, Belgium

Human Microbiome Journal Club, Friday August 26: What is the most appropriate method for associating microbiome data with health and disease?

Human gut microbiome

Previously on bioRxiv, now published: Looking for a Signal in the Noise: Revisiting Obesity and the Microbiome – Marc A. Sze, Patrick D. Schloss – mBio

No, your gut bacteria ISN’T making you fat: Scientists find ‘no difference’ between the microbes in obese and thin people’s stomachs – Daily Mail

Effect of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation on Recurrence in Multiply Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection: A Randomized Trial – Colleen R. Kelly – Annals of Internal Medicine

Systematic Review: Adverse Events of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation – Sinan Wang – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

Nutrition mediates the expression of cultivar–farmer conflict in a fungus-growing ant – Jonathan Z. Shik – PNAS

Water microbiome

Distinct bacterial communities in surficial seafloor sediments following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout – Tingting Yang – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbiome of death

Effect of Substrate on Identification of Microbial Communities in Poultry Carcass Composting and Microorganisms Associated with Poultry Carcass Decomposition – Jie Wang – Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Using Dendritic Heat Maps to Simultaneously Display Genotype Divergence with Phenotype Divergence – Matthew Kellom – PLOS ONE

Microbial Ecology

Review: Biotic Interactions in Microbial Communities as Modulators of Biogeochemical Processes: Methanotrophy as a Model System – Adrian Ho – Frontiers in Microbiology

More microbiology

Vibrio cholerae biofilm growth program and architecture revealed by single-cell live imaging – Jing Yan – PNAS

Comparative genomics of biotechnologically important yeasts – Robert Riley – PNAS

Microbes in the news

Great Moments in Science: The microscopic high-tech wizardry of bacteria – Karl Kruszelnicki – ABC Australia

Bacteria are the probably cause of barnacles sticking to boats – battling biofouling with biology – Mary Beth Griggs – PopSci

Bacteria Hysteria

Your Bed Is A Hotbed Of Bacteria – Joy D’Souza – Huffington Post Canada
Bacteria in your Bed – “study” sponsored by AmeriSleep (huge CoI)

Science, publishing, and career

Including Diverse Voices in Science Stories –  Christina Selby – The Open Notebook

 

August 23, 2016

The bagpipe microbiome, antibiotic disturbance and diabetes risk, tubeworm metamorphosis, and immune tolerance to intestinal bacteria.

Jobs

Assistant or Associate Professor in Immunology (Tenure Track), Division of Immunology of the Department of Microbiology & Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Assistant/Associate/Professor of Microbiology and Infectious Disease, Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, TN

Respiratory microbiome

Bagpipe lung; a new type of interstitial lung disease? – Jenny King – Thorax

Human gut microbiome / bioinformatics

Bioinformatics support for the Tübiom community gut microbiome project – Sina Beier- PeerJ Preprint

Review: Eosinophils, probiotics, and the microbiome – Helene F. Rosenberg – Journal of Leukocyte Biology

Animal experiments

Antibiotic-mediated gut microbiome perturbation accelerates development of type 1 diabetes in mice – Alexandra E. Livanos – Nature Microbiology

Antibiotic Therapy During Infancy Increases Type 1 Diabetes Risk in Mice – Alison F. Takemura – The Scientist

Life Inside an Acorn: How Microclimate and Microbes Influence Nest Organization in Temnothorax Ants – Joseph Karlik – Ethology

Stepwise metamorphosis of the tubeworm Hydroides elegans is mediated by a bacterial inducer and MAPK signaling – Nicholas J. Shikuma – PNAS

Strange experiment: Gut microbiota can transfer fiber characteristics and lipid metabolic profiles of skeletal muscle from pigs to germ-free mice – Honglin Yan – Scientific Reports

pH drop impacts differentially skin and gut microbiota of the Amazonian fish tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) – François-Étienne Sylvain – Scientific Reports

Immune tolerance to an intestine-adapted bacteria, Chryseobacterium sp., injected into the hemocoel of Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis – Jiae Lee – Scientific Reports

Alternative for antibiotics: Predatory bacteria are nontoxic to the rabbit ocular surface – Eric G. Romanowski – Scientific Reports

Animal microbiome

Multi-marker metabarcoding of coral skeletons reveals a rich microbiome and diverse evolutionary origins of endolithic algae – Vanessa Rossetto Marcelino – Scientific Reports

Techniques
Common methods for fecal sample storage in field studies yield consistent signatures of individual identity in microbiome sequencing data – Ran Blekhman – Scientific Reports

Microbes in the news

Why We Sit on One Type of Stool but, Ideally, Not on Another – Julie Taylor – uBiome Blog
Gene-modified soil bacteria promise eco-friendly computing. The US Navy is creating nanowires from one of the most renewable resources on the planet – Jon Fingas – EnGadget

Inaugural ACS Infectious Diseases Young Investigator Awards Winners Announced: Audrey Odom, Timothy Wencewicz, Marcos Pires – ACS Axial

Ghent scientist uses bacteria to remove methane from air – Andy Furniere – Flanders Today

Microbes are More Social Than You Think, But Not Always in a Good Way – Jeffrey Marlow – Discover

Science, publishing, and career

More Faculty Diversity, Not on Tenure Track – Colleen Flaherty – InsideHigherEd

 

the Macroscope – a Big Picture view of Planet Earth… articles, essays, and photographs by Jonathan Foley

August 20, 2016

Microbial eukaryotes along a pollution gradient, bacteria binding to ice, and testing the neutral theory.

Jobs and events

Assistant Professor in Genomics and Ecology of Microbial Pathogens in Food Systems Department of Food Science & Technology, University of California, Davis (via Jonathan Eisen – MicroBE.net)

Human gut microbiome

Gastrointestinal microbial populations can distinguish pediatric and adolescent Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) at the time of disease diagnosis – Seesandra V. Rajagopala – BMC Genomics

Review: Diet and Gut Microbial Function in Metabolic and Cardiovascular Disease Risk – Katie A. Meyer – Current Diabetes Reports

Review: Other Helicobacters and gastric microbiota – Chloë De Witte – Helicobacter

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Spatial Distribution of Eukaryotic Communities Using High-Throughput Sequencing Along a Pollution Gradient in the Arsenic-Rich Creek Sediments of Carnoulès Mine, France – A. Volant – Microbial Ecology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Putting life on ice: bacteria that bind to frozen water – Maya Bar Dolev – Journal of the Royal Society Interface

Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient – Ryan P. Kelly – PeerJ Preprint

Surveys, simulation and single-cell assays relate function and phylogeny in a lake ecosystem – Sarah P. Preheim – Nature Microbiology

Book: Microbes from Hell: archaea and hyperthermophiles – Patrick Forterre

Drinking water and water treatment microbiology

Elucidation of Taste- and Odor-Producing Bacteria and Toxigenic Cyanobacteria in a Midwestern Drinking Water Supply Reservoir by Shotgun Metagenomic Analysis – Timothy G. Otten – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Elucidating selection processes for antibiotic resistance in sewage treatment plants using metagenomics – Johan Bengtsson-Palme – Science of the Total Environment

Microbial Ecology

Testing the Neutral Theory of Biodiversity with Human Microbiome Datasets – Lianwei Li – Scientific Reports

Review: The Ecology and Evolution of Microbial Competition – Melanie Ghoul – Trends in Microbiology

Microbes in the news

We need to stop sanitizing everything and let bacteria back in our lives – Joselin Linder – New York Post

Bacteria may be key to environmentally friendly extraction of minerals – Angela Kean – S&P Capital IQ

Science, publishing, and career

What lurks in ageing academics’ unvisited personal archives? – Ron Iphofen – Times Higher Education
Army report says science director creating ‘environment of fear’ at USAMRIID – Sylvia Carignan – Frederick News Post