October 8, 2020

Greetings!!
Congratulations to the Nobel prize winners in Chemistry : Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for the discovery of “Genetic scissors: a tool for rewriting the code of life- the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors.” Today’s brief digest covers a wide range of articles on early life microbiome to respiratory microbiome. Happy reading!!!

General microbiome
Electrochemical Investigation of Thiobacillus denitrificans in a Bacterial Composite – Abada et al – Journal of the Electrochemical Society

Pregnancy and early life
Review: Can we prevent allergic disease? Understanding the links between the early life microbiome and allergic diseases of childhood – Petersen and Turvey – Current Opinion in Pediatrics

Multi-site human microbiome
Nutritional Targeting of the Microbiome as Potential Therapy for Malnutrition and Chronic Inflammation – Schröder et al – Nutrients

Human respiratory microbiome
Airway bacterial and fungal microbiome in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – Liu et al – bioRxiv

Human gut microbiome
Review: Mechanistic insight into the gut microbiome and its interaction with host immunity and inflammation – Xue et al – Animal Nutrition

Ethanol extract of Centella asiatica alleviated dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis via restoration on mucosa barrier and gut microbiota homeostasis – Li et al – Journal of Ethnopharmacology

Development of a three-compartment in vitro simulator of the Atlantic Salmon GI tract and associated microbial communities: SalmoSim – Kazlauskaite et al – bioRxiv

Time-dependent modulation of gut microbiome in response to systemic antifungal agents – Udawatte et al – bioRxiv

Animal microbiome
North American fireflies host low bacterial diversity – Green et al – bioRxiv

Plant, root, and soil microbiome
Anthropogenic Invasion of Micromycetes to Undisturbed Ecosystems of the Larsemann Hills Oasis (East Antarctica) – Vlasov et al – Russian Journal of Biological Invasions

Larch or Mongolian pine? Effects of tree species on soil properties and microbial biomass with the consideration of afforestation time – Teng et al – Ecological Engineering

Water and extremophile microbiome
Understanding the microbial trends in a nitritation reactor fed with primary settled municipal wastewater – Pedrouso et al – Separation and Purification Technology

Microbiome community and complexity indicate environmental gradient acclimatisation and potential microbial interaction of endemic coral holobionts in the South China Sea – Chen et al – Science of The Total Environment

Microbial community structure in the river sediments from upstream of Guanting Reservoir: potential impacts of reclaimed water recharge – Xie et al – Science of The Total Environment

Food microbiology
Next-generation sequencing to enhance the taxonomic resolution of the microbiological analysis of meat and meat-derived products – Reckem et al – Current Opinion in Food Science

Techniques
CRISPR/Cas12a mediated genome engineering in photosynthetic bacteria – Zhang et al – bioRxiv

October 07, 2020

Grant application (US specific grant)
2020 Biocodex Microbiota Foundation US $50,000 grant, supporting cutting edge research on the relationship between gut microbiota and chronic disease.
Deadline: October 15th.
Link: https://www.biocodexmicrobiotafoundation.com/national-call-projects/usa

General microbiome

Understanding the potential of lactobacilli in recurrent UTI prevention – Vagios, Hesham & Mitchel – Microbial Pathogenesis

Throat microbial community structure and functional changes in post-surgery laryngeal carcinoma patients – Hsueh et al. – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Bacterial diversity and prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes in the oral microbiome – Almeida et al. – PLOS One

Metagenomics of the modern and historical human oral microbiome with phylogenetic studies on Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sobrinus – Achtman & Zhou – Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

Pregnancy and early life

In utero human intestine harbors unique metabolomic features including bacterial metabolites – Li et al. – JCI insight

Interactions between Environmental Exposures and the Microbiome: Implications for Fetal Programming – Banerjee, Suter & Aagaard – Current Opinion in Endocrine and Metabolic Research

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

Alterations in blood microbiota after colonic cancer surgery – Søby et al. – BJS Open

Human gut microbiome

Estimating molecular preservation of the intestinal microbiome via metagenomic analyses of latrine sediments from two medieval cities – Sabin et al. – Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

Gut microbiota composition in obese and non-obese adult relatives from the highlands of Papua New Guinea – Jonduo et al. – FEMS Microbiology Letters

Fecal Bacteria as Biomarkers for Predicting Food Intake in Healthy Adults – Shinn et al. – The Journal of Nutrition

Animal experiments

Inulin fermentation by lactobacilli and bifidobacteria from dairy calves – Zhu et al. – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Microbial Diversity and Community Structure in Alpine Stream Soil – Rasool et al. – Geomicrobiology Journal

Food microbiology

Impact of dietary fibers in infant formula on gut microbiota and the intestinal immune barrier – Kong et al. – Food & Function

Bioinformatics

[PREPRINT] A framework for comparing microbial networks reveals core associations – Rottjers et al. – bioRxiv

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

Gut health benefits begin in utero – Brita Belli – YaleNews

Medieval poo holds clues to health of modern-day gut microbiome – Sara Rigby – Science Focus

October 6, 2020

Starting today’s digest with a couple of very interest studies on COVID-19 in Nature and Science. There’s also multiple interesting virome papers today.

COVID-19 & Vaccines

Selective and cross-reactive SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes in unexposed humans – Mateus et al. Science

The major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 is inherited from Neanderthals – Zeberg et al. Nature

Massive and rapid COVID-19 testing is feasible by extraction-free SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR – Smyrlaki et al. Nature Communications. 

General microbiome

Identification of new enterosynes using prebiotics: roles of bioactive lipids and mu-opioid receptor signalling in humans and mice – Abot et al. Gut

Assessing the Variation within the Oral Microbiome of Healthy Adults – Nearing et al. mSphere

Strain-Level Analysis of Bifidobacterium spp. from Gut Microbiomes of Adults with Differing Lactase Persistence Genotypes – Schmidt et al. mSystems

Description of a new member of the family Erysipelotrichaceae: Dakotella fusiforme gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from healthy human feces – Ghimire et al. PeerJ.

Gut microbiome

Distinct signatures of gut microbiome and metabolites associated with significant fibrosis in non-obese NAFLD – Lee et al. Nature Communications

Animal microbiome 

Fecal microbiota in client-owned obese dogs changes after weight loss with a high-fiber-high-protein diet – Bermudez-Sanchez. PeerJ

Plant microbiome

Achieving similar root microbiota composition in neighbouring plants through airborne signalling – Kong et al. ISME

Phages and viruses

Human-Gut-DNA Virome Variations across Geography, Ethnicity, and Urbanization – Zuo et al. Cell Host & Microbe

Phage gene expression and host responses lead to infection-dependent costs of CRISPR immunity – Meaden et al. ISME

Interaction of bacterial metagenome and virome in patients with cirrhosis and hepatic encephalopathy – Bajaj et al. Gut

Stability of the Virome in Lab- and Field-Collected Aedes albopictus Mosquitoes across Different Developmental Stages and Possible Core Viruses in the Publicly Available Virome Data of Aedes Mosquitoes – Shi et al. mSystems

October 2, 2020

Today’s exciting updates – FMT method to restore normal microbial development in caesarean-born infants, mechanism unveiled how dietary tryptophan improves alcohol induced liver injury, advance in droplet based microfluidics to study host-microbiome interactions, prebiotics encapsulation of probiotic to suppress colon cancer and new hope to curb plastic waste by discovery of plastic-eating enzyme cocktail. Happy weekend, stay safe!

General microbiome

Eligible blood donors’ decisions about donating stool for fecal microbiota transplantation: Does ambivalence play a role? – Melissa K. Hyde – Transfusion

Microbiota-Dependent Effects of IL-22 – Morsal Sabihi – Cells

Human microbiome

Maternal Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Cesarean-Born Infants Rapidly Restores Normal Gut Microbial Development: A Proof-of-Concept Study – Katri Korpela – Cell

Comparative analysis of the tonsillar microbiota in IgA nephropathy and other glomerular diseases – Ji In Park – Scientific Reports

Dysbiosis in the oral microbiomes of anti-CCP positive individuals at risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis – Zijian Cheng – Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases

Animal microbiome

Microbiota tryptophan metabolism induces aryl hydrocarbon receptor activation and improves alcohol-induced liver injury – Laura Wrzosek – Gut

Faecal microbiota transplant from aged donor mice affects spatial learning and memory via modulating hippocampal synaptic plasticity- and neurotransmission-related proteins in young recipients – Alfonsina D’Amato – Microbiome

Competitive reduction of poultry-borne enteric bacterial pathogens in chicken gut with bioactive Lactobacillus casei – Zajeba Tabashsum – Scientific Reports

Offspring susceptibility to metabolic alterations due to maternal high-fat diet and the impact of inhaled ozone used as a stressor – Samantha J. Snow – Scientific Reports

Beneficial effects of mung bean seed coat on the prevention of high-fat diet-induced obesity and the modulation of gut microbiota in mice – Dianzhi Hou – European Journal of Nutrition

Prebiotics‐Encapsulated Probiotic Spores Regulate Gut Microbiota and Suppress Colon Cancer – Di‐Wei Zheng – Advanced Materials

Multi-Omic Analysis Reveals Different Effects of Sulforaphane on the Microbiome and Metabolome in Old Compared to Young Mice – Se-Ran Jun – Microorganisms

Plant microbiome

Protists as catalyzers of microbial litter breakdown and carbon cycling at different temperature regimes – Stefan Geisen – Isme Journal

Techniques

Investigating host-microbiome interactions by droplet based microfluidics – Alexandra S. Tauzin – Microbiome

Non-specific amplification of human DNA is a major challenge for 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis – Sidney P. Walker – Scientific Reports

Non-microbiology picks

Plastic-eating enzyme ‘cocktail’ heralds new hope for plastic waste – Science Daily

October 1, 2020

Greetings, friends!

Today’s digest contains a wealth of microbiology articles focused on everything from the dog ear canal microbiome to estuarine methanogen communities. Rather than highlight a specific research article, today I’d like to encourage you to check out this week’s New York Times article profiling the organizers of Black in Micro Week and this commentary published by one of the organizers in mSphere. Black in Micro week began this Monday and programming is scheduled to continue through October 4th. If you missed earlier events, you’re in luck! The organizers have already uploaded videos of all completed events at the Black in Micro youtube channel.

Enjoy!


Events

Black in Micro Week is this week (September 28 – October 4th, 2020) on your favorite social media platforms! Check out the Black in Microbiology website for additional information, including a full programming schedule, and follow @BlackinMicro and #BlackinMicro on Twitter and Instagram.

Human respiratory microbiome

Airway microbiota is associated with the severity of non‐CF bronchiectasis – Li et al. – The Clinical Respiratory Journal

Human gut microbiome

Systematic analysis of gut microbiota in pregnant women and its correlations with individual heterogeneity – Yang et al. – npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

Review: Implication of gut microbiota in cardiovascular diseases – Zhou et al. – Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity

Animal experiments

Changes in the ear canal microbiota of dogs with otitis externa – Kasai et al. – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Soil borne Fusarium solani exhibited pathogenic effect on tomato cultivars in Nigeria – Abiala et al. – Archives of Phytopatholgy and Plant Protection

A symbiotic nutrient exchange within the cyanosphere microbiome of the biocrust cyanobacterium, Microcoleus vaginatus – Nelson et al. – The ISME Journal

Successional change of the fungal microbiome pine seedling roots inoculated with Tricholoma matsutake – Park et al. – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: an ecological accelerator of phytoremediation of metal contaminated soils – Tiwari et al. – Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science

Co‐occurrence history increases ecosystem stability and resilience in experimental plant communities – van Moorsel et al. – Ecology

Quantitative estimation of stochastic and deterministic processes for soil prokaryotic community assembly in the Yellow River floodplain – Yu et al. – European Journal of Soil Science

Water and extremophile microbiome

Homogeneous environmental selection dominates microbial community assembly in the oligotrophic South Pacific Gyre – Allen et al. – Molecular Ecology

An unexpectedly broad thermal and salinity-tolerant estuarine methanogen community – Blake et al. – Microorganisms

Microbial communities responded to tetracyclines and Cu(II) in constructed wetlands microcosms with Myriophyllum aquaticum – Guo et al. – Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

Built environment

Microbial community and function in nitrogen transformation of ectopic fermentation bed system for pig manure composting – Chen et al. – Bioresource Technology

Effect of hydrothermal hot-compression method on the antimicrobial performance of green building materials from heterogeneous cellulose wastes – Echeverria et al. – Journal of Cleaner Production

Nitrous oxide emission and microbial community of full-scale anoxic/aerobic membrane bioreactors at low dissolved oxygen setpoints – Wen et al. – Journal of Water Process Engineering

Response of Cyperus involucratus to sulfamethoxazole and ofloxacin-contaminated environments: Growth physiology, transportation, and microbial community – Xu et al. – Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

Microbes in the news

Black microbiologists push for visibility amid a pandemic – Wu – New York Times

Science, publishing, and career

Commentary: mSphere of influence: That’s racist—COVID-19, biological determinism, and the limits of hypotheses – Taylor – mSphere

September 28, 2020

In today’s digest read about ureteral stent microbiota, metagenomic growth estimators, social transmission as a major shaper of gut microbiota in wild mice [spoiler: mice with many friends in separate social circles have the richest microbiota], and give a listen to the first episode of Lonely Pipette, a brand new podcast about doing better science!

General microbiome

Review: Searching for principles of microbial physiology – Frank J Bruggeman – FEMS Microbiology Reviews

Metagenomics

*Benchmarking microbial growth rate predictions from metagenomes – Andrew M. Long – The ISME Journal

Metabolomics

Review: Gut microbial metabolites as multi-kingdom intermediates – Kimberly A. Krautkramer – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Multi-omics

Integration of absolute multi-omics reveals dynamic protein-to-RNA ratios and metabolic interplay within mixed-domain microbiomes – Francesco Delogu – Nature
Behind the paper: What can absolute multi-omics add to microbial ecology?

Gut microbiome

Macrophages Maintain Epithelium Integrity by Limiting Fungal Product Absorption – Aleksandra S. Chikina – Cell

Review: Anorexia nervosa and gut microbiota: A systematic review and quantitative synthesis of pooled microbiological data – Laura Di Lodovico – Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry

In search for interplay between stool microRNAs, microbiota and short chain fatty acids in Crohn’s disease – a preliminary study – Filip Ambrozkiewicz – BMC Gastroenterology

Vaginal microbiome

Slipped strand mispairing in the gene encoding cell wall associated sialidase NanH3 in Gardnerella spp – Shakya P. Kurukulasuriya – bioRxiv

The vaginal microbiome in pregnant women: knowledge gaps in relation to clinical relevance – Steven S. Witkin – BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Urinary microbiome

*Ureteral Stent Microbiota Is Associated with Patient Comorbidities but Not Antibiotic Exposure – Kait F. Al – Cell Reports Medicine

Novel Antibiotic-Loaded Particles Conferring Eradication of Deep Tissue Bacterial Reservoirs for the Treatment of Chronic Urinary Tract Infection – Wai Lau – Journal of Controlled Release

Respiratory microbiome

Altered respiratory microbiota composition and functionality associated with asthma early in life – Mohammad T. AL Bataineh – BMC Infectious Diseases

Oral microbiome

Comparative evaluation of microbial profiles of oral samples obtained at different collection time points and using different methods – Michi Omori – Clinical Oral Investigations

Alteration of salivary microbiome in periodontitis with or without type-2 diabetes mellitus and metformin treatment – Xiaoyu Sun – Scientific Reports

Animal microbiome

Habitat disturbance influences the skin microbiome of a rediscovered neotropical-montane frog – Randall R. Jiménez – BMC Microbiology

Lactobacillus spp. attenuate antibiotic-induced immune and microbiota dysregulation in honey bees – Brendan A. Daisley – Communications Biology

Animal experiment

Antibiotics increase aggression behavior and aggression-related pheromones and receptors in Drosophila melanogaster – Michal Grinberg – bioRxiv

*Social networks strongly predict the gut microbiota of wild mice – Aura Raulo – bioRxiv

Plant/root/soil microbiome

Insights into the diversity and survival strategies of soil bacterial isolates from the Atacama Desert – Alicyn Reverdy – bioRxiv

Rhizobacterial species richness improves sorghum growth and soil nutrient synergism in a nutrient-poor greenhouse soil – Mohammad Radhi Sahib – Scientific Reports

Water microbiome

Bacterial Opportunistic Pathogen Gene Markers in Municipal Drinking Water are Associated with Distribution System and Household Plumbing Characteristics – Sarah Haig – Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology

Collection system investigation microbial source tracking (CSI-MST): Applying molecular markers to identify sewer infrastructure failures – Dana Gonzalez – Journal of Microbiological Methods

New insights into the vertical distribution and microbial degradation of microplastics in urban river sediments – Lihua Niu – Water Research

Unveiling dynamics of size-dependent antibiotic resistome associated with microbial communities in full-scale wastewater treatment plants – Kaifeng Yu – Water Research

Aerobic microbial communities in the sediments of a marine oxygen minimum zone – Sabyasachi Bhattacharya – FEMS Microbiology Letters

Phages and viruses

Identification of Bacteriophages in the Vagina of Pregnant Women: A Descriptive Study – Antonio Charlys da Costa – BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology

The Protective Effect of Staphylococcus epidermidis Biofilm Matrix against Phage Predation – Luís D.R. Melo – Viruses

Bioinformatics

Inferring microbial co-occurrence networks from amplicon data: a systematic evaluation – Dileep Kishore – bioRxiv

GeneMates: an R package for detecting horizontal gene co-transfer between bacteria using gene-gene associations controlled for population structure – Yu Wan – BMC Genomics

A network approach to elucidate and prioritize microbial dark matter in microbial communities – Tatyana Zamkovaya – The ISME Journal

Podcast

*TLP #1: Navigating the path to team leader, guest: Maxim Greenberg – Renaud Pourpre and Jonathan Weitzman – The Lonely Pipette: helping scientists do better science

Burnout Syndrome, guest: Beth Thompson – Christine Boinett – Your Digital Mentor Podcast

August 2020 Pod: From the deep sea to the lost sense of smell – Bengtsson-Palme Lab – Microbiology Lab Pod

Events &c

Black In Microbiology Week [September 28 – October 4]
a vibrant celebration of Black microbiologists, with talks & panels featuring microbiologists across career stages and subdisciplines

How CHROMagar™ Revolutionized Microbe Identification – Andrea Prinzi – ASM
*Submit a Masterpiece to ASM Agar Art 2020!

The National Summer Undergraduate Research Project (NSURP) #nolabnoproblem initiativeProjects & Presentations

September 25, 2020

Hello from Lübeck/Germany,
today we cover a broad range of microbiome related studies. Of particular interest is a preprint by the Korem lab about use of antibiotics and increase in aggressive behavior in D. melanogaster. This study got already some attention on Twitter and in the press. Furthermore, one preprint covers the C. difficile species problem, investigating the genetic heterogeneity of this species. Last but not least, I would like to mention a paper investigating responses of megakaryocytes, erythroid cells and plasmablasts as hallmarks of severe COVID-19 trajectories.

COVID-19

[PREPRINT] Longitudinal multi-omics analysis identifies responses of megakaryocytes, erythroid cells and plasmablasts as hallmarks of severe COVID-19 trajectories – Bernardes et al. – medRxiv

General microbiome

[PREPRINT] The Clostridioides difficile species problem: global phylogenomic analysis uncovers three ancient, toxigenic, genomospecies – Knight et al. – bioRxiv

Human respiratory microbiome

Longitudinal Changes in Early Nasal Microbiota and the Risk of Childhood Asthma – Toivonen et al. – Pediatrics

Human gut microbiome

[REVIEW] Host–microbiota maladaptation in colorectal cancer – Janney, Pworie & Mann – Nature

Animal experiments

The maternal microbiome modulates fetal neurodevelopment in mice – Vuong et al. – Nature

[PREPRINT] Antibiotics increase aggression behavior and aggression-related pheromones and receptors in Drosophila melanogaster – Grinberg et al. – bioRxiv

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

[PREPRINT] Viruses carrying genes for microbial extremotolerance are abundant and widely dispersed in the Atacama Desert hyperarid soil – Hwang et al. – bioRxiv

Water and extremophile microbiome

[PREPRINT] Enrichment of novel Verrucomicrobia, Bacteroidetes and Krumholzibacteria in an oxygen-limited, methane- and iron-fed bioreactor inoculated with Bothnian Sea sediments – Martins et al. – bioRxiv

Built environment

[PREPRINT] The rise and the fall of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa epidemic lineage in a hospital – Petitjean et al. – bioRxiv

Metabolic traits

Metabolic trait diversity shapes marine biogeography – Deutsch, Penn & Seibel – Nature

Bioinformatics

[Preprint] Inferring microbial co-occurrence networks from amplicon data: a systematic evaluation – Kishore et al. – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

Tiny bacteria impact our health in big ways – Gina Rich – The Washington Post (KidsPost)

Gut microbiome plays important role in sleep regulation – ScienceDaily

September 23, 2020

General microbiome
Chemotaxis under flow disorder shapes microbial dispersion in porous media – Pietro de Anna – Nature Physics

REVIEW: A piece of the pie: engineering microbiomes by exploiting division of labor in complex polysaccharide consumption – Stephen RLindemann – Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering

Benchmarking microbial growth rate predictions from metagenomes – Andrew M. Long – The ISME Journal

Integration of absolute multi-omics reveals dynamic protein-to-RNA ratios and metabolic interplay within mixed-domain microbiomes – F. Delogu – Nature Communications

Spatial Variance of Species Distribution Predicts the Interspecies Interactions within a Microbial Metacommunity – So-Yeon Jeong & Tae Gwan Kim – Microbial Ecology

Human microbiome
The Social Distancing Imposed To Contain COVID-19 Can Affect Our Microbiome: a Double-Edged Sword in Human Health – Célia P. F. Domingues – mSphere

Gut microbiome
Auto-reactivity against gut bacterial peptides in patients with late-onset diabetes – Mohammad Sajid – Autoimmunity

REVIEW: The gut microbiome in pediatric patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation – Riccardo Masetti – Pediatric Blood & Cancer

Gut Microbiota and Metabolome Alterations Associated with Parkinson’s Disease – Sarah Vascellari – mSystems

REVIEW: Gut Microbiota Resilience: Definition, Link to Health and Strategies for Intervention – Shaillay Kumar Dogra – Frontiers in Microbiology

Deciphering the impact of diet and host physiology on the mammalian gut microbiome by multi-omics approaches – Christian Milani – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Oral microbiome
High altitude as a possible factor for dysbiosis of salivary microbiome in orthodontic patients – Ibrahim AlShahrani – Archives of Oral Biology

Pregnancy and early life microbiome
Changes in Gut Microorganism in Patients with Positive Immune Antibody-Associated Recurrent Abortion – Min Jin – BioMed Research International

Contrasting microbiota profiles observed in children carrying either Blastocystis spp. or the commensal amoebas Entamoeba coli or Endolimax nana – Juan F. Alzate – Scientific Reports

Biological observations in microbiota analysis are robust to the choice of 16S rRNA gene sequencing processing algorithm: case study on human milk microbiota – Shirin Moossavi – BMC Microbiology

Microbiome of near sterile sites
Metagenome analysis using serum extracellular vesicles identified distinct microbiota in asthmatics – Ji-Hyang Lee – Scientific Reports

Lung microbiome
REVIEW: Reconsidering ventilator-associated pneumonia from a new dimension of the lung microbiome – Laia Fernández-Barata – EBioMedicine

Animal microbiome
The impact of anthelmintic treatment on gut bacterial and fungal communities in diagnosed parasite-free sika deer Cervus nippon – Xiaolong Hu – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Host phylogeny and life history stage shape the gut microbiome in dwarf (Kogia sima) and pygmy (Kogia breviceps) sperm whales – Elizabeth R. Denison – Scientific Reports

Animal experiment
Altered gut microbiome accompanying with placenta barrier dysfunction programs pregnant complications in mice caused by graphene oxide – Xiaojing Liu – Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

Comparative analysis of the pulmonary microbiome in healthy and diseased pigs – Zongjie Li – Molecular Genetics and Genomics

Diet posttranslationally modifies the mouse gut microbial proteome to modulate renal function – Lior Lobel – Science

Plant, root, and soil microbiome
REVIEW: Overhauling the assessment of agrochemical-driven interferences with microbial communities for improved global ecosystem integrity – Mengcen Wang & Tomislav Cernava – Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

Susceptibility and resilience of the soil ciliate community to high temperatures – Takaaki Oshima – Soil Science and Plant Nutrition

Food microbiology
Novel approaches for the identification of microbial communities in kimchi: MALDI-TOF MS analysis and high-throughput sequencing – Eiseul Kim – Food Microbiology

Water microbiome
The Nutrient Removal Ability and Microbial Communities in a Pilot-Scale Horizontal Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetland Fed by Slightly Polluted Lake Water – Weigang Wang – Wetland

Pre-print
Impact of temporal pH fluctuations on the coexistence of nasal bacteria – Sandra Dedrick – bioRxiv

Study of growth, metabolism, and morphology of Akkermansia muciniphila with an in vitro advanced bionic intestinal reactor – Xiaobei Zhan – bioRxiv

September 21st, 2020

God morgon!

Good morning from Sweden. It’s Monday, beginning of a new week and today’s digest carries a lot of preprints with interesting information.

As ususal, new knowledge about COVID-19 keeps pouring in. A library of 1200 small molecules was screened to reveal at least 20 FDA-approved small molecules that can enhance the antiviral activity of remdesivir. A human enzyme was also shown to be involved in antiviral defences. A new preprint also revealed some modifications in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that can increase vaccine efficacy.

Continuing with viruses, new preprint report an improved Zika vaccine, a basic study exploring reverse transcription and thereby developing a better system to study anti-HIV drugs, and a new detailed protocol for enriching viromes in water samples.

Also in today’s digest are some preprints on basic bacteriology with reports on (p)ppGpp and persister cells, Streptococcal membranes, secretory products and their role in Listeria virulence, and efflux pumps in Burkholderia.

Apart from these, there are, coincidentally, two reports on microbial diversity of the waters of Shark Bay, Australia, algal diversity in corals, a relationship between termite gut-microbiota and changes in temperature, and the role of gut microbiota in possibly affecting the sexual dimorphism in susceptibility to diseases.

Hope you enjoy the collection!

COVID-19

Preprint: Discovery of SARS-CoV-2 antiviral synergy between remdesivir and approved drugs in human lung cells – Xammy Nguyenla, et al.

Preprint: A trimeric human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 as an anti-SARS-CoV-2 agent in vitro – Tianshu Xiao, et al.

Preprint: Development of RNA-based assay for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 in clinical samples – Vinod Kumar, et al.

Preprint: Introduction of two prolines and removal of the polybasic cleavage site leads to optimal efficacy of a recombinant spike based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in the mouse model – Fatima Amanat, et al.

Viruses

Preprint: Measles-based Zika vaccine induces long-term immunity and requires NS1 antibodies to protect the female reproductive tract in the mouse model of ZIKA – Drishya Kurup, et al.

Preprint: Cocculus hirsutus-derived phytopharmaceutical drug has potent anti-dengue activity – Ankur Poddar, et al.

Preprint: Three-dimensional structure of a flavivirus dumbbell RNA reveals molecular details of an RNA regulator of replication – Benjamin M. Akiyama, et al.

Preprint: Chemical Stabilization of the HIV-1 Capsid Results in Efficient HIV-1 Reverse Transcription in vitro – Jordan Jennings, et al.

Preprint: Life cycle process dependencies of positive-sense RNA viruses suggest strategies for inhibiting productive cellular infection – Harsh Chhajer, et al.

Preprint: Zika virus NS3 protease and its cellular substrates – Agnieszka Dabrowska, et al.

Preprint: A step-by-step sequence-based analysis of virome enrichment protocol for freshwater and sediment samples – Federica Pinto, et al.

Preprint: Matrix metalloproteinases and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases in murine coronavirus-induced neuroinflammation – Sourodip Sengupta, et al.

Bacteria Hysteria

Preprint: The generation of persister cells is regulated at the initiation of translation by (p)ppGpp – Roberto C. Molina-Quiroz and Andrew Camilli.

Preprint: Spontaneous Escherichia coli persisters with week-long survival dynamics and lasting memory of a short starvation pulse – Mikkel Skjoldan Svenningsen, et al.

Preprint: Slipped strand mispairing in the gene encoding cell wall associated sialidase NanH3 in Gardnerella spp – Shakya P. Kurukulasuriya, et al.

Preprint: Membrane linkage of a Streptococcus pneumoniae Wzy capsular polysaccharide occurs through an acylglycerol – Thomas R. Larson and Janet Yother.

Preprint: Fluorescent secreted bacterial effectors reveal active intravacuolar proliferation of Listeria monocytogenes in epithelial cells – Caroline Peron-Cane, et al.

Preprint: Burkholderia collagen-like protein 8, Bucl8, is a unique outer membrane component of a tetrapartite efflux pump in Burkholderia pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei – Megan E Grund, et al.

Preprint: Cerebrospinal fluid proteome maps detect pathogen-specific host response patterns in meningitis – Anahita Bakochi, et al.

Preprint: Piperacillin/tazobactam resistant, cephalosporin susceptible Escherichia coli bloodstream infections driven by multiple resistance mechanisms across diverse sequence types – Thomas Edwards, et al.

Preprint: Analysis of beta-lactam heteroresistance in CRE suggests a stage in the spectrum of antibiotic resistance – Victor I Band and David S Weiss

Preprint: Mechanism of selectivity reveals novel antifolate drug interactions – Shannon Lynn Kordus, et al.

Preprint: Identification of trans-AT polyketide clusters in two marine bacteria reveals cryptic similarities between distinct symbiosis factors – Dina Kačar, et al.

Preprint: Heterologous production of 1-tuberculosinyladenosine in Mycobacterium kansasii models pathoevolution towards the transcellular lifestyle of Mycobacterium tuberculosis – Marwan Ghanem, et al.

General Microbiome

Preprint: Genomic insights into adaptations of TMA-utilizing methanogens to diverse habitats including the human gut – Jacobo de la Cuesta-Zuluaga, et al.

Preprint: Metagenomic insights into ecosystem function in the microbial mats of Blue Holes, Shark Bay – Gareth S Kindler, et al.

Preprint: Long-term cellulose enrichment selects for highly cellulolytic consortia and competition for public goods – Gina R Lewin, et al.

Preprint: Functional diversity of microboring Ostreobium algae isolated from corals – Anaïs Massé, et al.

Preprint: Experimental warming reduces gut prokaryotic diversity, survival and thermal tolerance of the eastern subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar) – Rachel A Arango, et al.

Gut microbiota steroid sexual dimorphism and its impact on gonadal steroids: influences of obesity and menopausal status – Jordi Mayneris-Perxachs, et al., Microbiome

Techniques/Models

Preprint: Cre/LoxP-HBV plasmids generating recombinant covalently closed circular DNA genome upon transfection – Robert L. Kruse, et al.

Preprint: A Novel DNA Chromatography Method to Distinguish M. abscessus Subspecies and Macrolide Susceptibility – Mitsunori Yoshida, et al.

Others

Preprint: Phytophthora sojae effector Avr1d functions as E2 competitor and inhibits ubiquitination activity of GmPUB13 to facilitate infection – Yachun Lin, et al.

Preprint: A Volatile Signal Controls Virulence in the Plant Pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae and a Strategy for Infection Control in Organic Farming – Simon Sieber, et al.

Preprint: Schistosoma mansoni lysine specific demethylase 1 (SmLSD1) is a druggable target involved in parasite survival, oviposition and stem cell proliferation – G. Padalino, et al.

Preprint: Alterations to the cardiac metabolome induced by chronic T. cruzi infection relate to the degree of cardiac pathology – Kristyn Hoffman, et al.

Preprint: Remarkable recent changes in genetic diversity of the avirulence gene AvrStb6 in global populations of the wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici – Christopher Stephens, et al.

Microbes in News

Soon-to-be-launched microbiome concept symbiome raises $15mm – Beauty Matters

Finch closes $90 million series d to advance C. difficile infection product – Pharma Live

September 17, 2020

Another broad selection of microbiome papers for you this morning. Several papers today show how microbial communities are influenced by pollution, water depth, and El Niño, plus a study that found ants use signals from soil microbes to decide where to nest.

Human gut microbiome

Lactobacillus strains vary in their ability to interact with human endometrial stromal cells, Shiroda and Manning, PLOS ONE

A predictive index for health status using species-level gut microbiome profiling, Vinod K. Gupta et al., Nature Communications

Gut Microbiota and Metabolome Alterations Associated with Parkinson’s Disease, Sarah Vascellari et al., mSystems

Human nearly sterile sites

Metagenome analysis using serum extracellular vesicles identified distinct microbiota in asthmatics, Lee and Choi et al., Scientific Reports

Animal microbiome

The nesting preference of an invasive ant is associated with the cues produced by actinobacteria in soil, Hongmei Huang et al., PLOS Pathogens

Influence of host genetics in shaping the rumen bacterial community in beef cattle, Abbas and Howard et al., Scientific Reports

Bacteria Contribute to Plant Secondary Compound Degradation in a Generalist Herbivore System, Charlotte B. Francoeur et al., mBio

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Diazotrophic bacteria from maize exhibit multifaceted plant growth promotion traits in multiple hosts, Shawn M. Higdon et al., PLOS ONE

Water and extremophile microbiome

Pollution shapes the microbial communities in river water and sediments from the Olifants River catchment, South Africa, Angel Valverde et al., Archives of Microbiology

Persistent El Niño driven shifts in marine cyanobacteria populations, Alyse A. Larkin et al., PLOS ONE

Depth-Dependent Variables Shape Community Structure and Functionality in the Prince Edward Islands, Phoma and Makhalanyane, Environmental Microbiology

Bioinformatics

Preprint: Tracking strains predicts personal microbiomes and reveals recent adaptive evolution, Shijie Zhao et al., bioRxiv