April 11, 2020

Happy Saturday morning, y’all! I’m excited for my first contribution to the digest, and hope you enjoy my picks over a luxurious weekend meal. Today’s digest starts with some preprints about COVID including research on a drug that may inhibit viral replication. Other research highlights include an examination of the relationship between the vaginal microbiome and pre-term birth, a preprint on the oral microbiome in space, and a potential new technique for low cost, high-throughput metagenome profiling. Scroll all the way to the end for information about a fun project by a University of Wyoming student called The Microbestiary.

COVID-19
Preprint: Genomic determinants of pathogenicity in SARS-CoV-2 and other human coronaviruses. Auslander, N. et al.

Preprint: Nelfinavir inhibits replication of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in vitro. Yamamoto, N. et al.

Preprint: Understanding the B and T cells epitopes of spike protein of severe respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2: A computational way to predict the immunogens. Vashi, Y. et al.

General Microbiome
Preprint: From iron to antibiotics: Identification of conserved bacterial-fungal interactions across diverse partners. Pierce, EC. et al.

Human Gut Microbiome
Review: Unraveling Host-Gut Microbiota Dialogue and Its Impact on Cholesterol Levels. Villette R. et al. Frontiers in Pharmacology.

Metagenomics analysis reveals features unique to Indian distal gut microbiota. Kaur, K. et al. PLOS ONE.

Gut Microbiota Modulate CD8 T Cell Responses to Influence Colitis-Associated Tumorigenesis. Yu, A.I. et al. Cell Reports.

Human Oral Microbiome
Preprint: Characterization of the oral microbiome of medically controlled type-2 diabetes patients. Santos, A. et al.

Human Vaginal Microbiome
Cervicovaginal microbiome and natural history of HPV in a longitudinal study. Usyk, M. et al. PLOS Pathogens.

Meta-Analysis of Vaginal Microbiome Data Provides New Insights Into Preterm Birth. Kosti, I. et al. Frontiers in Microbiology.

Water and Extremophile Microbiome
Microbiota characterization of Exaiptasia diaphana from the Great Barrier Reef. Hartman, L.M. et al. Animal Microbiome.

Microbial Diversity and Metabolic Potential in the Stratified Sansha Yongle Blue Hole in the South China Sea. He, P. et al. Scientific Reports.

Metabolic versatility of freshwater sedimentary archaea feeding on different organic carbon sources. Compte-Port, S. et al. PLOS ONE.

Animal Experiments and Animal Microbiome
The skin microbiome facilitates adaptive tetrodotoxin production in poisonous newts. Vaelli, P.M. et al. eLife.

Metatranscriptomic virome assessment of Rhipicephalus microplus from Colombia. Gomez, G.F. et al. Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases.

Preprint: Metabolic differences between symbiont subpopulations in the deep-sea tubeworm Riftia pachyptila. Hinzke, T. et al.

Preprint: Similar gut bacterial microbiota in two fruit-feeding moth pests collected from different host species and locations. Gong, Q et al.

Plant, Root, and Soil Microbiome
The preceding root system drives the composition and function of the rhizosphere microbiome. Zhou, Y. et al. Genome Biology.

Microbial Co-Occurrence in Floral Nectar Affects Metabolites and Attractiveness to a Generalist Pollinator. Rering, C.C. et al. Journal of Chemical Ecology.

Impact of phages on soil bacterial communities and nitrogen availability under different assembly scenarios. Braga, L.P.P. et al. Microbiome.

A predatory myxobacterium controls cucumber Fusarium wilt by regulating the soil microbial community. Ye, X. et al. Microbiome.

A plant genetic network for preventing dysbiosis in the phyllosphere. Chen, T. et al. Nature.

Fungal communities differentially respond to warming and drought in tropical grassland soil. de Oliveira, T.B. et al. Molecular Ecology.

Built Environment
An in-depth survey of the microbial landscape of the walls of a neonatal operating room. Derilus, D. et al. PLOS ONE.

Microbes in Space
Preprint: Defining the resilience of the human salivary microbiota by a 520 days longitudinal study in confined environment: the Mars500 mission. Bacci, G. et al.

Phages and Viruses
Phage cocktail containing Podoviridae and Myoviridae bacteriophages inhibits the growth of Pectobacterium spp. under in vitro and in vivo conditions. Zaczek-Moczydłowska, M.A. et al. PLOS ONE.

Dynamic genome evolution and complex virocell metabolism of globally-distributed giant viruses. Moniruzzaman M., et al. Nature Communications.

Preprint: Infection with novel Bacteroides phage BV01 alters host transcriptome and bile acid metabolism in a common human gut microbe. Campbell, D.E. et al.

Bioinformatics
Preprint: Integrative and Conjugative Elements (ICE) and Associated Cargo Genes within and across Hundreds of Bacterial Genera. Kaufman, J. et al.

Techniques
A restriction enzyme reduced representation sequencing approach for low-cost, high-throughput metagenome profiling. Hess, M.K. et al. PLOS ONE.

Industrial Microbiome
Open microbiome dominated by Clostridium and Eubacterium converts methanol into i-butyrate and n-butyrate. Huang, S. et al. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

Fun with Microbes
University of Wyoming masters student Erin Bentley was selected for an Arctic Circle Expedition in 2021 where she will characterize microbes and share her discoveries on The Microbestiary.
“The Microbestiary strives to show the public, in welcoming and memorable ways, that the microbial world is populated by strange and beautiful characters,” says Bentley in an article published on the UW website.

April 9, 2020

Good morning! There’s a diverse set of microbiome papers to share today, ranging from the human microbiome in Lynch Syndrome to the microbes that flavor wine and degrade paintings in art galleries. You may also want to check out the recent news that popular video game Borderlands 3 is introducing a new mini-game that prompts players to help “map” the human gut microbiome—technical details are hard to come by, but it appears to be alignment related. There is also a study that found more than 20 percent of recently published metagenomes are not accessible.

In addition, Microbiome Data Congress 2020 will be held online on May 6 and is offering free registration through tomorrow (Friday, April 10). Speakers include human microbiome researcher Dr. Nikos Kyrpides of the (U.S.) DOE Joint Genome Institute and soil microbiologist Dr. Kari Dunfield of the University of Guelph.

Human gut microbiome

Structure of the Mucosal and Stool Microbiome in Lynch Syndrome, Yan Yan et al., Cell Host & Microbe

Effects of sex and chronic cigarette smoke exposure on the mouse cecal microbiome, Tam and Filho et al., PLOS ONE

The gut microbiome but not the resistome is associated with urogenital schistosomiasis in preschool-aged children, Derick N. M. Osakunor et al., Communications Biology

Perspective: Developing a new class of engineered live bacterial therapeutics to treat human diseases, Mark R. Charbonneau et al., Nature Communications

Review: The gut mycobiome: The overlooked constituent of clinical outcomes and treatment complications in patients with cancer and other immunosuppressive conditions, Galloway-Peña and Kontoyiannis, PLOS Pathogens

Intestinal enteroids recapitulate the effects of short-chain fatty acids on the intestinal epithelium, Sarah C. Pearce et al., PLOS ONE


Animal experiments

A combination of monosodium glutamate and high-fat and high-fructose diets increases the risk of kidney injury, gut dysbiosis and host-microbial co-metabolism, Thatsanapong Pongking et al., PLOS ONE

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Preprint: Vineyard ecosystems are structured and distinguished by fungal communities impacting the flavour and quality of wine, Di Liu et al., bioRxiv

Bacterial community composition of vermicompost-treated tomato rhizospheres, Juana Munoz-Ucros et al., PLOS ONE

Field Performance of Mixtures of Pseudomonas and Bacillus spp. in Managing Papaya Ringspot Virus Disease and their Effect on Plant Defense Enzyme Activity, Ranasinghe and De Costa, Tropical Agricultural Research

Built environment

Detection of potential biodeterioration risks for tempera painting in 16th century exhibits from State Tretyakov Gallery, Alexander Zhgun et al., PLOS ONE

Microbiome and antibiotic resistome in household dust from Beijing, China, Long-Jun Ding et al., Environment International

Preprint: Microbial dark matter driven degradation of carbon fiber polymer composites, Adam M. Breister et al., bioRxiv

Phages and viruses

Preprint: Primate phageomes are structured by superhost phylogeny and environment, Jan-Frederik Gogarten et al., bioRxiv

Bioinformatics

PIA: More Accurate Taxonomic Assignment of Metagenomic Data Demonstrated on sedaDNA From the North Sea, Becky Cribdon et al., Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

Techniques

A restriction enzyme reduced representation sequencing approach for low-cost, high-throughput metagenome profiling, Melanie K. Hess et al., PLOS ONE

Science, publishing, and career

Every fifth published metagenome is not available to science, Eckert, Di Cesare and Fontaneto et al., PLOS Biology

April 7, 2020

Hi everyone! This is my first contribution to the daily digest, and I’ll follow others’ lead by starting with the latest preprints concerning Covid-19. Away from the ongoing pandemic, some of the highlights include a look at how commensal gut microbes interact with pathogens, and an insight into deep sea oceanic crust microbiomes.

It seems to be a relatively quiet day today, so I’ve included an article from the University of Bristol which looks at how nanoscopic pillars on the surface of some insect wings protect them against bacteria. Perhaps only loosely a microbiome paper, but it’s worth a read for its electron microscopy alone!

COVID-19

Structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor-binding domain bound to the ACE2 receptor – Lan et al. – Nature

Preprint: Atazanavir inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication and pro-inflammatory cytokine production – Fintelman-Rodrigues et al.

Preprint: Amantadine disrupts lysosomal gene expression; potential therapy for COVID19 – Smieszek et al.

Preprint: Potent Antiviral Activities of Type I Interferons to SARS-CoV-2 Infection – Mantlo et al.

Human gut microbiome

Dissecting individual pathogen-commensal interactions within a complex gut microbiota community – Hassall and Unnikrishnan

Animal microbiome

Antibacterial effects of nanopillar surfaces are mediated by cell impedance, penetration and induction of oxidative stress – Jenkins et al. – Nature Communications

Water and extremophile microbiome

Deep microbial proliferation at the basalt interface in 33.5–104 million-year-old oceanic crust – Suzuki et al.Communications Biology

Food microbiology

How does the microbiome impact pig health? – Sarah Mikesell – The Pig Site

Microbes in the news

Lifestyle trumps geography in determining makeup of gut microbiomeEurekAlert!

Microbes on the market

Gilead taps Second Genome for microbiome biomarker help in a potential $1.5B deal – Connor Hale – FierceBiotech.com

April 6, 2020

God morgon!

Good morning from Sweden. This is my first post and following the current trend, it starts with some articles on the COVID19 pandemic. Today’s digest is headlined by some interesting preprints reporting inhibitors of SARS-CoV2 virus, followed by another interesting read suggesting the link between the gut microbiome and ADHD, some articles on our struggle against pathogenic bacteria, virus and fungi, and capped off with a small but informative news article on things one should not do during the COVID19 lockdown.

You might notice that today’s post is dominated by preprints. These preprints, while being an excellent way to disperse information as rapidly as it emerges, aren’t peer-reviewed. Hence, always read them with a pinch of salt!

COVID19

Preprint: In vitro screening of a FDA approved chemical library reveals potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 replication – Franck Touret, et al.

Preprint: LY6E Restricts the Entry of Human Coronaviruses, including the currently pandemic SARS-CoV-2 – Xuesen Zhao, et al.

Preprint: Indomethacin has a potent antiviral activity against SARS CoV-2 in vitro and canine coronavirus in vivo – Tianhong Xu, et al.

Preprint: Potent Antiviral Activities of Type I Interferons to SARS-CoV-2 Infection – Emily K. Mantlo, et al.

Microbial interactions

Preprint: Enhanced nutrient uptake is sufficient to drive emergent cross-feeding between bacteria – Ryan K Fritts, et al.

Structure and function of the Arctic and Antarctic marine microbiota as revealed by metagenomics – Weipeng Zhang, et al. – Microbiome

Preprint: Accumulation of dead cells from contact killing facilitates coexistence in bacterial biofilms – Gabi Steinbach, et al.

Human microbiome

Preprint: Gut microbiota from persons with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder affects the brain in mice – Anouk C. Tengeler, et al.

Lung function and microbiota diversity in cystic fibrosis – Leah Cuthbertson, et al. – Microbiome

Animal microbiome

Preprint: Functional maturation of the gut microbiota at weaning is influenced by maternal environment in piglets – Martin Beaumont, et al.

Bacteria Hysteria

Preprint: The adaptive transcriptional response of pathogenic Leptospira to peroxide reveals new defenses against infection-related oxidative stress – Crispin Zavala-Alvarado, et al.

Preprint: Cytotoxicity of the effector protein BteA was attenuated in Bordetella pertussis by insertion of an alanine residue – Jan Bayram, et al.

Preprint: Antimicrobial peptide induced-stress renders Staphylococcus aureus susceptible to toxic nucleoside analogues – Alexandro Rodriguez-Rojas, et al.

Preprint: (p)ppGpp and malonyl-CoA set the pace for Staphylococcus aureus adaptation to FASII antibiotics and provide a basis for bi-therapy inhibition – Amit Pathania, et al.

Phages and viruses

Preprint: Viral RNA is a target for Wolbachia-mediated pathogen blocking – Tamanash Bhattacharya, et al.

Preprint: Synchronized infection identifies early rate-limiting steps in the hepatitis B virus life cycle – Anindita Chakraborty, et al.

Techniques

Preprint: Evaluation of DNA extraction protocols from liquid-based cytology specimens for studying cervical microbiota – Takeo Shibata, et al.

Preprint: Biotinylated surfome profiling identifies potential biomarkers for diagnosis and therapy of Aspergillus fumigatus infection – Lei-Jie Jia, et al.

Bioinformatics

Preprint: Interpretable machine learning framework reveals novel gut microbiome features in predicting type 2 diabetes – Wanglong Gou, et al.

Preprint: Comprehensive single cell analysis of pandemic influenza A virus infection in the human airways uncovers cell-type specific host transcriptional signatures relevant for disease progression and pathogenesis – Jenna N Kelly, et al.

MetaEuk—sensitive, high-throughput gene discovery, and annotation for large-scale eukaryotic metagenomics – Eli Levy Karin, et al. – Microbiome

Preprint: Whole genome sequences of multi-drug resistant Escherichia coli isolated in a Pastoralist Community of Western Uganda: Phylogenomic changes, virulence and resistant genes – Jacob Stanley Iramiot, et al.

Microbes in news

News article: Experts study banana disease in Tanzania – The Guardian

News article: What not to do while on COVID-19 lockdown – Jamaica Observer

I know a lot of my fellow researchers are unable to continue their experiments and are yearning to get back to their respective labs. It is a testing time and I believe that patience and perseverance are the biggest strengths of a researcher. So, let’s bank on our strength and hope to see each other on the other side of this global pandemic soon!

With new information emerging every day about COVID19, there is a plethora of misinformation and myths surrounding the virus and the disease. As science enthusiasts, it is pertinent for us to dispel these myths. Here is a small list that I complied a few days back. Check it out!

April 5, 2020.

All the break-neck speed with which the progress that is happening today in tracking, detecting and treating the disease, like everything else, is owed in part to the giants whose shoulders we’re standing on. One such thing is the usage of serum (from recovered patients or derived elsewhere) for treatment. So, as a little tribute, I would like to share with you today, on the birthday of Dr. Hattie Elizabeth Alexander (born April 5, 1901), the information that she pioneered the work in using anti-influenzal rabbit serums to treat the then always-fatal influenzal meningitis (effectively bringing down the fatality rate to 20%!), and was also sone of the very first to study bacterial mutations that come along with antibiotic resistance !

So we’ve come a long way and are forging our way forward. Here are a few interesting articles that are slowly pushing this boundary, a piece at a time.

COVID-19

From PREDICT to prevention, one pandemic later – Colin J Carlson – The Lancet.

Human Microbiome

Review: Risk factors associated with gastric malignancy during chronic Helicobacter pylori infection – Ami Y Seegar – Medical Research Archives.

Review: From Association to Causality: the Role of the Gut Microbiota and Its Functional Products on Host Metabolism – Ara Koh – Molecular Cell.

Pregnancy and Early Life

Breast Milk and Microbiota in the Premature Gut: A Method of Preventing Necrotizing Enterocolitis – Orga PL et al – Karger.

Human Brain and Microbiome

Book: Integrative and Functional Medical Nutrition Therapy. Chapter: The Microbiome and Brain Health – Sharon L. Norling -Springer

Animal Experiments


Integrated omics profiling of dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitic mice supplemented with Wolfberry (Lycium barbarum). Wanping Aw et al – NPJ Science of Food.

Botany

Rhizobacteriome: Promising Candidate for Conferring Drought Tolerance in Crops – Vinod Yadav et al – Journal of Pure Applied Microbiology

Legionella species: A potential problem associated with rain water harvesting systems? – Judith A Taylor et al – SAGE Journals

Bioinformatics

Applications of Machine Learning Predictive Models in the Chronic Disease Diagnosis – Gopi Battineni et al – Journal of Personalized Medicine

PS: I know, I am with you on this — the lockdown isn’t ideal. But we are also the generation, who for the first time can end articles signing off as “Stay Safe and Wash Your Hands” and manage to prevent a large proportion of its species from suffering / dying. Isn’t that crazy! Have a great day!

More information on Dr. Hattie Elizabeth Alexander — here and here.

April 4, 2020

Good morning and salutations from Singapore! This is the first digest that I’m contributing for the blog, so I hope my selections are interesting to you all! Today’s digest begins with some recent COVID-19 pre-prints, before getting into papers on a diverse range of microbiome-related topics. Highlights today include a study on cats potentially harbouring SARS-CoV-2 (nooo…), the effect of C-section birth on the vaginal microbiota of adult women, and the impact of the virome on biogeochemical cycling in Lake Baikal.

COVID-19

Preprint: Characterization and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 in nasal and bronchial human airway epithelia – Pizzorno et al.

* Preprint: SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing serum antibodies in cats: a serological investigation – Zhang et al.

Preprint: Direct RNA sequencing and early evolution of SARS-CoV-2 – Taiaroa et al.

General microbiome

Review: Microbiota and metabolites in rheumatic diseases – Tong et al. – Autoimmunity Reviews

Human respiratory microbiome

Preprint: Distinctive airway microbial ecology of smokers and asthmatics – Turek et al.

Microbial burden and viral exacerbations in a longitudinal multicenter COPD cohort – Bouquet et al.Respiratory Research

Human gut microbiome

An in vitro evaluation of the effects of different statins on the structure and function of human gut bacterial community – Zhao et al.PLoS ONE

Human vaginal microbiome

* A cross-sectional pilot study of birth mode and vaginal microbiota in reproductive-age women – Stennett et al.PLoS ONE

Animal experiments

Polysaccharide extracted from WuGuChong reduces high-fat diet-induced obesity in mice by regulating the composition of intestinal microbiota – Wang et al.Nutrition & Metabolism

Animal microbiome

Intestinal microbes: an axis of functional diversity among large marine consumers – Scott et al.Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

The response of soil and phyllosphere microbial communities to repeated application of the fungicide iprodione: Accelerated biodegradation or toxicity? – Katsoula et al.FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Divergent patterns of microbial community composition shift under two fertilization regimes revealed by responding species – Yao et al.Applied Soil Ecology

Water and extremophile microbiome

* Preprint: New Viral Biogeochemical Roles Revealed Through Metagenomic Analysis of Lake Baikal – Coutinho et al.

Bioinformatics

Ten simple rules for providing effective bioinformatics research support – Kumuthini et al.PLoS Computational Biology

Finally, remember that physical isolation doesn’t have to mean social isolation. Call someone you haven’t talked to in a while, I’m sure they’ll appreciate it! You’re doing great 😀

April 2, 2020

Today’s digest starts with a recent study from The Lancet linking antibiotic usage and the gut microbiome with asthma incidence, before moving onto a range of other papers covering multiple human body sites and environmental microbiome studies.

General microbiome
*** Decreasing antibiotic use, the gut microbiota, and asthma incidence in children: evidence from population-based and prospective cohort studies – Patrick et al. – The Lancet

Human respiratory microbiome

Lung function and microbiota diversity in cystic fibrosis – Cuthbertson et al. – BMC Microbiome

Human gut microbiome

Colonic microbiota is associated with inflammation and host epigenomic alterations in inflammatory bowel disease – Ryan et al. – Nature Communications

Fecal microbiota transplantation for the improvement of metabolism in obesity: The FMT-TRIM double-blind placebo-controlled pilot trial – Yu et al. – PLOS Medicine

Effects of underfeeding and oral vancomycin on gut microbiome and nutrient absorption in humans – Basolo et al. – Nature Medicine

The Gut Microbial Diversity of Newly Diagnosed Diabetics but Not of Prediabetics Is Significantly Different from That of Healthy Nondiabetics – Gaike et al. – MSystems

Shotgun Metagenomics of Gut Microbiota in Humans with up to Extreme Longevity and the Increasing Role of Xenobiotic Degradation – Rampelli et al. MSystems

Animal experiments

Gut microbiota from persons with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder affects the brain in mice – Tengeler et al. – BMC Microbiome

Unraveling Assemblage, Functions and Stability of the Gut Microbiota of Blattella germanica by Antibiotic Treatment – Domínguez-Santos et al. – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Novel phosphate-solubilizing bacteria enhance soil phosphorus cycling following ecological restoration of land degraded by mining – Liang et al.  – ISME

Water and extremophile microbiome

Genomic and transcriptomic evidence of light-sensing, porphyrin biosynthesis, Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle, and urea production in Bathyarchaeota – Pan et al. BMC Microbiome

Microbial community profiling of ammonia and nitrite oxidizing bacterial enrichments from brackishwater ecosystems for mitigating nitrogen species – Baskaran et al. – Nature Scientific Reports

Probiotics

Lactobacillus reuteri 5454 and Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis 5764 improve colitis while differentially impacting dendritic cells maturation and antimicrobial responses – Hrdý et al. Nature Scientific Reports

April 1, 2020

Hello Everyone, I am excited for my first post here. Continuing the trend the first few papers are on COVID-19 : first one talks about its classification and nomenclature. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. Last but not the least, keep up the hand washing.

COVID-19

* The species Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus: classifying 2019-nCoV and naming it SARS-CoV-2- Coronaviridae Study – Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses – Nature Microbiology

Functional assessment of cell entry and receptor usage for SARS-CoV-2 and other lineage B betacoronaviruses – Letko et al. – Nature Microbiology

General microbiome
Variation in prostaglandin metabolism during growth of the diatom Thalassiosira rotula – Dato et al. – Scientific Reports

Pregnancy and early life
Factors affecting early-life intestinal microbiota development – Vandenplas et al. – Nutrition

Multi-site human microbiome
Gut, oral and skin microbiome of Indian patrilineal families reveal perceptible association with age – Chaudhari et al. – Scientific Reports

Human gut microbiome
Implication of the gut microbiome composition of type 2 diabetic patients from northern China – Li et al. – Scientific Reports

The microbiota programs DNA methylation to control intestinal homeostasis and inflammation– Ansari et al. – Nature Microbiology

Animal microbiome
The Contest of Microbial Pigeon Neighbors: Interspecies Competition Between Serratia marcescens and the Human Pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans – Haleva et al. – Fungal Biology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome
Pseudomonas PS01 Isolated from Maize Rhizosphere Alters Root System Architecture and Promotes Plant Growth – Chu et al. – Microorganisms

Phages and viruses
Viruses with different genome types adopt a similar strategy to pack nucleic acids based on positively charged protein domains – Requião et al. – Scientific Reports

*Review: 5 challenges in understanding the role of the virome in health and disease – Wang David – PLOS Pathogens

Bioinformatics
Whole-genome sequencing of Burkholderia pseudomallei from an urban melioidosis hot spot reveals a fine-scale population structure and localised spatial clustering in the environment – Rachlin et al. – Scientific Reports

Techniques
Comprehensive evaluation of complex polymicrobial specimens using next generation sequencing and standard microbiological culture – Cummings et al. – Scientific Reports

Review: Potential of proteomics to probe microbes – Matilda et al. – Journal of Basic Microbiology

March 31st, 2020

Hello all, this is my first post on the blog. Following earlier trends, I will begin with news on COVID-19. Stay safe, everyone.

COVID – 19

Preprint: Ocular conjunctival inoculation of SARS-CoV-2 can cause mild COVID-19 in Rhesus macaques – Deng. et al

Preprint: Comparative Genomic Analysis of Rapidly Evolving SARS CoV-2 Viruses Reveal Mosaic Pattern of Phylogeographical Distribution – Kumar et al. 

Human Gut Microbiome

Gut Microbial Metabolites Induce Changes in Circadian Oscillation of Clock Gene Expression in the Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts – Ku et al. – Molecules and Cells

Plant, Root, and Soil Microbiome

Ochraceocephala foeniculi gen. et sp. nov., a new pathogen causing crown rot of fennel in Italy – Aiello et al. – MycoKeys

Food Microbiology

The impact of hybrid yeasts on the aroma profile of cool climate Riesling wines – Kanter et al. – Food Chemistry: X

Phages and Viruses

Preprint: A novel antiviral formulation inhibits a range of enveloped viruses – Fletcher et al. 

March 26th, 2020

This is my first post on the site! There weren’t a lot of alerts today, so I dug around for other papers I can find. Today’s digest includes mostly human microbiome research, most notably a study identifying a staph peptide that induces acute exacerbation of pulmonary fibrosis, as well as a very diverse epidemiological study of the impact of diet on the gut microbiome in the United States.

General Human Microbiome

US nativity and dietary acculturation impact the gut microbiome in a diverse US population  – Peters, B.A., Yi, S.S., Beasley, J.M. et al. – ISME

Microbiome in Pregnancy and Birth

Maternal carriage of Prevotella during pregnancy associates with protection against food allergy in the offspring – Vuillermin, P.J., O’Hely, M., Collier, F. et al. – Nature Communications

Vaginal Microbiome of Pregnant Indian Women: Insights into the Genome of Dominant Lactobacillus Species – Mehta, O., Ghosh, T.S., Kothidar, A. et al. – Microbial Ecology

Translational human microbiome research

A Staphylococcus pro-apoptotic peptide induces acute exacerbation of pulmonary fibrosis – D’Alessandro-Gabazza, C.N., Kobayashi, T., Yasuma, T. et al. – Nature Communications

Effect of probiotics during vonoprazan‐containing triple therapy on gut microbiota in Helicobacter pylori infection: A randomized controlled trial – Kakiuchi et al. – Helicobacter

Rosuvastatin alters the genetic composition of the human gut microbiome – Kummen, M., Solberg, O.G., Storm-Larsen, C. et al. – Scientific Reports

Microbiome and Cancer

Metaproteomics characterizes human gut microbiome function in colorectal cancer – Long, S., Yang, Y., Shen, C. et al. – npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

Plant microbiome

Genome‐resolved metagenomics to study co‐occurrence patterns and intraspecific heterogeneity among plant pathogen metapopulations – Newberry et al. – Environmental Microbiology

Symbiotic nitrogen fixation and endophytic bacterial community structure in Bt-transgenic chickpea (Cicer arietinum L) – Alok, D., Annapragada, H., Singh, S. et al. – Scientific Reports

Soil microbiome

Soil Microbial Diversity Affects the Plant-Root Colonization by Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi – Ferreira et al. – Microbial Ecology

Bioinformatics/Sequencing analysis methods

Joining Illumina paired-end reads for classifying phylogenetic marker sequences – Liu et al. – BMC Bioinformatics

M2IA: a Web Server for Microbiome and Metabolome Integrative Analysis – Ni et al. – Bioinformatics

Culturomics

Alcohol pretreatment of stools effect on culturomics – Afouda, P., Hocquart, M., Pham, T. et al. – Scientific Reports

Pre-prints on bioRxiv to look forward to

Infant gut microbiome

Genetic and behavioral adaptation of Candida parapsilosis to the microbiome of hospitalized infants revealed by in situ genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics – West et al. (Side note: The Banfield lab produces a lot of good work!)

Laboratory work on bacterial motility in the gut

Bacterial Swarmers exhibit a Protective Response to Intestinal Stress – Chen et al.

Long-read sequencing of gut mycobiome

Assessing anaerobic gut fungal (Neocalliamstigomycota) diversity using PacBio D1/D2 LSU rRNA amplicon sequencing and multi-year isolation – Hanafy et al.

Databases

HumGut: A comprehensive Human Gut prokaryotic genomes collection filtered by metagenome data