November 3, 2016

Prevotella and Bacteroides associations with diet, parasite-microbiota interactions in wild animals, Staphylococcus/fungus interactions in cheese rind.

General microbiome

The Underestimation of Global Microbial Diversity– Jay T. Lennon -mBio

Next-Generation High-Throughput Functional Annotation of Microbial GenomesNext-Generation High-Throughput Functional Annotation of Microbial Genomes – Ralph S. Baric – mBIo

Human vaginal microbiome

The vaginal microbiota, human papillomavirus infection and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia: what do we know and where are we going next? – Anita Mitra – Microbiome

Human gut microbiome

Unusual sub-genus associations of faecal Prevotella and Bacteroides with specific dietary patterns – Francesca De Filippis – Microbiome

(PubMed link) Early Changes in Microbial Community Structure Are Associated with Sustained Remission After Nutritional Treatment of Pediatric Crohn’s Disease – Dunn KA – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

(PubMed link) Review: The role of the gut microbiota in food allergy – Rachid R – Curr Opin Pediatr

Review: Intestinal Microbiome Changes and Stem Cell Transplantation: Lessons Learned – Ying Taur – Virulence

Human urinary tract microbiome

Review: Urinary Tract Infection: Pathogenesis and Outlook – Lisa K. McLellan – Trends in Molecular Medicine

Animal microbiome

Parasite-microbiota interactions potentially affect intestinal communities in wild mammals – Tuomas Aivelo – bioRxiv

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Microbial community dynamics in the rhizosphere of a cadmium hyper-accumulator – J. L. Wood – Scientific Reports

Food microbiology

Cheese: Biotic Interactions Shape the Ecological Distributions of Staphylococcus Species – Erik K. Kastman – mBio

PressFungi boost bacterium. A study of 25 cheeses finds that a slow-growing bacterium can outcompete its relatives with the help of fungi – Nature

Storage techniques

Comparison of Collection Methods for Fecal Samples for Discovery Metabolomics in Epidemiologic Studies – Erikka Loftfield – Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention

Microbes in the news

Why Gut Bacteria Are Having a MomentJessica Richman, CEO of uBiome at Fortune’s Brainstorm Health summit- Beth Kowitt – Fortune

The Life, the Sea and the Space Viking, Searching for Extremophiles – Seti

Are You Ready to Swallow a Pill Full of Poop? OpenBiome believes in the power of pure, barely processed poop – Katie M. Palmer – Wired

Gut microbiome profiles predict response to low FODMAP diet in IBS – Healio

Study links intestinal microbial population to production of inflammatory proteins – Economic TImes

Guts of Fecal Transplant Patients Resemble their Donors’ – HCP Live – Refers to this paper: http://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-016-0698-z

Microbiome Skincare: Is Bacteria the Key to Perfect Skin? A primer on the science that could fix our skin woes once and for all – Wing Sze Tang – Flare

November 1, 2016

Ribosomal gene sequencing as a clinical diagnostic tool, probiotic microcins in the inflamed gut, toxic sugar metabolism by a bee symbiont, bacteria as indicators of soil condition, viruses of the human body.

General microbiome

Omics Approaches To Probe Microbiota and Drug Metabolism Interactions – Robert G. Nichols – Chemical Research in Toxicology

Review: Microbial interactions: ecology in a molecular perspective – Raíssa Mesquita Braga – Brazilian Journal of Microbiology

Human skin microbiome

Understanding the role of Propionibacterium acnes in acne vulgaris: the critical importance of skin sampling methodologies – Hélène Omer – Clinics in Dermatology

Human respiratory microbiome

Editorial: Macrolides, inflammation and the lung microbiome: untangling the web of causality – Robert P Dickson – Thorax

Review: A tale of two sites: how inflammation can reshape the microbiomes of the gut and lungs – Brittan S. Scales – Journal of Leukocyte Biology

Review: Emerging pathogenic links between microbiota and the gut–lung axis
– Kurtis F. Budden – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

16S rRNA Gene Sequencing as a Clinical Diagnostic Aid for Gastrointestinal-related Conditions – Daniel E Almonacid – bioRxiv

Detecting beer intake by unique metabolite patterns – Gözde Gürdeniz – Journal of Proteome Research

Metabolite and Microbiome Interplay in Cancer Immunotherapy – Caroline H. Johnson – Cancer Research

The infant gut microbiome correlates significantly with rotavirus vaccine response in rural Ghana – Vanessa C. Harris – Journal of Infectious Diseases
Could the gut microbiome be key to understanding and improving rotavirus vaccine performance in high disease burden settings? – Journal of Infectious Diseases

Fecal metabolomics in pediatric spondyloarthritis implicate decreased metabolic diversity and altered tryptophan metabolism as pathogenic factors – M L Stoll – Genes and Immunity

Can the composition of the intestinal microbiota predict the development of urinary tract infections? – Casper DJ den Heijer – Future Microbiology

Review: A tale of two sites: how inflammation can reshape the microbiomes of the gut and lungs – Brittan S. Scales – Journal of Leukocyte Biology

Review: Good Bugs, Bad Bugs in the Gut: The Role of Microbiota Dysbiosis in Chronic Gastrointestinal Consequences of Infection – Andre G Buret – American Journal of Gastroenterology

Review: Soy and Gut Microbiota: Interaction and Implication for Human Health – H Huang – J Agric Food Chem

Review: The gut microbiome and hypertension – M Pevsner-Fisher

Probiotics

Microcins mediate competition among Enterobacteriaceae in the inflamed gut – Martina Sassone-Corsi – Nature

Press: How good gut bacteria wrest control from the bad – Cosmos Magazine

Novel encapsulation improves recovery of probiotic strains in fecal samples of human volunteers – Volker Mai – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Psychobiotics and the Manipulation of Bacteria–Gut–Brain Signals – Amar Sarkar – Trends in Neurosciences

Press: Psychobiotics: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go? – Laurie Anne Walden – Contagion Live

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

Animal experiments

Sex differences in colonization of gut microbiota from a man with short-term vegetarian and inulin-supplemented diet in germ-free mice – Jing-jing Wang – Scientific Reports

Functional Characterization of Inflammatory Bowel Disease–Associated Gut Dysbiosis in Gnotobiotic Mice – Hiroko Nagao-Kitamoto – CMGH Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Obese Mice Fed a Diet Supplemented with Enzyme-Treated Wheat Bran Display Marked Shifts in the Liver Metabolome Concurrent with Altered Gut Bacteria – Dorothy A Kieffer – Journal of Nutrition

Animal microbiome

Metabolism of Toxic Sugars by Strains of the Bee Gut Symbiont Gilliamella apicola – Hao Zheng – mBio

Microenvironmental heterogeneity of gut compartments drives bacterial community structure in wood- and humus-feeding higher termites – Aram Mikaelyan – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Bacteria as emerging indicators of soil condition – Syrie M. Hermans – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Successive soybean-monoculture cropping assembles rhizosphere microbial communities for the soil suppression of soybean cyst nematode – M. Imran Hamid – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Exploring the Influence of Environmental Factors on Bacterial Communities within the Rhizosphere of the Cu-tolerant plant, Elsholtzia splendens – Longfei Jiang – Scientific Reports

Endophytic Bacillus cereus effectively controls Meloidogyne incognita on tomato plants through rapid rhizosphere occupation and repellent action – Haijing Hu – Plant Disease

Drivers of yeast community composition in the litter and soil of a temperate forest
Tereza Mašínová – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Transcriptomic responses of a simplified soil microcosm to a plant pathogen and its biocontrol agent reveal a complex reaction to harsh habitat – Michele Perazzolli – BMC Genomics

The root growth of wheat plants, the water conservation and fertility status of sandy soils influenced by plant growth promoting rhizobacteria – Naeem Khan – Symbiosis

Dynamics of bacterial communities in rice field soils as affected by different long-term fertilization practices – Jae-Hyung Ahn – Journal of Microbiology

Partitioning the effect of composition and diversity of tree communities on leaf litter decomposition and soil respiration – Mark Davidson Jewell – Oikos

Effects of Land use on the Structural Diversity of Soil Bacterial Communities in South Eastern Iran – Ghobad Jalali – Biosciences Biotechnology Research

Successive soybean-monoculture cropping assembles rhizosphere microbial communities for the soil suppression of soybean cyst nematode – M. Imran Hamid – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Antarctic strict anaerobic microbiota from Deschampsia antarctica vascular plants rhizosphere reveals high ecology and biotechnology relevance – Rafael José Marques Peixoto – Extremophiles

The influence of the host plant is the major ecological determinant of soil presence of the nitrogen-fixing root nodule symbiont, Cluster II Frankia – Kai Battenberg – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Review: Fungal endophytes and their interactions with plants in phytoremediation: A review – Zujun Deng – Chemosphere

Water and extremophile microbiome

Optical properties of dissolved organic matter relate to different depth-specific patterns of archaeal and bacterial community structure in the north Atlantic ocean – Elisa Guerrero-Feijóo

A computationally simplistic poly-phasic approach to explore microbial communities from the Yucatan aquifer as a potential sources of novel natural products – Miguel David Marfil-Santana – Journal of Microbiology

Food microbiology

Different flour microbial communities drive to sourdoughs characterized by diverse bacterial strains and free amino acid profiles – Giuseppe Celano – Frontiers in Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Drinking water: One step forwards for the routine use of high-throughput DNA sequencing in environmental monitoring. An efficient and standardizable method to maximize the detection of environmental bacteria – Antonia Bruno – Microbiology Open

Weathering of a Roman Mosaic—A Biological and Quantitative Study on In Vitro Colonization of Calcareous Tesserae by Phototrophic Microorganisms – Addolorata Marasco – PLOS ONE

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Phylogenetic Dirichlet-multinomial model for microbiome data – Yunfan Tang – arXiv

More microbiology

Bacterial evolution: Genomics of metabolic trade-offs – Martin F. Polz – Nature Microbiology

What’s in a Name? New Bacterial Species and Changes to Taxonomic Status from 2012 through 2015 – Erik Munson – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Employment of Near Full-Length Ribosome Gene TA-Cloning and Primer-Blast to Detect Multiple Species in a Natural Complex Microbial Community Using Species-Specific Primers Designed with Their Genome Sequences – Huimin Zhang – Molecular Biotechnology

Review: A critical evaluation of ecological indices for the comparative analysis of microbial communities based on molecular datasets – Rico Lucas – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Microbes in the news

Viruses of the Human Body. Some of our resident viruses may be beneficial – Eric Delwart – The Scientist

Naval Special Warfare Trainees Face Tiny Enemy: Bacteria – Sara G. Miller – Live Science

Could a disrupted sleep also disturb your gut? – Fiona Pepper for The Health Report

Researchers think they’ve finally figured out why bacteria only causes acne in some peopleAnd how to stop it. – Fiona MacDonald – Science Alert

Microbes and the market

uBiome CEO Jessica Richman Joins Sean Parker, Maria Shriver, Arianna Huffington and Others, Speaking at Fortune Brainstorm HEALTH

Science, publishing, and career

2016 Life Sciences Salary Survey. Most researchers feel stimulated by their work but are dissatisfied with their compensation, according to this year’s results – Karen Zusi – The Scientist

October 29, 2016

Laryngeal microbiome, nitrogen fixation by bivalve symbionts, subalpine snow in California, sequence data compression tools. Flying back to Cali today, blogging from Phoenix.

Human respiratory microbiome

The human laryngeal microbiome: effects of cigarette smoke and reflux – Marie E. Jetté – Scientific Reports

Animal microbiome

This is pretty cool: Nitrogen fixation in a chemoautotrophic lucinid symbiosis – Sten König – Nature Microbiology

Fecal Bacterial Composition of Sichuan Snub-Nosed Monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) – Chen Su – International Journal of Primatology

Lesion recovery and the bacterial microbiome in two Caribbean gorgonian corals – Kartick P. Shirur – Marine Biology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Isolation and Identification of Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) from the Rhizosphere of Sugarcane in Saline and Non-Saline Soil – Elham Lamizadeh – International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Science

Different responses of rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil microbial communities to consecutive Piper nigrum L. monoculture – Zhigang Li – Scientific Reports

Note: 16S rRNA amplicon study, not metagenomics. Proceed with caution. Looking for Rhizobacterial Ecological Indicators in Agricultural Soils Using 16S rRNA metagenomic Amplicon Data – José R. Valverde – PLOS ONE

Comparison of Microbial Community Composition and Diversity in Native Coastal Wetlands and Wetlands that Have Undergone Long-Term Agricultural Reclamation – Shiqi Xu – Wetlands

Review: Biology and evolution of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis in the light of genomics – Laurent Kamel – New Phytologist

Review: Plant microbiomes and sustainable agriculture – Philip Hunter – EMBO press

Water and extremophile microbiome

Microbial community structure of subalpine snow in the Sierra Nevada, California – Chelsea J. Carey – Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

Unique community structure of viruses in a glacier soil of the Tianshan Mountains, China – Li-Li Han – Journal of Soils and Sediments

Composition and distribution of microbial communities in natural river wetlands and corresponding constructed wetlands – Qingqing Ca – Ecological Engineering

The culturable mycobiota of a Mediterranean marine site after an oil spill: Isolation, identification and potential application in bioremediation – Elena Bovio – Science of the Total Environment

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

proGenomes: a resource for consistent functional and taxonomic annotations of prokaryotic genomes – Daniel R. Mende – Nucleic Acids Research

Comparison of high-throughput sequencing data compression tools – Ibrahim Numanagić – Nature Methods

Phages and ecology

Ecological conditions determine extinction risk in co-evolving bacteria-phagepopulations – Rosanna C. T. Wright – BMC Evolutionary Biology

Microbes in the news

‘Rare’ and ‘unusual’ bacteria discovered on Muni by SFSU researchers – Alyssa Pereira – SF Gate

How lack of oxygen makes bacteria cause acne and how to stop it – Andy Coghlan – New Scientist

Necrotizing Fasciitis: A Profound Mystery In Medical Microbiology – Alex Berezow – American Council on Science and Health

Doctors warn of bacteria in salt water after Jacksonville officer almost dies – Letisha Bereola – Action News Jax

Healdsburg company makes ‘food’ for the gut’s bacteria – Press Democrat

October 27, 2016

Kavli Foundation grants, mycobiome of root canal infections, post-stroke infections,  Thai vegetarians, antibiotic treatment of gorillas, licorice plants under salt stress, and bacterial camouflage on Crustaceans. Greetings from New Mexico!

Jobs and grants

Open Positions at NC State University: Microbiomes and Complex Microbial Communities

Uniting Diverse Sciences to Tackle the Microbiome – Kavli Foundation

Human oral microbiome

The mycobiome of root canal infections is correlated to the bacteriome – Ilona F. Persoon – Clinical Oral Investigations

Near-sterile human body sites

Comprehensive detection and identification of bacterial DNA in the blood of patients with sepsis and healthy volunteers using next-generation sequencing method – the observation of DNAemia – T. Gosiewski – European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases

Human respiratory microbiome

Translocation and dissemination of commensal bacteria in post-stroke infection – Dragana Stanley – Nature Medicine

Bacteria in the respiratory tract—how to treat? Or do not treat? – Cristina Prat – International Journal of Infectious Diseases

Human gut microbiome

Human Microbiome Fusobacterium Nucleatum in Esophageal Cancer Tissue Is Associated with Prognosis – Kensuke Yamamura – Clinical Cancer Research

Microbial Community of Healthy Thai Vegetarians and Non-Vegetarians, Their Core Gut Microbiota, and Pathogen Risk – Supatjaree Ruengsomwong – Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Effect of Bifidobacterium breve on the Intestinal Microbiota of Coeliac Children on a Gluten Free Diet: A Pilot Study – Andrea Quagliariello – Nutrients

Review: Rethinking Diet to Aid Human–Microbe Symbiosis – Muriel Derrien – Trends in Microbiology

Review: Feeding the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis: Diet, Microbiome and Neuropsychiatry – Kiran V. Sandhu – Translational Research

Review: Microbiota dysbiosis: a new piece in the understanding of carcinogenesis puzzle – Valeria García-Castillo – Journal of Medical Microbiology

Review: The evolving role of the microbiome in liver failure and liver transplantation – Kymberly D. Watt – Liver Transplantation

Animal models

Effect of Antibiotic Treatment on the Gastrointestinal Microbiome of Free-Ranging Western Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla g. gorilla) – Klára Vlčková – Microbial Ecology

Commensal Microbe-specific Activation of B2 Cell Subsets Contributes to Atherosclerosis Development Independently of Lipid Metabolism – Lin Chen – EBioMedicine

Commentary: Intestinal Microbiome and Atherosclerosis – J. David Spence – EBioMedicine

A distinct microbiota composition is associated with protection from food allergy in an oral mouse immunization model – Susanne C. Diesner – Clinical Immunology

Kinetic changes of intestinal microbiota in the course of intestinal sensitization – Liang Xiao – Oncotarget

Animal microbiome

Keeping it in the family: Coevolution of latrunculid sponges and their dominant bacterial symbionts – Gwynneth F. Matcher – Microbiology Open

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Divergent responses of β-diversity among organism groups to a strong environmental gradient – Micael Jonsson – Ecosphere

Phylogenetic congruence between subtropical trees and their associated fungi – Xubing Liu – Ecology and Evolution

Microbial cooperation in the rhizosphere improves liquorice growth under salt stress – Dilfuza Egamberdieva – Bioengineered

Extremophile microbiome

Extremophiles: Life at the deep end – Sonja-Verena Albers – Nature

Built environment microbiome

Dynamic change of surface microbiota with different environmental cleaning methods between two wards in a hospital – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Bioreactor microbiology

In vitro study of soil arsenic release by human gut microbiota and its intestinal absorption by Caco-2 cells – Naiyi Yin – Chemosphere

Probiotics

Probiotic With or Without Fiber Controls Body Fat Mass, Associated With Serum Zonulin, in Overweight and Obese Adults—Randomized Controlled Trial  – Lotta K. Stenman – EBioMedicine

More microbes

Nanostructures and Monolayers of Spheres Reduce Surface Reflections in Hyperiid Amphipods – Laura E. Bagge – Current Biology

Press: Crustaceans in the ocean’s ‘twilight zone’ wear CAMOUFLAGE: Bacteria coating helps creatures avoid a predator’s gaze – Sarah Griffiths – Daily Mail

Microbes in the news

Videos from Microbiomes of the Built Environment NAS meeting posted – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBEnet

Iron-Loving Bacteria a Model For Mars Life – Elizabeth Howel –  Space.com

Dogs go on poop patrol to sniff out fecal bacteria. Rescue dogs trained to detect human fecal matter – Barbara Besteni – Local 10

Bacteria Sent In Space Could Be Potentially Infectious, Harmful – Elaine Hannah – Science World Report

Florida’s orange groves are being wiped out by tree-killing bacteria – CBS News

Rio fights Zika with biggest release yet of bacteria-infected mosquitoes. Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes will be widely deployed in two South American cities to combat viral infections – Ewen Callaway – Nature

Cranberries crush bacteria’s communication networks – Lisa-Ann Lee – New Atlas

Neonatal vaccination of mice with bacteria prevents cockroach-induced asthma as adults – News Medical

Bacteria and bugs in guts and gallbladders – Claire O’Connell – The Irish Times

October 26, 2016

Discount on San Diego Microbiome Congress, sleep deprivation, constipation, strange structures in blood are not bacteria, complexity in corals, grape microbiota, microbial corrosion.

Events

North American Microbiome Congress – San Diego, 24-25 January 2017. This is the conference that was criticized online by Jonathan Eisen (see here) and me about the initial lack of diversity in the speaker line-up. The organizers have taken this to heart, apologized, and will make an effort to do better in the future. After talking to the organizers, they are offering my readers a 15% discount code ‘DIGEST15’ on the conference fee. There are also reduced priced Early Bird tickets available until 31st October 2016.

Human respiratory microbiome

Re-emergence of Lower Airway Microbiota in Cystic Fibrosis Lung Transplant Patients – Saad A Syed – Annals of the American Thoracic Society

Human gut microbiome

Gut Microbiota and Glucometabolic Alterations in Response to Recurrent Partial Sleep Deprivation in Normal-weight Young Individuals – Christian Benedict – Molecular Metabolism

Press: Sleep loss tied to changes of the gut microbiota in humans – Science Daily
Sleep loss may be linked to changes in gut bacteria levels – Ryan Maass – UPI

Characterization of Microbiota in Children with Chronic Functional Constipation – Tim G. J. de Meij – PLOS ONE

Microbiome of nearly-sterile sites

Pleomorphic Structures in Human Blood Are Red Blood Cell-Derived Microparticles, Not Bacteria – Adam J. Mitchell – PLOS ONE

Animal models

Antibiotic effects on gut microbiota and metabolism are host dependent – Shiho Fujisaka – The Journal of Clinical Investigation

Diversity and resilience of the wood-feeding higher termite Mironasutitermes shangchengensis gut microbiota in response to temporal and diet variations – Ying Wang – Ecology and Evolution

Animal microbiome

Distinguishing between Microbial Habitats Unravels Ecological Complexity in Coral Microbiomes – Amy Apprill – mSystems

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Looking for Rhizobacterial Ecological Indicators in Agricultural Soils Using 16S rRNA metagenomic Amplicon Data – José R. Valverde – PLOS ONE

Biochar-stimulated plant performance is strongly linked to microbial diversity and metabolic potential in the rhizosphere – Max Kolton – New Phytologist

Wine microbiology is driven by vineyard and winery anthropogenic factors – Cédric Grangeteau – Microbial Biotechnology

Effect of 40 and 80 Years of Conifer Regrowth on Soil Microbial Activities and Community Structure in Subtropical Low Mountain Forests – Ed-Haun Chang – Forests

Water microbiome

mdRNA-Seq analysis of marine microbial communities from the northern Red Sea – Shengwei Hou – Scientific Reports

Assessing Marine Microbial Induced Corrosion at Santa Catalina Island, California – Gustavo A. Ramírez – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bioreactor microbiology

Wow, this paper will cost you $63: Diversity of Microbial Communities in Biogas Reactors – Bernadett Pap – Current Biochemical Engineering

Viruses and phages

Viral Metagenomics on Blood-Feeding Arthropods as a Tool for Human Disease Surveillance – Annika Brinkmann – Int J Mol Sci

Techniques

An introduction to microbiome analysis for human biology applications – Katherine R. Amato – American Journal of Human Biology

Instrument for Real-Time Digital Nucleic Acid Amplification on Custom Microfluidic Devices – David A. Selck – PLOS ONE

Microbes in the news

Reef rehab could help threatened corals make a comeback. Solutions for threatened reefs vary by location and damage done – Amy McDermott – Science News

Bacteria get dangerously weird in space – Shayla Love – Washington Post

Cranberry extract disrupts communication between bacteria linked to pervasive infections – News Medical Net

LSU alumna Kaitlynn Fenley teaches microbiology cooking class – Allie Cobb – The Daily Reveille

NIH research project will upgrade ‘metagenomics’ system – Purdue

Science, publishing, and career

Beyond Traditional Scientific Training: The Importance of Community and Empowerment for Women in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology – M. Claire Horner-Devine – Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

October 25, 2016

Bat skin microbiome, carnivorous sponges, metagenome of an aquifer, and nitrogen fixation in symbionts of marine invertebrate animals.

Human respiratory microbiome

Microbial communities of conducting and respiratory zones of lung-transplanted patients – Marie Beaume – Frontiers in Microbiology

Animal microbiome

Deconstructing the Bat Skin Microbiome: Influences of the Host and the Environment – Christine V. Avena – Frontiers in Microbiology

The Microbiome and Occurrence of Methanotrophy in Carnivorous Sponges – Jon T. Hestetun – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Thousands of microbial genomes shed light on interconnected biogeochemical processes in an aquifer system – Karthik Anantharaman – Nature Communications

Press: New Bacteria Groups, and Stunning Diversity, Discovered Underground
Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley research also provides new clues about the roles of subsurface microbes in globally important cycles– Dan Krotz – Berkeley Lab

Plant microbiomes and sustainable agriculture. Deciphering the plant microbiome and its role in nutrient supply and plant immunity has great potential to reduce the use of fertilizers and biocides in agriculture – Philip Hunter – EMBO Reports

Taxonomic and Functional Diversity of Soil and Hypolithic Microbial Communities in Miers Valley, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica – Sean T. S. Wei – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water microbiome

Seasonality of Coliform Bacteria Detection Rates in New Jersey Domestic Wells – Thomas B. Atherholt – Groundwater

Distinct factors shape aquatic and sedimentary microbial community structures in the lakes of western China – Jian Yang – Frontiers in Microbiology

Chemosynthetic symbionts of marine invertebrate animals are capable of nitrogen fixation – Jillian M. Petersen – Nature Microbiology

Press: ‘Farming’ bacteria to boost growth in the oceans – EurekAlert

Food microbiology

Different flour microbial communities drive to sourdoughs characterized by diverse bacterial strains and free amino acid profiles – Guiseppe Celano – Frontiers in Microbiology

Proteomics

Proteomics of Microbial Human pathogens – Nelson C. Soares – Frontiers in Microbiology

Techniques

Impact of Different Fecal Processing Methods on Assessments of Bacterial Diversity in the Human Intestine – Yu-Hsin Hsieh – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Google doodle honors van Leeuwenhoek, father of microbiology– Steven Musil – CNET

HT: Ian Brooks. Podcast: Microbes, Genes and Human Endeavour: Ed Yong seeks to expand our understanding of microscopic microbes – BBC

Call for submissions: Kavli microbiome ideas challenge – Joanna Urban – ASM

#BacteriaHysteria

Dogs Licking Humans Can Be Dangerous; Transmission of Bacteria, Viruses Possible – Nature World News

October 20, 2016

Events

2016-2017 Dannon Gut Microbiome, Yogurt and Probiotics Fellowship Grant Application Form
Also see: Leading Yogurt Company Challenges Students to Unearth New Data on the Gut Microbiome, Yogurt and Probiotics with $50K Grant Program. Dannon® will award two $25K grants to further scientific research – PR Newswire

Third Annual Microbiome Symposium – Penn Vet – October 26 and 27, 2016
Penn’s microbiome conference turns eye toward antibiotic use in livestock
Text by Katherine Unger Baillie – Penn Current

Q4 microbiome conferences roundup: Are you looking for a good scientific microbiome research symposium? Over the next three months, you have six exciting microbiome conferences from which to choose. – Megan M. MacBride – Taconic

Disappointing lack of diversity here: #YAMMM: 29 speakers, 4 women. Microbiome Drug Development Summit, 24-26 January 2017, Paris, France

General microbiome

An introduction to microbiome analysis for human biology applications – Katherine R. Amato – American Journal of Human Biology

Human oral microbiome

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

Human respiratory microbiome

Role of microbiome in the pathophysiology and disease course of asthma – Singanayagam A – Curr Opin Pulm Med

Human skin microbiome

Review: Topographical and physiological differences of the skin mycobiome in health and disease – Jay-Hyun Jo – Virulence

Human vaginal microbiome

A fruitful alliance: the synergy between Atopobium vaginae and Gardnerella vaginalis in bacterial vaginosis-associated biofilm – Liselotte Hardy – Sexually Transmitted Infections

Human gut microbiome

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

Similar Fecal Microbiota Signatures in Patients With Diarrhea-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Patients With Depression – Yixuan Liu – Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Review: Roles for Intestinal Bacteria, Viruses, and Fungi in Pathogenesis of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and Therapeutic Approaches – R. Balfour Sartor – Gastroenterology

Review: The Microbiome and Human Disease Pathogenesis: How do you do what you do to me …? – Edward N. Janoff – Translational Research

Animal models

Evaluating the association between body weight and the intestinal microbiota of weaned piglets via 16S rRNA sequencing – Geon Goo Hana – Veterinary Microbiology

Alterations of the Host Microbiome Affect Behavioral Responses to Cocaine – Drew D. Kiraly – Scientific Reports

Animal microbiome

Developmental and ecological benefits of the maternally transmitted microbiota in a dung beetle – Daniel B. Schwab – The American Naturalist

Microbiome analysis shows enrichment for specific bacteria in separate anatomical regions of the deep-sea carnivorous sponge Chondrocladia grandis – Joost T.P. Verhoeven – FEMS Microbiology Ecology Letters

Metabarcoding and metabolome analyses of copepod grazing reveal feeding preference and linkage to metabolite classes in dynamic microbial plankton communities – Jessica L. Ray – Molecular Ecology

Spatial Microbial Composition Along the Gastrointestinal Tract of Captive Attwater’s Prairie Chicken – Yan Zhang – Microbial Ecology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Nestedness in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Communities along Soil pH Gradients in Early Primary Succession: Acid-Tolerant Fungi Are pH Generalists – Ai Kawahara – PLOS ONE

Review: Microbially Mediated Plant Salt Tolerance and Microbiome-based Solutions for Saline Agriculture – Yuan Qin – Biotechnology Advances

Water microbiome

Defining boundaries for the distribution of microbial communities beneath the sediment-buried, hydrothermally active seafloor – Katsunori Yanagawa – ISME J

More microbiology

CorrespondenceImproving Microbiology Research: the Problems Are Less Statistical and More Biological – Dennis F. Lawler – mBio

What’s in a Name? New Bacterial Species and Changes to Taxonomic Status from 2012 through 2015 – Erik Munson – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Tasmanian devil milk fights superbugs – BBC News
Tasmanian devil milk kills several deadly superbugs that are resistant to existing drugs – Science Alert

There’s a breast microbiome, and it’s different in women with breast cancer – Erin Blakemore – Washington Post

Research Highlight: A protective protozoan in mucosal infection – Katrina Ray – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Outbreak of Biofilm-Forming Achromobacter xylosoxidans Due to Environmental Transmission – Infection Control Today

The Emergent Microbiome: A Revolution for the Life Sciences – Part VII, The Microbiome and Immunotherapy I – Dilworth IP – Lexology

New science museum exhibit explores ‘the secret world’ inside us: N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh opens a new special exhibit this weekend – WRAL.com

Vedanta Biosciences Granted First European Patent Broadly Covering Pharmaceutical Compositions for Microbiome Therapeutics Based on Bacterial Consortia – Business Wire

Science, publishing, and career

Married to the(ir) job: living with an academic. Scholars and their significant others share the good, the bad and the ugly – Times Higher Education

Investigation Finds Pathologist Guilty of Systemic Misconduct – Bob Grant – The Scientist

Women need to be seen and heard at conferences. A neuroscience initiative is boosting the number of female invited speakers at meetings. Other disciplines should do the same – Nature

The Bearded Lady Project . Q&A: Lexi Jamieson Marsh and Ellen Currano: Face to face – Alexandra Witze – Nature

October 19, 2016

Blogging from SJC today on my way to Vancouver. Oral microbes correlated with food-triggered migraines, spinal cord injuries, comparison of 8 DNA extraction kits on 3 sample types, mockrobiota.

Jobs and Events

Flying to Vancouver today to give a short talk at DNA Genotek’s Microbiome Breakfast Session at #ASHG2016

Fall Mid-Atlantic Microbiome Meetup (M3) – November 1-2, University of Maryland

Human oral microbiome

Migraines Are Correlated with Higher Levels of Nitrate-, Nitrite-, and Nitric Oxide-Reducing Oral Microbes in the American Gut Project Cohort – Antonio Gonzalez – mSystems

Press: Migraines could be caused by gut bacteria, study suggests – Hannah Devlin – The Guardian
Scientists think they’ve found why chocolates and wine cause migraines for some very unlucky people – Katherine Ellen Foley – Quartz

Human skin microbiome

The skin is a significant but overlooked anatomical reservoir for vector-borne African trypanosomes – Paul Capewell – eLife

Human respiratory microbiome
The Prevalence of Antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Nasal Carriage among Industrial Hog Operation Workers, Community Residents, and Children Living in their Households: North Carolina, USA – Sarah M. Hatcher – Environmental Health Perspectives

Press: Drug-resistant staph bacteria prevalence higher in young children living with hog workers – EurekAlert

Animal models

Gut dysbiosis impairs recovery after spinal cord injury – Kristina A. Kigerl – Journal of Experimental Medicine

Press: Researchers show how spinal cord injury causes profound changes in gut microbiota – News-Medical Net
Gut bacteria can aid recovery from spinal cord injury, study suggests – Science Daily

Techniques

Eight commercial kits, 16 procedures, 3 sample types: Impact of Sample Type and DNA Isolation Procedure on Genomic Inference of Microbiome Composition – Berith E. Knudsen – mSystems

mockrobiota: a Public Resource for Microbiome Bioinformatics Benchmarking – Nicholas A. Bokulich – mSystems

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

An integrated metagenomics pipeline for strain profiling reveals novel patterns of bacterial transmission and biogeography – Stephen Nayfach – Genome Research

Press: From Genome Research: Strain-level profiling yields new insights into mother-infant microbiomes – EurekAlert

The single-species metagenome: subtyping Staphylococcus aureus core genome sequences from shotgun metagenomic data – Sandeep J. Joseph – PeerJ

Microbes in the news

Tapping the Human Gut Microbiome, Part 1: The Next Frontier for Novel Therapeutics – Christian Furlan Freguia – GenEngNews
Tapping the Human Gut Microbiome, Part 2: From the Bottom Up – Christian Furlan Freguia – GenEngNews

The microbiome: Looking at microbes as more than pathogens – Ryan T. Ranallo – Healio

Harnessing The Plant Microbiome For Cleaner, Pesticide-Free Agriculture – Ben Schiller – FastCoexist

Bacteria named in Mighty Taco outbreak; chain denies fault – Food Safety News

Clemson students get bacteria named after them. New strain of Legionella named for students who studied it – Carla Field – Wyff4

Bacteria ‘alarm clock’ may cause repeat infections in patients – Kate Wighton – Imperial.ac.uk

Microbes and Money

Igniting a Microbiome Revolution: Era7 Bioinformatics Syncs with Capital Cell – Erin Hobey – CrowdFundInsider
Igenbio Inc offers metagenome analysis services for clinical and industrial applications – Reuters

October 18, 2016

Vaginal probiotics, forensic analysis of skin bacteria on fabrics, Wolbachia in nematodes, ivy phyllosphere, microbial life in two polar extremes, how to improve the indoor environment, and mass spec analysis of human habitat molecules.

Pregnancy and early life

Vaginal Probiotic Administration in the Management of Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes – Daskalakis G.J. – Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy

General human microbiome

Review: Health Disparities and the Microbiome – Keisha Findley – Trends in Microbiology

Human respiratory microbiome

Review: Host–Bacterial Crosstalk Determines Staphylococcus aureus Nasal Colonization – Michelle E. Mulcahy – Trends in Microbiology

Human skin and tissue microbiome

Forensic analysis using microbial community between skin bacteria and fabrics – So-Yeon Lee – Toxicology and Environmental Health Sciences

Not a word about extraction controls, so proceed with caution: Bacterial Communities Associated with Atherosclerotic Plaques from Russian Individuals with Atherosclerosis – Elvira E. Ziganshina – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Construction and Analysis of Functional Networks in the Gut Microbiome of Type 2 Diabetes Patients – Lianshuo Li – Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics

Review: Metabolite and Microbiome Interplay in Cancer Immunotherapy – Caroline H. Johnson – Cancer Research

Review: The gut microbiota and gastrointestinal surgery – Kristina Guyton – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Review: Gut Microbiota and Risk of Developing Celiac Disease – Cenit, Maria C. – Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology

EditorialWhat’s in Your GI Microbiome? – Martin H. Floch – Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology

Animal and in vitro models

Study of the Ability of Bifidobacteria of Human Origin to Prevent and Treat Rotavirus Infection Using Colonic Cell and Mouse Models – Mélanie Gagnon – PLOS ONE

Farnesoid X Receptor Signaling Shapes the Gut Microbiota and Controls Hepatic Lipid Metabolism – Limin Zhang – mSystems

A mixture of milk and vegetable lipids in infant formula changes gut digestion, mucosal immunity and microbiota composition in neonatal piglets – Isabelle Le Huërou-Luron – European Journal of Nutrition

An Advanced In Vitro Technology Platform to Study the Mechanism of Action of Prebiotics and Probiotics in the Gastrointestinal Tract – Marzorati, Massimo – Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology

Animal microbiome

Sea lions: Protein and RNA extraction from mucosal swabs: a minimally invasive source of ecological data for studies of natural populations – W Espinosa-de Aquino – Methods in Ecology and Evolution

Mycobacteria in aquarium fish: results of a 3-year survey indicate caution required in handling pet-shop fish – D Kušar – Journal of Fish Diseases

Genomic evidence for plant-parasitic nematodes as the earliest Wolbachia hosts – Amanda M. V. Brown – Scientific Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Disentangling interactions between microbial communities and roots in deep subsoil – Martina I. Gocke – Science of the Total Environment

Reconstructing a hydrogen-driven microbial metabolic network in Opalinus Clay rock – Alexandre Bagnoud – Nature Communications

Diversity and hydrocarbon-degrading potential of epiphytic microbial communities on Platanus x acerifolia leaves in an urban area – Isabella Gandolfi – Environmental Pollution

Response of soil bacterial communities to lead and zinc pollution revealed by Illumina MiSeq sequencing investigation – Xihui Xu – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Impact of urban land use on the bacterial phyllosphere of ivy (Hedera sp.) – Wenke Smets – Atmospheric Environment

Water and extremophile microbiome

Periodic change in coastal microbial community structure associated with submarine groundwater discharge and tidal fluctuation – Eunhee Lee – Limnology and Oceanography

Microbial Community Dynamics in Two Polar Extremes: The Lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys and the West Antarctic Peninsula Marine Ecosystem – Jeff S. Bowman – BioScience

Diversity and physiological and biochemical properties of heterotrophic bacteria isolated from Lake Baikal neuston – A. D. Galach’yants – Microbiology

Phylogenetic and functional prokaryotic diversity in the Hoito-Gol mesothermal mineral spring (Eastern Sayan Mountains, Buryat Republic) – E.S. Kashkak – Microbiology

Metagenomic Insights into Effects of Chemical Pollutants on Microbial Community Composition and Function in Estuarine Sediments Receiving Polluted River Water – Xiao-Ming Lu – Microbial Ecology

Built environment microbiome

How do we make indoor environments and healthcare settings healthier? – Jack A. Gilbert – Microbial Biotechnology

Mass Spectrometry-Based Visualization of Molecules Associated with Human Habitats – Daniel Petras – Analytical Chemistry

Food microbiology

Raw Ready-to-Eat Seafood Safety: Microbiological Quality of the Various Seafood Species Available at Fishery, Hyper, and Online Market – H.W. Kim – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

MIxS-HCR: a MIxS extension defining a minimal information standard for sequence data from environments pertaining to hydrocarbon resources – Nicolas Tsesmetzis – Standards in Genomic Sciences

IMG/M: integrated genome and metagenome comparative data analysis system
I-Min A. Chen – Nucleic Acids Research

Review: The present and future of de novo whole-genome assembly – Jang-il Sohn – Briefings in Bioinformatics

Microbes in the news

Soaking A Bunch Of Toads In Their Own Bacteria Could Save Their Lives – Krista Langlois – Five Thirty Eight

Bacteria Hysteria

Why your office could be making you sick: Keyboards ‘contain 20,000 MORE bacteria than a toilet bowl’– Stephen Matthews – Daily Mail

How to clean and disinfect your keyboard and mouse – Ed Rhee – CNET

Science, publishing, and career

A Tale of Two Women and Their Careers in Science – Anna Katie – YouTube

Promoting Responsible Scientific Research – American Society for Microbiology

October 17, 2016

Fecal markers on child hands in Bangladesh, Clostridium difficile in pet dogs, intertidal microbes, and variability in household airborne bacteria.

Human skin microbiome

Occurrence of host-associated fecal markers on child hands, household soil, and drinking water in rural Bangladeshi households – Alexandria B. Boehm – Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Human respiratory microbiome

Data Mining of Lung Microbiota in Cystic Fibrosis Patients – Jianguo Li – PLOS ONE

Review: A future perspective on neurodegenerative diseases: Nasopharyngeal and gut microbiota – Fazlurrahman Khan – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Human urinary and reproductive tract

Methods only, no results (or: how to write two papers instead of one): Methodology for a vaginal and urinary microbiome study in women with mixed urinary incontinence – Yuko M. Komesu – International Urogynecology Journal

Human oral microbiome

Human oral microbiome and prospective risk for pancreatic cancer: a population-based nested case-control study – Xiaozhou Fan – Gut

Human gut microbiome

High-throughput sequencing identifies distinct fecal and mucosal gut microbiota correlating with different mucosal proteins – Li-na Dong – PeerJ Preprint

Prevotella and Klebsiella proportions in fecal microbial communities are potential characteristic parameters for patients with major depressive disorder – Ping Lin – Journal of Affective Disorders

Differential Changes in Gut Microbiota After Gastric Bypass and Sleeve Gastrectomy Bariatric Surgery Vary According to Diabetes Remission – Rinki Murphy – Obesity Surgery

Review: Antibiotics and the Intestinal Microbiome : Individual Responses, Resilience of the Ecosystem, and the Susceptibility to Infections – Sophie Thiemann – Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology

Animal experiments

Chronic Sleep Disruption Alters Gut Microbiota, Induces Systemic and Adipose Tissue Inflammation and Insulin Resistance in Mice – Valeriy A. Poroyko – Scientific Reports

The impact of orally administered phages on host immune response and surrounding microbial communities – Yingying Hong – Bacteriophage

Animal microbiome

More than 50% of Clostridium difficile Isolates from Pet Dogs in Flagstaff, USA, Carry Toxigenic Genotypes – Nathan E. Stone – PLOS ONE

Press: NAU Crew Finds Bacteria Clue by Scooping Pooch Poo – Arizona Public Media

Rumen microbiota for wild boreal cervids living in the same habitat – Kjartan Østbye – FEMS Microbiology Letters

Structure and culture of the gut microbiome of the Mormon cricket Anabrus simplex – Chad C Smith – bioRxiv Preprint

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Microbial legacies alter decomposition in response to simulated global change – Jennifer BH Martiny – ISME Journal
Water microbiome

Spatial and Halophytes Associated Microbial Communities in Intertidal Coastal Region of India – Doongar R. Chaudhary – International Journal of Phytoremediation

Built environment microbiome

High temporal variability in airborne bacterial diversity and abundance inside single-family residences – Joanne B. Emerson – Indoor Air

Microbes in the news

UMass microbiologist Kristen DeAngelis awarded $2.5 million grants to study how soil microbes contribute to global warming – Lucas Ropek

Bdellovibrio, the cannibalistic drug coming to humanity’s rescue – Mallory Locklear – Ars Technica

Nuclear Waste Repositories Safer With Bacteria – iTechPost

UA Museum hopes to display giant whale skeleton after bacteria clean up the bones for a couple of years – Dermot Cole – ADN

Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition Popular Vote Gallery