Human microbiome, June 10

Today we’ll cover the lung microbiome, salivary gland function, NEC, and sequencing of cosmid clones.
Oral microbiome

AutophagyAutophagy Correlates with Maintenance of Salivary Gland Function Following Radiation – Maria Morgan-Bathke – Nature Scientific Reports

“Thus, autophagy appears to play a beneficial role in salivary glands following radiation”

UbiquitousUbiquitous Sialometabolism Present among Oral Fusobacteria – Saori Yoneda – PLOS ONE

“Using microarray analysis, we examined the transcriptional response of F. nucleatum subspecies nucleatum to whole blood in order to identify some of the genetic responses that might occur during the transition from health to disease.”

NYU and UCSF researchers develop a framework for monitoring oral cancer – ScienceCodex

“”We know that other cancers, including gallbladder, colon, lung and prostate, have been associated with particular bacterial infections, so we hypothesized that shifts in the composition of the normal oral cavity microbiome could be promoters or causes of oral cancer,” said Dr. Albertson.”

Respiratory microbiome

Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 9.32.19 PMBreathing Life into Lung Microbiome Research – Rina Shaikh-Lesko – The Scientist

“Although it’s far less populated than the mouth community that helps feed it, researchers increasingly appreciate the role of the lung microbiome in respiratory health.”

Impact off extImpact of Experimental Human Pneumococcal Carriage on Nasopharyngeal Bacterial Densities in Healthy Adults – Joshua R. Shak – PLOS ONE

“To better understand how these bacteria change in relation to pneumococcal colonization, we used species-specific quantitative PCR to examine bacterial densities in 52 subjects 7 days before, and 2, 7, and 14 days after controlled inoculation of healthy human adults with S. pneumoniae serotype 6B.”

Pregnancy and Birth

BrainModerate and Late Preterm Birth: Effect on Brain Size and Maturation at Term-Equivalent Age – Jennifer M. Walsh – Radiology

“MLPT birth is associated with smaller brain size, less-developed myelination of the posterior limb of the internal capsule, and more immature gyral folding than those associated with full-term birth. “

Preemie Research Highlights Concerns With Human Experimentation – Frederick Reese – Mintpress

“Parents weren’t fully aware of the risks associated with a medical research trial they allowed their babies to participate in.”

Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 9.30.20 PMSmall Intestinal Intraepithelial TCRγδ+ T Lymphocytes Are Present in the Premature Intestine but Selectively Reduced in Surgical Necrotizing Enterocolitis – Jörn-Hendrik Weitkamp – PLOS ONE

“In human preterm infants, the proportion of IEL was reduced by 66% in 11 NEC ileum resections compared to 30 non-NEC controls (p<0.001). While γδ IEL dominated over conventional αβ IEL early in gestation in mice and in humans, γδ IEL were preferential decreased in the ileum of surgical NEC patients compared to non-NEC controls (50% reduction, p<0.05).”

Antibiotics and microbiome

Synthetic Biologics and Enterome Bioscience Collaborate on Microbiome Research to Support Synthetic Biologics’ C. difficile Program – MarketWatch

“Synthetic Biologics, Inc. (nyse mkt:SYN), a developer of novel anti-infective biologic and drug candidates targeting specific pathogens that cause serious infections and diseases, and Enterome Bioscience SA, a pioneer in the development of innovative disease management solutions based on a deep understanding of the gut microbiome, today announced that they have entered into an agreement to conduct metagenomic research on the effects of beta-lactam antibiotics on the gastrointestinal microflora (microbiome) of human patients”

Animal models of human disease

Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 9.38.10 PMSaccharomyces boulardii Administration Changes Gut Microbiota and Reduces Hepatic Steatosis, Low-Grade Inflammation, and Fat Mass in Obese and Type 2 Diabetic db/db Mice – Amandine Everard – mBio

“Here we found that type 2 diabetic and obese mice (db/db) treated with Saccharomyces boulardii exhibited reduced body weight, fat mass, hepatic steatosis, and inflammatory tone. “

Metagenomics and sequencing

Evaluation of a pooledEvaluation of a Pooled Strategy for High-Throughput Sequencing of Cosmid Clones from Metagenomic Libraries – Kathy N. Lam – PLOS ONE

“We investigated a hybrid Sanger/Illumina pooled sequencing strategy that omits barcoding altogether, and we evaluated this strategy by comparing the pooled sequencing results to reference sequence data obtained from traditional barcode-based sequencing of the same set of clones. “

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Human Microbiomes, June 9

Apples and coffee are good for your teeth, exercise good for your microbial diversity, role of microbiota in lung cancer, and lots of metabolomics papers.

Human Oral Microbiome (and some skin too!)

AppleAnticaries effect of an antioxidant-rich apple concentrate on enamel in an experimental biofilm-demineralisation model – Rodrigo A. Giacaman – Journal of Applied Microbiology

“Streptococcus mutans biofilms exposed to ARAC after a cariogenic challenge with sucrose induced lower enamel demineralisation than the positive control. The highest dilution of ARAC at 1: 100,000 (v/v) showed the most marked reduction in demineralisation of about fifty seven percent.”

CRIPSrConservation of streptococcal CRISPRs on human skin and saliva – Refugio Robles-Sikisaka – BMC Microbiology

“We investigated the conservation of CRISPR content from streptococci on skin and saliva of human subjects over 8-weeks to determine whether similarities existed in the CRISPR spacer profiles and whether CRISPR spacers were a stable component of each biogeographic site”

Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 2.09.54 AMAntibacterial effect of coffee: calcium concentration in a culture containing teeth/biofilm exposed to Coffea Canephora aqueous extract – N. Meckelburg -Letters in Applied Microbiology

“This study revealed an inhibitory action of Coffea canephora against dental biofilm. This coffee species caused bacterial lysis and consequent release of calcium into the medium.”

Human gut microbiome

ClarkeExercise and associated dietary extremes impact on gut microbial diversity – Siobhan F Clarke – Gut

“… athletes had a higher diversity of gut micro-organisms, representing 22 distinct phyla, which in turn positively correlated with protein consumption and creatine kinase.”

BMReview: Molecular ecological tools to decipher the role of our microbial mass in obesity – GDA Hermes – Beneficial Microbes

“ This review aims to describe the different molecular approaches and their contributions to our understanding of the role of the GI microbiota in host energy homeostasis. ”

Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 1.00.40 AMFecal microbiome analysis as a diagnostic test for diverticulitis – L. Daniels – European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases

“Differences in bacterial phylum abundance and diversity (Shannon index) of the resulting profiles were assessed by conventional statistics. Dissimilarity in microbiome composition was analyzed with principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) based on cosine distance measures. “

Impaired Innate Immune Function Associated with Fecal Supernatant from Crohn’s Disease Patients: Insights into Potential Pathogenic Role of the Microbiome – Meelu, Parool – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Opinion Article: Gut Microbes and Host Physiology: What Happens when you Host Billions of Guests? – Jennifer L. Pluznick – Frontiers in Endocrinology

“The literature is rife with examples of phenotypes which were not easily replicated by other groups – even when using the “same mice” – and we should consider whether some of these examples may be, in fact, due to the influence of gut microbiota.”

ProalInflammatory Disease and the Human Microbiome – Amy D Proal – Discovery Medicine

“The microbes that contribute to this dysfunction are often inherited from family members. Immunosuppressive therapies for inflammatory disease allow pathogens driving these processes to spread with greater ease.”

BMUnderstanding gut microbiota in elderly’s health will enable intervention through probiotics – G. Pérez Martínez – Beneficial Microbes

“Intervention studies of probiotics and prebiotics in elderly are not very abundant, but most cases showed that Bifidobacterium populations can efficiently be stimulated with a concomitant decrease of Enterobacteria. “

ClarkeGut Microbiota: The Neglected Endocrine Organ – Gerard Clarke – Molecular Endocrinology

“Indirectly and through as yet unknown mechanisms, the gut microbiota exerts control over the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA).”

The June issue of Gut this month features the abstracts from the British Society of Gastroenterology Annual General Meeting 16–19 June 2014 in a Supplemental issue

Human respiratory microbiome

Screen shot 2014-06-09 at 04.19PM, Jun 09The potential role of lung microbiota in lung cancer attributed to household coal burning exposures – H. Dean Hosgood III – Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis

“This study seeks to explore the role of lung microbiota in lung cancer among never smoking Xuanwei women and how coal burning may influence these associations.”

Pregnancy and Birth

StrongholdPregnancy’s Stronghold on the Vaginal Microbiome – Marina R. S. Walther-António – PLOS ONE

“For a majority of the patients (n = 8), the vaginal microbiome was dominated by Lactobacillus crispatus throughout pregnancy.”

Masters Thesis: The Effect of Nutrition on the Microbiome in Pregnant Women and the Use of Micronutrient Supplemented Probiotic Yogurt to Improve Outcomes – Megan Kathleen Enos – University of Western Ontario

“The aims of this study were to characterize the gut, oral, and vaginal microbiotas of pregnant women ….. a clinical study was performed in Mwanza, Tanzania”

WopereisThe first thousand days – intestinal microbiology of early life: establishing a symbiosis – Harm Wopereis – Pediatric Allergy and Immunology

“This review provides an overview of the development of the intestinal microbiota, its bidirectional relationship with the immune system, and its role in impacting health and disease, with emphasis on allergy, in early life.”

Metabolomics

RinehartMetabolomic data streaming for biology-dependent data acquisition – Duane Rinehart – Nature Biotechnology

“Here we describe a solution to the time demands of metabolomic data upload to XCMS Online. In brief, we designed XCMS Online software that enables uploading of metabolomic data files from the instrument computer workstation as they are acquired. “

SulekA combined metabolomic and phylogenetic study reveals putatively prebiotic effects of high molecular weight arabino-oligosaccharides when assessed by in vitro fermentation in bacterial communities derived from humans – Karolina Sulek – Anaerobe

“All tested carbohydrate sources resulted in a significant increase of Bifidobacterium spp. between 1.79 fold (HA) and 1.64 fold (FOS) in the microbial populations after fermentation”

FariaInterplay between anthocyanins and gut microbiota – Ana Faria – J. Agric. Food Chem

“This review aimed to compile information regarding interaction of anthocyanins with microbiota, in two perspectives: i) identification of their colonic metabolites as potential bioactive molecules and ii) their role as prebiotic agents.”

Identification of the metabolites of myricitrin produced by human intestinal bacteria in vitro using ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry – Le-yue Du – Expert Opinion on Drug Metabolism & Toxicology

“To investigate the metabolic routes and metabolites of myricitrin, an important active ingredient of traditional herbal medicine, yielded by the isolated human intestinal bacteria, which have not been reported previously”

CrossA prospective study of serum metabolites and colorectal cancer risk – Amanda J. Cross – Cancer

“No overall associations were observed between serum metabolites and colorectal cancer, but serum glycochenodeoxycholate, a bile acid metabolite, was positively associated with colorectal cancer among women”

Gut microbiota and cardiometabolic outcomes: influence of dietary patterns and their associated components – Julia MW Wong – Am J Clin Nutr

“Examples of dietary components that alter the gut microbial composition include prebiotics and resistant starches.”

GaldzickiThe Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) provides a community standard for communicating designs in synthetic biology – Michal Galdzicki – Nature Biotechnology

“Here we describe the Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL), a proposed data standard for exchanging designs within the synthetic biology community. SBOL represents synthetic biology designs in a community-driven, formalized format for exchange between software tools, research groups and commercial service providers.”

Animal models of human disease

Animal models of gastrointestinal and liver diseases. Animal models of necrotizing enterocolitis: pathophysiology, translational relevance, and challenges – Peng Lu – American Journal of Physiology – Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology

“In an attempt to provide some guidance to the growing community of NEC researchers, we now seek to review the key features of the major NEC models that have been developed in mammalian and nonmammalian species and to assess the advantages, disadvantage, challenges and major scientific discoveries yielded by each. “

Oral infection ecoliOral infection with enteropathogenic Escherichia coli triggers immune response and intestinal histological alterations in mice selected for their minimal acute inflammatory responses – Amanda Bardella Vulcano – Microbiology and Immunology

In summary, it was found that EPEC triggers immune responses and intestinal histological alterations but does not produce evidence of diarrheal disease in mice infected by the oral route.”

Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 2.00.38 AMDistinct signatures of host–microbial meta-metabolome and gut microbiome in two C57BL/6 strains under high-fat diet – Alesia Walker – ISME J

A combinatory approach using metabolomics and gut microbiome analysis techniques was performed to unravel the nature and specificity of metabolic profiles related to gut ecology in obesity. “

General Human Microbiome

Why There is No Single Healthy Microbiome – Erik Garnas – Organic Fitness

“This quest for the perfect microbiome has not only led many people to tweak their diet and lifestyle in an attempt to be the best possible host, but also to the rapid growth of what is now a billion dollar market of probiotics, prebiotics, and other products that are specifically designed to modulate the microbial communities in and on the human body. “

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Human microbiome digest, June 2, 2014

Roberto Romero and Jacques Ravel report on the vaginal microbiome in the setting of term and preterm deliveries, red wine might be good for your teeth, and secretory IgA and gut microbiota influence each other.

Pregnancy and birth

Gut microbiome

Respiratory microbiome

Oral microbiome

Skin microbiome

  • Screen Shot 2014-06-02 at 2.35.33 PMNot sure if I would pay $36 for this review, but here it is: Cutaneous microbiome studies in the times of affordable sequencing – Marjana Tomic-Canic – Journal of Dermatological Science –  “We now know that four phyla, Actinobacteria, Firmicytes, Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes, constitute preponderance of skin bacteria, while Malassezia dominates the fungal microbiome. “

More human microbiome

Metabolomics

Animal models of gut microbiome

Microbiome in the news

  • Screen Shot 2014-06-02 at 3.08.55 PMOur bodies, our bugs, and learning to love the bacteria that live inside us – Jane Macdougall – National Post – “Eating yogurt instead of taking a pill might sound crazy, but it’s worth considering why that is”
  • Blaser QA TK TK – Carl Zimmer – Wired.com – “Microbiologist Martin Blaser of New York University School of Medicine says that many species of germs are disappearing from our bodies—and that’s a problem.”
  • This appear to be a highly biased study: Experts warn over bad bacteria count – Taiwanese children compare poorly with their Asian peers in good and bad bacteria count, which could make them more susceptible to diseases – Wei Yi-chia and Jason Pan – Taipei Times – “The study, released on Thursday by the Association for Lactic Acid Bacteria (TALAB), found that Taiwanese schoolchildren have up to 30 times more Escherichia coli and 15 times more Clostridium perfringens — two of the “bad” bacteria — than kids of the same age in Japan.”
  • Shampoo and Soap Wreak Havoc on the Skin’s Microbiome Say Researchers – Donna Westlund – Guardian Libery Voice

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Human microbiome digest – May 28, 2014

Today I will have four separate posts, to see if that would work better. This post is all about the human microbiome, with articles about arthritis, childhood wheezing, and pregnancy.

Human Gut Microbiome

Screen shot 2014-05-28 at 06.03PM, May 28Human Respiratory Microbiome

Screen shot 2014-05-28 at 06.08PM, May 28Pregnancy and Birth

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Digest May 27, 2014

Today’s Picks feature thousand cultured GI tract species, host-microbiome interactions during pregnancy, metagenome assemblies using Hi-C, and the microbiomes of snow leopards and possums.

Human microbiome general

Human Gut Microbiome

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Respiratory tract microbiome

Mammalian microbiome

Amphibian microbiome

Insect microbiome

Fish microbiome

Animal and bioreactor models of gut microbiome

Environmental microbiome

Microbiome and Metabolomics

Phages and viruses

  • Beyond Antibiotics – “Today there is renewed interest in phages as warnings intensify that a “post-antibiotic” era looms” – Roger Highfield – Newsweek

Infection, sepsis, and host response

Microbial Ecology papers

Arsenic metabolism

Chromosome organization

General lab techniques papers

Dr. Bik’s Picks

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Digest May 21, 2014

The first digest on this website features the microbiomes of saliva, placenta, and planes. Enjoy!

Oral microbiome papers

Gut microbiome papers

Pregnancy and birth microbiome papers

Respiratory microbiome  papers

Environmental microbiome papers

Dr. Bik’s Picks