March 31,2026

Human Microbiome

The interplay between Peptostreptococcus and Fusobacterium as novel signatures in colorectal cancer recurrence – Yunhui Zhang – microbime

Dysbiosis of the nasal microbiome is associated with prospective acute exacerbation of COPD – Cristian Roca – microbiome

Water–vapor treatment of shower systems in healthcare facilities: reshaping built-environment microbiomes to improve Legionella control and protect at-risk patients – Tian You – microbiome

Animal Microbiome

Limosilactobacillus reuteri enhances production performance and ovarian function via modulation of the gut-ovary axis in laying hens – Yanchao Geng – microbiome

Heat stress suppresses lactation through potential rumen-mammary communication mediated by extracellular vesicles: integrated analysis of microbiome, metabolome, and miRNA profiles – Qi Huang – microbiome

Characterization of age-related changes in the gut microbiome and metabolome of Kunming dogs and their associations with police performance – Le Xu – microbiome

plant microbiome

Differential contributions of an antimicrobial effector from Verticillium dahliae to virulence and tomato microbiota assembly across natural soils – Wilko Punt – microbiome

Environmental & Data Microbiome

Microbiome Datahub: an open-access platform integrating environmental metadata, taxonomy, and functional annotation for comprehensive metagenome-assembled genome datasets – Hiroshi Mori – mi9crobiome

March 3rd ,2026

Human Microbiome

Early risperidone exposure impairs cognitive function by perturbation of the gut microbiome and bile acids/tyrosine-PTP1B axis – Huaiyu Ye – microbiome

Human DNA levels in feces reflect gut inflammation and associate with presence of gut species in IBD patients across the age spectrum -Chiara Mazzoni – microbiome

Animal Microbiome

Probiotic efficacy of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens TL106 from Tibetan pigs in metabolic syndrome: modulation of gut microbiota and metabolic in sows and suckling piglets – Wangyuan Yao – microbiome

Enhancing the fiber degradation efficiency in dairy cattle rumen through engineered bacterial communities – Jiayi Zhang – microbiome

Gut T cell-microbiota crosstalk orchestrates antibacterial immunity and mucosal homeostasis in teleost – Ming Geng – microbiome

Plant Microbiome

Host-driven evolution shapes the polysaccharide utilization profiles of alga-associated Flavobacteriaceae – Guanjing Cai – microbiome

Ecology-guided Bacillus SynCom from a rice–duckweed core reveals division of labor for concurrent growth promotion and sheath blight suppression – Yingjie Song – microbiome

Mikania micrantha invasion restructures rhizosphere nitrogen cycling through enzyme activation, microbial recruitment, and allelopathic regulation – Ruonan Wang – microbiome

Marine and Aquatic Environmental Microbiome

Reconstruction of coral holobionts and elucidation of the causal relationships among symbiodiniaceae, bacteria, and coral through single-cell raman spectroscopy metabolomics – Yang Shu – microbiome

Unlocking the unexplored AMPSphere in marine rare species – Shen Fan – microbiome

Potential survival strategies of novel comammox and nitrite-oxidizing Nitrospira synthesizing osmoprotectants in a wastewater microbiome treating high-ammonia brackish landfill leachate – Shohei Yasuda – microbiome

Stress-induced enrichment of Pseudomonas sp. stimulates the adaptive response of Auxenochlorella pyrenoidosa and antibiotic-resistant proliferation -Qian Liu – microbiome

Built Environment and Cultural Heritage Microbiome

Unraveling the microbiomes contributing to biodeterioration dynamics of limestone heritage at the Longmen Grottoes archeological site – Xiaoying Zhang – microbiome

February 26 , 2026

Gut Microbiome

Association between the gut microbiome and plasma metabolites linked to vocalization-based temperament in Merino sheep – Luoyang Ding – microbiome

Cross-kingdom genomic variation in chicken gut microbiomes: insights from China’s diverse local breeds – Jiayu Zhang – microbiome

Microbiota-derived propionate suppresses Salmonella virulence gene expression via LuxS quorum sensing – Qianyun Zhang – microbiome

rumen microbiome

Comparative analysis of rumen metagenomes with dietary supplementation of 3-nitrooxypropanol revealed divergent modes of action in hydrogen metabolism and reductant pathways between beef and dairy cattle – Youyoung Choi – microbiome

January 13 , 2026

Environmental & Wastewater Microbiomes

Viral and eukaryotic drivers of prokaryotic and antibiotic resistance gene diversity in wastewater microbiomesAntonia Weiss – Springer nature

Correction: Global abundance patterns, diversity, and ecology of Patescibacteria in wastewater treatment plantsHuifeng Hu – Springer nature


Ruminant & Livestock Gut Microbiomes

The impact of rumen and hindgut microbiomes on the persistent productivity of long-lived dairy cows – Jianhao Yang – Springer nature

Rumen microbiota modulates metabolic stress in high-yield dairy cows: insights from early to peak lactationMoli Li – Springer nature

Rumen microbiota inoculation indicates collaborative mechanisms enhancing propionate supply to alleviate weaning stress in lambsTianrong Chen – Springer nature


Host-Associated Gut Microbiomes (Non-Human Models)

Ningxiang pig-derived Enterococcus hirae protects against E. coli-induced gut dysbiosis and inflammation via acetate/propionate-MyD88-NF-κB axis in piglets – Longlin Zhang – Springer nature


Insect & Evolutionary Microbiomes

Gut microbiome convergence and functional adaptation underlie the evolution of predation in stink bugs (Heteroptera Pentatomidae)Jingjing Sun – Springer nature

November 8, 2022

Greetings from Pittsburgh, PA!

It’s election day here, which means I have low grade nausea and am looking for a distraction. If you’re in the same boat, check out today’s awesome articles on a holobiont deep sea shrimp, plant-microbiome assemblies of poplar trees, and viral community-wide auxiliary metabolic genes. I also included a few interesting preprints, my favorite of which is noted below and uses a microbiome public dataset to compare different normalization and transformation methods.

Animal microbiome

A novel and dual digestive symbiosis scales up the nutrition and immune system of the holobiont Rimicaris exoculata – Aubé et al. – Microbiome

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Plant sex affects plant-microbiome assemblies of dioecious Populus cathayana trees under different soil nitrogen conditions – Guo et al. – Microbiome

Phages and viruses

Viral community-wide auxiliary metabolic genes differ by lifestyles, habitats, and hosts – Luo et al. – Microbiome

Techniques

*Preprint: Alpha and beta-diversities performance comparison between different normalization methods and centered log-ratio transformation in a microbiome public dataset – Bars-Cortina – bioRxiv

Preprint: Noise reduction strategies in metagenomic chromosome confirmation capture to link antibiotic resistance genes to microbial hosts – McCallum et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Targeted metagenomics using probe capture detects a larger diversity of nitrogen and methane cycling genes in complex microbial communities than traditional metagenomics – Siljanen et al. – bioRxiv

July 14, 2022

Today’s digest has multiple articles on statistical and bioinformatic techniques! Also included is a job ad from my research team, so check it out if you’re interested in gaining geomicrobiology research experience at a national laboratory.

Events and jobs

Our geomicrobiology research group at the National Energy Technology Lab – Pittsburgh is looking for a technician/researcher. Exact responsibilities are somewhat flexible depending on interest and education-level; we are accepting applications from current students at all levels as well as postdocs.

General microbiome

Mycobacteriophages: From Petri dish to patient – Hatfull – PLOS Pathogens

Animal microbiome

Reconstructing the ecosystem context of a species: Honey-borne DNA reveals the roles of the honeybee – Wirta et al. – PLOS One

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Patterns of microbial communities were shaped by bioavailable P along the elevation gradient of Shergyla Mountain, as determined by analysis of phospholipid fatty acids – Ba et al. – PLOS One

Preprint: Soil chemistry and soil history significantly structure oomycete communities in Brassicaceae crop rotations – Blakney et al. – bioRxiv

Community succession and straw degradation characteristics using a microbial decomposer at low temperature – Zhang et al. – PLOS One

Built Environment

Indoor air microbial load, antibiotic susceptibility profiles of bacteria, and associated factors in different wards of Arba Minch General Hospital, southern Ethiopia – Kayta et al. – PLOS One

Techniques

moreThanANOVA: A user-friendly Shiny/R application for exploring and comparing data with interactive visualization – Jiang et al. – PLOS One

Preparation of biological monolayers for producing high-resolution scanning electron micrographs – Mentor et al. – PLOS One

The accuracy of absolute differential abundance analysis from relative count data – Roche & Mukherjee – PLOS Computational Biology

AC-PCoA: Adjustment for confounding factors using principal coordinate analysis – Wang et al. – PLOS Computational Biology

Microbes in the news

The Art of Science: Students Participate in University’s First-Ever Bio-Art Class – Bernardi – Syracuse University News

March 18, 2021

Greetings from Pittsburgh!

Today’s digest has a lot of food and agriculture associated articles. Several articles focus on the effects of various pathogens on dairy cows, beef steers, and poultry breeds! For those of us who are more interested in plants, there is an article on biogas production from tomato waste and a preprint on how the microbial community of food waste changes during the composting process. Finally, I included a research article about social media during the pandemic since I’m sure I’m not the only one who has relied on it a little too heavily over the last year…

Happy reading!

General microbiome

Preprint: Toward quantifying the adaptive role of bacterial pangenomes during environmental perturbations – Conrad et al. – bioRxiv

BlueFeather, the singleton that wasn’t: Shared gene content analysis supports expansion of Arthrobacter phage Cluster FE – Demo et al. – PLOS ONE

Review: The gut microbiota–brain axis in behaviour and brain disorders – Morais et al. – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Preprint: Cross-species evolutionary rewiring in the enteric bacterium Campylobacter – Taylor et al. – bioRxiv

Human gut microbiome

Gut microbiota profiles in diarrheic patients with co-occurrence of Clostridioides difficile and Blastocystis – Vega et al. – PLOS ONE

Animal experiments

Preprint: Low pathogenic avian influenza virus infection retards colon microbiome diversification in two different chicken lines – Chrzastek et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Borrelia infection in rodent host has dramatic effects on the microbiome of ticks – Hamilton et al. – bioRxiv

Animal microbiome

Preprint: The discovery, distribution and diversity of DNA viruses associated with Drosophila melanogaster in Europe – Wallace et al. – bioRxiv

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Effects of precipitation change and nitrogen addition on the composition, diversity, and molecular ecological network of soil bacterial communities in a desert steppe – Jia et al. – PLOS ONE

Preprint: Changes and composition of microbial community during aerobic composting of household food waste – Jin et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: What’s under the Christmas tree? Soil acidification alters fir tree rhizosphere bacterial and eukaryotic communities, their interactions, and functional traits – Steven et al. – bioRxiv

A comparative analysis of biogas production from tomato bio-waste in mesophilic batch and continuous anaerobic digestion systems – Szilágyi et al. – PLOS ONE

Food microbiology

Red seaweed (Asparagopsis taxiformis) supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80 percent in beef steers – Roque et al. – PLOS ONE

Prevalence and distribution of multilocus sequence types of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from bulk tank milk and cows with mastitis in Pennsylvania – Thomas et al. – PLOS ONE

Multidrug-resistant enterobacteria in newborn dairy calves in Germany – Waade et al. – PLOS ONE

Phages and viruses

Review: Viral and host heterogeneity and their effects on the viral life cycle – Jones et al. – Nature Review Microbiology

Bioinformatics

Dcmd: Distance-based classification using mixture distributions on microbiome data – Shestopaloff et al. – PLOS Computational Biology

Kara’s non-microbiology pick

Don’t put all social network sites in one basket: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and their relations with well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic – Masciantonio et al. – PLOS ONE

February 9, 2021

Today’s updates in microbiome – iron homeostasis in host and gut bacteria, flavonol catabolism in gut bacteria, protocol for characterization of pulmonary microbiota, how single bacterial strain prevents GVHD and many more… happy reading!

General microbiome

Iron homeostasis in host and gut bacteria – a complex interrelationship – Yohannes Seyoum – Gut Microbes

α1-3Gal antigen in gut microbiota, a potential new environmental factor in multiple sclerosis – LéoBoussamet – Clinical Immunology

Human microbiome

Alterations in the gut bacterial microbiome in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus and diabetic retinopathy – Taraprasad Das – Scientific Reports

Discovery of an ene-reductase for initiating flavone and flavonol catabolism in gut bacteria – Gaohua Yang – Nature Communications

Animal microbiome

A single strain of Bacteroides fragilis protects gut integrity and reduces GVHD – M. Hanief Sofi – JCI Insight

Social behavior of musk deer during the mating season potentially influences the diversity of their gut microbiome – Jianmei Li​ – PeerJ

Low-dose exposure of glyphosate-based herbicides disrupt the urine metabolome and its interaction with gut microbiota – Jianzhong Hu – Scientific Reports

Cross-Feeding of a Toxic Metabolite in a Synthetic Lignocellulose-Degrading Microbial Community – Jessica A. Lee – Microorganisms

Dietary sphinganine is selectively assimilated by members of the mammalian gut microbiome – LeeMin-Ting – Journal of Lipid Research

Functional Foods

Shaping the Future of Probiotics and Prebiotics – Marla Cunningham – Trends in Microbiology

Utilizing the Food–Pathogen Metabolome to Putatively Identify Biomarkers for the Detection of Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli (STEC) from Spinach – Snehal R. Jadhav – Metabolites

Clinical effects and gut microbiota changes of using probiotics, prebiotics or synbiotics in inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis – Xiao-Feng Zhang – European Journal of Nutrition

Diabetes-induced cardiomyopathy is ameliorated by heat-killed Lactobacillus reuteri GMNL-263 in diabetic rats via the repression of the toll-like receptor 4 pathway – Chung-Jen Chiang – European Journal of Nutrition

Water microbiome

Understanding structure/function relationships in nitrifying microbial communities after cross-transfer between freshwater and seawater – Blanca M. Gonzalez-Silva – Scientific Reports

The microbial dimension of submarine groundwater discharge:current challenges and future directions – Clara Ruiz-González- FEMS Microbiology Reviews

Estrogen induces shift in abundances of specific groups of the coral microbiome – Caren L. S. Vilela – Scientific Reports

Metabolic fingerprinting of the Antarctic cyanolichen Leptogium puberulum–associated bacterial community (Western Shore of Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Maritime Antarctica) – Jakub Grzesiak – Microbial Ecology

Techniques

Development of a robust protocol for the characterization of the pulmonary microbiota – Nathan Dumont-Leblond – Nature Communications

Microbes in news

Eating fat-rich foods as a child causes long-lasting changes in gut microbiome: Study – First post

Human Microbiome Market Set to Register Healthy CAGR During to 2026 – KSU The Sentinel Newspaper

July 26, 2020

General microbiome

No endospore formation confirmed in members of the phylum Proteobacteria – Polina Beskrovnaya – bioRxiv

Interbacterial competition and anti-predatory behavior of environmental Vibrio cholerae strains – Natalia C. Drebes Doerr – bioRxiv

The kleboxymycin biosynthetic gene cluster is encoded by several species belonging to the Klebsiella oxytoca complex – Preetha Shibu – bioRxiv

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

POPULATION GENOMICS REVEALS MOLECULAR DETERMINANTS OF SPECIALIZATION TO TOMATO IN THE POLYPHAGOUS FUNGAL PATHOGEN BOTRYTIS CINEREA – Alex Mercier – bioRxiv

Phages and viruses

Scientometric Trends for Coronaviruses and Other Emerging Viral Infections – Dima Kagan – bioRxiv

Bioinformatics

Niche and local geography shape the pangenome of wastewater- and livestock-associated Enterobacteriaceae – Liam P Shaw – bioRxiv

Techniques

Comparing DNA Extraction and 16s Amplification Methods for Plant-Associated Bacterial Communities – Cecelia Giangacomo – bioRxiv

Microrisk Lab: an online freeware for predictive microbiology – Yangtai Liu – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news 

Human microbiome project paved way for poultry research – WATTAgNet

Microbes on the market

SeqBiome’s clients already include Nestlé, Mars Petcare, Atlantia and Microbion, among others. – Silicon Republic

Global Human Microbiome Sequencing Market 2020 Industry Research Strategy, Outlook and Product Development to 2025 – Bandera County Courier

July 1, 2020

Greetings Everyone,
I want to began the month of July on a note that diversity is the basis for life. I can’t think of anything better to teach us about diversity, co-existence, and evolution than the fascinating Microbiome.
The microbiome affects us right from our birth till the end affecting our mental as well as physical health. The microbiome exhibits all sorts of differences in shape, size, color, metabolic functions in order to sustain life.
Much to learn from these tiny beings!!!!
Today’s Digest comprises of some interesting studies about effect of microbiome on chemotherapy and studies on tumor microbiome. It also includes articles exploring genetics of gut microbiome and the role of microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease. Additionally has a news article about taking microbiome therapies to clinical trials.
Hope you enjoy reading today’s digest!!
“Life on earth is such a good story you cannot afford to miss the beginning… Beneath our superficial differences we are all of us walking communities of bacteria. The world shimmers, a pointillist landscape made of tiny living beings”. – Lynn Margulis


General microbiome
Human Microbiota and Effectiveness of Cancer Chemotherapy – Shvets et al – Experimental Oncology

Immunity to commensal skin fungi promotes psoriasiform skin inflammation – Hurabielle et al – PNAS

Human Tumor microbiome
*Perspective: Probing the tumor micro(b)environment – Atreya et al – Science

Human Eye microbiome
Review: Current Knowledge on the Human Eye Microbiome: A Systematic Review of Available Amplicon and Metagenomic Sequencing Data – Delbeke et al – Acta Ophthalmologica

Human nearly-sterile sites (blood, organs, brain)
Blood Bacterial Profiles Associated with HIV Infection and Immune Recovery – Serranno-Villar et al – The Journal of Infectious Diseases

Human gut microbiome
*Genetics of human gut microbiome composition – Kurilshikov et al – bioRxiv

Review: The microbiome in inflammatory bowel diseases: from pathogenesis to therapy – Liu et al – Protein&Cell


Built environment
Vertical Stratification in Urban Green Space Aerobiomes – Robinson et al – bioRxiv

Food microbiology
Food and mood: how do diet and nutrition affect mental wellbeing? – Firth et al – BMJ


Bioinformatics
DRAM for distilling microbial metabolism to automate the curation of microbiome function – Shaffer et al – bioRxiv

Techniques
MetaRibo-Seq measures translation in microbiomes – Fremin et al – Nature Communications


Microbes on the market
Enterome Secures €46M to Take Microbiome Therapies to Clinical Trials – Helen Albert – Labiotech.eu

Human Microbiome Therapeutics Market Research: Global Status & Forecast by Geography, Type & Application (2016-2026)