Microbiomes of musk deer, Tasmanian Devils, Panamanian frogs, roots of truffle-associated Douglas firs, and the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.

General human microbiome

Editorial: Getting fat from an inflamed relationship? The revenge of the holobiont
Andrew Moore – BioEssays

Perspective: Has provoking microbiota aggression driven the obesity epidemic? – Benoit Chassaing – BioEssays

Pregnancy and birth

A Comparison of Three Bioinformatics Pipelines for the Analysis of Preterm Gut Microbiota using 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing Data – Erica Plummer- OMICS Proteomics & Bioinformatics

Review: Infection and preterm birth – Hugh C.G. Nadeau – Seminars in Fetal and Neonatal Medicine

Human gut microbiome

Gut Microbiota and Metabolic Endotoxemia in Young Obese Mexican Subjects – Radilla-Vázquez R.B. – Obesity Facts

Animal models

The Impact of Dietary Energy Intake Early in Life on the Colonic Microbiota of Adult Mice – Jinyu Xu – Scientific Reports

Western diet induces a shift in microbiota composition enhancing susceptibility to Adherent-Invasive E. coli infection and intestinal inflammation – Allison Agus – Scientific Reports

Resistant Starch Alters the Microbiota-Gut Brain Axis: Implications for Dietary Modulation of Behavior – Mark Lyte – PLOS ONE

Effects of BmCPV Infection on Silkworm Bombyx mori Intestinal Bacteria – Zhenli Sun – PLOS ONE

Antibiotic-treated versus germ-free rodents for microbiota transplantation studies – Randi Lundberg – Gut Microbes

Animal microbiome

The musk chemical composition and microbiota of Chinese forest musk deer males
Diyan Li – Scientific Reports

Pasteurellaceae bacteria from the oral cavity of Tasmanian Devils (Sarcophilus Harrisii) show high MIC values towards aminoglycosides and clindamycin – Nicole Gutman – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Skin bacterial diversity of Panamanian frogs is associated with host susceptibility and presence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis – Eria A Rebollar – The ISME Journal

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Prokaryotic diversity in biodeteriorated wood coming from the Bükkábrány fossil forest – Katerina Nikolouli – International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation

Molecular screening of microbial communities for candidate indicators of multiple metal impacts in marine sediments from northern Australia – Alyssa Cornall – Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Characterizing root-associated fungal communities and soils of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) stands that naturally produce Oregon white truffles (Tuber oregonense and Tuber gibbosum) – Gian Maria Niccolò Benucci – Mycorrhiza

Field degradation of aminopyralid and clopyralid and microbial community response to application in Alaskan soils – Patrick L. Tomco – Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Microbial community structure and predicted bacterial metabolic functions in biochar pellets aged in soil after 34 months – Daquan Sun – Applied Soil Ecology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Deep Microbial Life in High-Quality Granitic Groundwater from Geochemically and Geographically Distinct Underground Boreholes – Kohei Ino – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Low viral predation pressure in cold hypersaline Arctic sediments and limits on lytic replication – Jesse Colangelo-Lillis – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Metagenomic analysis suggests modern freshwater microbialites harbor a core and distinct microbial community – Richard A. White III – Frontiers in Microbiology

Partitioning of fungal assemblages across different marine habitats – T.C. Jeffries – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Impact of manufactured TiO2 nanoparticles on planktonic and sessile bacterial communities – Stéphane Jomini – Environmental Pollution

Molecular Ecology of Hypersaline Microbial Mats: Current Insights and New Directions – Hon Lun Wong – MDPI Microorganisms

Microbial genetic diversity in soils along salinealkaline gradients at the coast of Laizhou Bay – Feng Zhao – Protistology

Influence of Zinc on Bacterial Populations and their Proteolytic Enzyme Activities in Freshwater Environments: A Cross-Site Comparison – Lauren Rasmussen – Canadian Journal of Microbiology

Marine microbial communities of the Great Barrier Reef lagoon are influenced by riverine floodwaters and seasonal weather events – Florent E. Angly – Peer J

Food microbiology

Exploring the phenotypic space of non-Saccharomyces wine yeast biodiversity – Debra Rossouw – Food Microbiology

Infection microbiology

Oral Phage Therapy of Acute Bacterial Diarrhea With Two Coliphage Preparations: A Randomized Trial in Children From Bangladesh – Shafiqul Alam Sarker – EBioMedicine

Book Chapter: Reducing pathobiomes could slow arms race between man and microbes
S. Romano-Bertrand – Microbiology 5

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Neptune: A Tool for Rapid Microbial Genomic Signature Discovery – Eric Marinier – BioRxiv

Metagenomic Analyses Reveal That Energy Transfer Gene Abundances Can Predict the Syntrophic Potential of Environmental Microbial Communities – Lisa Oberding – MDPI Microorganisms

Conference abstracts from the 2015 IEEE International Conference onBioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM):
Leveraging the k-Nearest Neighbors classification algorithm for Microbial Source Tracking using a bacterial DNA fingerprint library – Jeffrey D McGovern
A computational framework for integrative analysis of large microbial genomics data – Erliang Zeng
Computational challenges in microbiome research – Mihai Pop

Microbes in the news

New Year’s Resolutions for your Microbiome – Anne Estes – Mostly Microbes

West Hartford Children Museum Starts Scientific Discussion Series – Kristin Stoller – Hartford Courant

Balbriggan pair named Young Scientists of the Year: Maria Louise Fufezan and Diana Bura claim first place for research into soil fertility and nematodes – Dick Ahlstrom – The Irish Times

Body’s bacteria don’t outnumber human cells so much after all – Tina Hesman Saey – Science News

Are we really made up of more bacteria than human cells? – Lindsey Kratochwill – Popular Science

P&G granted patent for prebiotic agent-containing composition targeting skin microbiome – Andrew McDougall – Cosmetic Design-Europe.com

Science, publishing, and career

Nobel winner pulls out of Melb conference run by controversial Indian company (OMICS, EB) – Andrew Masterson – The Age

Cheer up, my academic colleagues! We’re so lucky to do this job – Anonymous Academic – The Guardian

Publishers to require ORCID identifiers for authors – EurekAlert

Bik’s Picks

Healthy Diet Helps 183-Year-Old Tortoise Feel Young Again – Jason Bittel – National Geographic