October 19, 2015

None of the Elsevier links from my PubMed alert worked today, and I could not find the articles through other searches. So just a short digest with polymicrobial DNA in sepsis patients and a collection of pre-antibiotic bacteria.

Infection microbiome

The development and application of a molecular community profiling strategy to identify polymicrobial bacterial DNA in the whole blood of septic patients – MMP Faria – BMC Microbiology

Rapid metagenomic identification of viral pathogens in clinical samples by real-time nanopore sequencing analysis – Alexander L. Greninger – Genome Medicine

Microbiome models

The gut microbiota modulates host amino acid and glutathione metabolism in mice – Adil Mardinoglu – Molecular Systems Biology

Microbiome engineering could select for more virulent pathogens – Luke McNally – BioRxiv

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Culture-dependent and culture-independent methods reveal diverse methylotrophic communities in terrestrial environments – Özge Eyice – Archives of Microbiology

Other microbiology

The Murray collection of pre-antibiotic era Enterobacteriacae: a unique research resource – Kate S. Baker – Genome Medicine

Microbes in the news

Mac researcher eyes gut bacteria in preventing celiac disease: Elena Verdú – Joanna Frketich – Hamilton Spectator

This is of concern: No time to take safety training, says infected microbiology lab supervisor: report – Ruth Bonneville – Winnipeg Free Press

A super short microbial tour of Paris tombs – Rosin Cerate

How a 500-year experiment to revive dormant microbes could reveal the secrets to cheating time – Alex Riley – Aeon
[hr]

October 4, 2015

Pregnancy and birth

Discordant temporal development of bacterial phyla and the emergence of core in the fecal microbiota of young children – Jing Cheng – ISME Journal

Transplantation and infection microbiology

How’s your microbiota? Let’s check your urine. – Robert R. Jenq – Blood
Low urinary indoxyl sulfate levels early after transplantation reflect a disrupted microbiome and are associated with poor outcome – Daniela Weber – Blood

Next-Generation Sequencing for Infectious Disease Diagnosis and Management : A Report of the Association for Molecular Pathology – Martina I. Lefterova – The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics

Predicting Clinical Phenotype using OTU-based Metagenome Representation – Nathan LaPierre and Huzefa Rangwala – ICDM Workshop

Human gut microbiome

The Intestinal Microbiota in Acute Anorexia Nervosa and During Renourishment: Relationship to Depression, Anxiety, and Eating Disorder Psychopathology – Kleiman, Susan C. – Psychosomatic Medicine

InterviewThe Relationship Between the Gut Microbiota and Liver Disease – Jasmohan S. Bajaj – Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Animal models

Genetic determinants of in vivo fitness and diet responsiveness in multiple human gut Bacteroides – Meng Wu – Science

Biodegradation and Mineralization of Polystyrene by Plastic-Eating Mealworms: Part 2. Role of Gut Microorganisms – Yu Yang – Environmental Science & Technology

Animal microbiome

An abundance of Epsilonproteobacteria revealed in the gut microbiome of the laboratory cultured sea urchin, Lytechinus variegatus – Joseph A. Hakim – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Time-series metagenomic analysis reveals robustness of soil microbiome against chemical disturbance – Hiromi Kato – DNA Research

Illumina-based analysis of bacterial diversity related to halophytes Salicornia europaea and Sueada aralocaspica – Ying-wu Shi – Journal of Microbiology

Communities of wood-inhabiting fungi in dead pine logs along a geographical gradient in Japan – Yu Fukasawa – Fungal Ecology

Elevated carbon dioxide accelerates the spatial turnover of soil microbial communities – Ye Deng – Global Change Biology

Waste microbiology

Contrasting microbial community composition and function perspective in sections of a full-scale coking wastewater treatment system – Shuang Zhu – Environmental Biotechnology

Microbial interactions and implications for oil biodegradation process in mangrove sediments – Adriana Daudt Grativol – PeerJ Preprint

Extremophiles

Subsurface Halophiles: An Analogue for Potential Life on Mars – Woolman, P. F – The Open University

Prokaryotic Community Diversity Along an Increasing Salt Gradient in a Soda Ash Concentration Pond – Addis Simachew – Microbiology of Aquatic Systems

Conference Abstract: Life on the frozen continent: diversity of RuBisCO, nifH and pufLM genes in soils around the Princess Elisabeth Station, Sør Rondane Mountains, Antarctica – Guillaume Tahon – Ghent University

Bioinformatics, mathematical models, metagenomics

Habitat Fluctuations Drive Species Covariation in the Human Microbiota – Charles K. Fisher – BioRxiv

Predicting Clinical Phenotype using OTU-based Metagenome Representation – Nathan LaPierre and Huzefa Rangwala – ICDM Workshop

Metabolomics, Proteomics

Video: An Aquatic Microbial Metaproteomics Workflow: From Cells to Tryptic Peptides Suitable for Tandem Mass Spectrometry-based Analysis – David Colatriano, David A. Walsh – JoVE

Rumen microbial communities influence metabolic phenotypes in lambs – Diego P. Morgavi – Frontiers in Microbiology

Phages and viruses

The Tailocin Tale: Peeling off Phage Tails – Maarten G.K. Ghequire and René De Mot- Trends in Microbiology

Functional foods

Review: Prebiotics: why definitions matter – Robert W Hutkins – Current Opinion in Biotechnology

Microbes in the news

Microbiome Meals: Researchers identify a handful of genes that help bacteria in the mouse gut adapt to dietary changes – By Rina Shaikh-Lesko – The Scientist

Signature dishes: As people pass through life they leave a trail of bacteria in their wake – Economist

Chronic kidney disease and its effect on microbiome metabolism – American Microbiome Institute

Recap: Gut microbiome conference September 2015, Huntington Beach – UNC Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders

Nominations sought for NAS Committee on Microbiomes of the Built Environment – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBEnet

Legionnaires’ Bacteria Regrew in Bronx Cooling Towers That Were Disinfected – Benjamin Mueller – New York Times

NYU professor to chair presidential council on antibiotic bacteria resistance – Farhin Lilywala – Washington Square News

You say microbiota, I say microbiome: The 8 word guide to the microbiota – James Vitale – Taconic

[hr]

October 1, 2015

October already! Today I’ve got two microbiome symposia for you, microbiome imaging, early antibiotics and asthma risk, and virome sequencing.

Events

Second Annual Microbiome Symposium – October 28-29 – CHMI / Penn Vet Center for Host Microbial Interactions – Philadelphia, USA (click on tab “Symposium 2015 at the bottom part), featuring talks by Handelsman, Relman, Grice, Dominguez-Bello, Mills, and Gewirtz.

Second Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Congress: Asia – Feb 29-March 1, 2016 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

General microbiome

Review: Microbial Malaise: How Can We Classify the Microbiome? – Robert G. Beiko – Trends in Microbiology

Review: Early Life Adversity and Brain Development: Is the Microbiome a Missing Piece of the Puzzle? – S.M. O’ Mahony – Neuroscience

Review: American Diabetes Association and JDRF Research Symposium: Diabetes and the Microbiome – Clay F. Semenkovich – Diabetes

Pregnancy and birth

Editorial: Asthma: Undoing millions of years of coevolution in early life? – Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello and Martin J. Blaser – Science Translational Medicine
Belongs toEarly infancy microbial and metabolic alterations affect risk of childhood asthma – Marie-Claire Arrieta – Science Translational Medicine

Human skin microbiome

Review: The intersection of microbiome and host at the skin interface: genomic- and metagenomic-based insights – Elizabeth A. Grice – Genome Research

Human gut microbiome

Gut Microbiome of an 11th Century A.D. Pre-Columbian Andean Mummy – Tasha M. Santiago-Rodriguez – PLOS ONE

Review: The gut microbiome in NAFLD and ALD – Irina A. Kirpich – Clinical Liver Disease

Review: Prebiotic and Probiotic Regulation of Bone Health: Role of the Intestine and its Microbiome – Laura McCabe – Current Osteoporosis Reports

Animal models and bioreactors

Postnatal epigenetic regulation of intestinal stem cells requires DNA methylation and is guided by the microbiome – Da-Hai Yu – Genome Biology

Cultivation of stable, reproducible microbial communities from different fecal donors using minibioreactor arrays (MBRAs) – Jennifer M. Auchtung – Microbiome

Genetic and environmental control of host-gut microbiota interactions – Elin Org – Genome Research

Quantitative Imaging of Gut Microbiota Spatial Organization – Kristen A. Earle – Cell Host & Microbe

Increased Bacterial Load and Expression of Antimicrobial Peptides in Skin of Barrier-Deficient Mice with Reduced Cancer Susceptibility – Ken Natsuga – Journal of Investigative Dermatology

Animal Microbiome

Characterization of Bacterial, Archaeal and Eukaryote Symbionts from Antarctic Sponges Reveals a High Diversity at a Three-Domain Level and a Particular Signature for This Ecosystem – Susana Rodríguez-Marconi – PLOS ONE

Surveys for maternally-inherited endosymbionts reveal novel and variable infections within solitary bee species – Abiya Saeed – Journal of Invertebrate Pathology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Assessing the ecological status of seagrasses using morphology, biochemical descriptors and microbial community analyses. A study in Halophila stipulacea (Forsk.) Aschers meadows in the northern Red Sea – Astrid Y. Mejia – Ecological Indicators

The effects of exotic weed Flaveria bidentis with different invasion stages on soil bacterial community structures – Chaohe Huangfu – African Journal of Biotechnology

Water microbiome

Biogeography and evolution of Thermococcus isolates from hydrothermal vent systems of the Pacific – Mark T. Price – Frontiers in Microbiology

Spatial–temporal variations and diversity of the bacterioplankton communities in the coastal waters of Kuwait – Awatef Almutairi – Marine Pollution Bulletin

Review: Substratum-Associated Microbiota: benthic algae and bacteria from a range of aquatic environments – Paula C. Furey – Water Environment Research

Waste and composting microbiology

Limited dissemination of the wastewater treatment plant core resistome – Christian Munck – Nature Communications

Neglected role of fungal community composition in explaining variation in wood decay rates – A. van der Wal – Ecology

Metagenomics

Enhanced virome sequencing through solution-based capture enrichment –
Todd N Wylie – Genome Research

Metabolic networks

The players may change but the game remains: network analyses of ruminal microbiomes suggest taxonomic differences mask functional similarity – Tasia M. Taxis – Nucleic Acids Research

Microbes in the news

Missing Microbes Provide Clues About Asthma Risk – Rob Stein – NPR (see above)
Study Links Asthma to Low Levels of Gut Bacteria in Newborns – Gautam Naik – Wall Street Journal

New test detects all viruses that infect people, animals – EurekAlert (see above)

Your gut development during infancy can have lifelong implications – Baylor College of Medicine – EurekAlert

Biologists Say Breeding Better Soil Microbes Can Help Grow Bigger Plants – Kiona Smith-Strickland – Gizmodo

Diets Rich in Vegetables May Reduce Heart Disease Risk Through Microbiome Changes – Medical Research

TU Delft students win on world stage with 3D bacteria printer – Materia

The headlines are getting weirder and weirder, but here we go: Ancient bacteria could be ‘elixir of life’ after it makes elderly mice ‘begin to dance’ and produce offspring – Andrew Griffin – Independent

Better Gut Microbiota Shift With Bypass vs Sleeve Gastrectomy – Becky McCall – Medscape

Sounds like trying to find a radio station on the wrong band: Scientists synthesise sound of single bacterium swimming – Bernie Hobbs – ABC Australia

[hr]

September 24, 2015

Human genetic variation and microbiome composition, turmeric & travel, Nicotiana recruitment, and microbial stress in the city.

General microbiome

Editorial: Host genetic architecture and the landscape of microbiome composition: humans weigh in – Andrew K Benson – Genome Biology

Host genetic variation impacts microbiome composition across human body sites
Ran Blekhman – Genome Biology

Database of host-pathogen and related species interactions, and their global distribution – Maya Wardeh – Scientific Data

Pregnancy and birth

The role of breast-feeding in infant immune system: a systems perspective on the intestinal microbiome – Paurush Praveen – Microbiome

The role of infection in miscarriage – Sevi Giakoumelou – Human Reproduction Update

Human gut microbiome

The Effect of Probiotics on Gut Microbiota during the Helicobacter pylori Eradication: Randomized Controlled Trial – Bumjo Oh – Helicobacter

Intestinal microbial communities associated with acute enteric infections and disease recovery – Pallavi Singh – Microbiome

Review: Advancing gut microbiome research using cultivation – Morten OA Sommer – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Human urinary tract microbiome

Re: The Microbiome of the Urinary Tract—A Role Beyond Infection – Alan J. Wein – The Journal of Urology

Animal models

Modulation of gut microbiota by berberine and metformin during the treatment of high-fat diet-induced obesity in rats – Xu Zhang – Scientific Reports

A small-molecule antivirulence agent for treating Clostridium difficile infection – Kristina Oresic Bender – Science Translational Medicine

Regulators of Gut Motility Revealed by a Gnotobiotic Model of Diet-Microbiome Interactions Related to Travel – Neelendu Dey – Cell

Animal microbiome

High-throughput DNA sequencing of the moose rumen from different geographical
location reveals a core ruminal methanogenic archaeal diversity and a differential
ciliate protozoal diversity – Suzanne Lynn Ishaq – Microbial Genomics

Microbial populations and fermentation profiles in rumen liquid and solids of Holstein cows respond differently to dietary barley processing – Barbara U. Metzler-Zebeli – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Culture based: Actinomycetes from the South China Sea sponges: isolation, diversity and potential for aromatic polyketides discovery – Zhiyong Li – Frontiers in Microbiology

Longitudinal study of the early-life fecal and nasal microbiotas of the domestic pig – Mackenzie Jonathan Slifierz – BMC Microbiology

Faecal microbiota characterisation of horses using 16 rdna barcoded pyrosequencing, and carriage rate of clostridium difficile at hospital admission – Cristina Rodriguez – BMC Microbiology

Essential Amino Acid Supplementation by Gut Microbes of a Wood-Feeding Cerambycid – Paul A. Ayayee – Environmental Entomology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

RhizoFlowCell system reveals early effects of micropollutants on aquatic plant rhizosphere – Kalyan Chakravarthy Mynampati – Environmental Pollution

Vineyard soil bacterial diversity and composition revealed by 16S rRNA genes: Differentiation by geographic features – Kayla N. Burns – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Nicotiana Roots Recruit Rare Rhizosphere Taxa as Major Root-Inhabiting Microbes – Muhammad Saleem – Plant Microbe Interactions

Planting increases the abundance and structure complexity of soil core functional genes relevant to carbon and nitrogen cycling – Feng Wang – Scientific Reports

The coupling of the plant and microbial catabolisms of phenanthrene in the rhizosphere of Medicago sativa – Anna Muratova – Journal of Plant Physiology

Contrasting soil bacterial community structure between the phyla Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria in tropical Southeast Asian and temperate Japanese forests – Naohiko T. Miyashita – Genes & Genetic Systems

Review: Ecological importance of soil bacterivores for ecosystem functions – Jean Trap – Plant and Soil

Editorial: Microbial ecology of hydrocarbon-polluted coastal sediments – Robert Duran – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Waste microbiology

Identification of Bacteria Synthesizing Ribosomal RNA in Response to Uranium Addition During Biostimulation at the Rifle, CO Integrated Field Research Site – Lora R. McGuinness – PLOS ONE

Microbial ecology of hydrocarbon-polluted coastal sediments – Robert Duran – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Built environment microbiome

Urban stress is associated with variation in microbial species composition-but not richness-in Manhattan – Aspen T Reese – ISME Journal

Microbiome of death

The Search for a Volatile Human Specific Marker in the Decomposition Process – E. Rosier – PLOS ONE

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

In silico identification of bacteriocin gene clusters in the gastrointestinal tract, based on the Human Microbiome Project’s reference genome database – Calum J. Walsh – BMC Microbiology

PhD thesis: Novel methods for comparing and evaluating single and metagenomic assemblies – Christopher M. Hill – University of Maryland

Microbes in the news

Metagenomic Sequencing Shows Changes in Healthy Gut Microbiome Pre- and Post-Antibiotics – Genome Web

Study shows whale microbiome shares characteristics with both ruminants and predators – Phys.org

Researchers isolate the ‘human smell of death’ – Elizabeth Pennisi – Science

Scientists find way to disarm deadly bacteria without destroying the good ones in your gut – Lena H. Sun – Washington Post

Science, publishing, and career

Failure to replicate the STAP cell phenomenon – Alejandro De Los Angeles – @nature

Make academic job advertisements fair to all: Too many university posts are given to men without proper competition – Mathias Wullum Nielsen – Nature

Gender-disparity study faces attack: A paper suggesting a Dutch grant scheme shows bias against women is criticized for a statistical flaw – Chris Woolston

Bik’s Picks

In the name of beauty: phasing out plastic microbeads found in skin scrubs – Nature

How Climate Change Shrank the Tongues of Long-Tongued Bumblebees – Ed Yong

Enamel evolved in the skin and colonized the teeth much later – EurekAlert

Giant Killer Lizards Lived Among Ice-Age Aussies – Discovery
[hr]

August 27, 2015

Microbiome general/other

A comprehensive repertoire of prokaryotic species identified in human beings – Perrine Hugon – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

Linking the relevance of microbiota composition shifts with intestinal health disorders: a complex issue – Filip Boyen – Veterinary Journal

Effects of Long Term Antibiotic Therapy on Human Oral and Fecal Viromes – Shira R. Abeles – PLOS ONE

High-throughput sequencing of 16S rDNA amplicons characterizes bacterial composition in cerebrospinal fluid samples from patients with purulent meningitis– Aicui Liu – Drug Des Devel Ther

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Several abstracts in Placenta:

 

Human oral microbiome

Pyrosequencing analysis of apical microbiota of teeth with persistent apical periodontitis – Yifan Ping – Journal of Dental Sciences

Human gut microbiome

Structure and function of the healthy pre-adolescent pediatric gut microbiome – Emily B. Hollister – Microbiome

Are proton pump inhibitors affecting intestinal microbiota health? – S. Melgar – Gastroenterology

Microbiome models

Crosstalk between Gut Microbiota and Dietary Lipids Aggravates WAT Inflammation through TLR Signaling – Robert Caesar – Cell Metabolism

Contribution of neutral processes to the assembly of gut microbial communities in the zebrafish over host development – Adam R Burns – The ISME Journal

Animal microbiome

The microbial community structure of the cotton rat nose – Diego Chaves-Moreno – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Water / Extremophile microbiome

Freshwater ice as habitat: partitioning of phytoplankton and bacteria between ice and water in central European reservoirs – Robert M.L. McKay – Environmental Microbiology Reports

High protists diversity in the plankton of sulfurous lakes and lagoons examined by 18s rRNA gene sequence analyses – Xavier Triadó-Margarit – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Bioreactor microbiology

Housefly Larvae Vermicomposting Efficiently Attenuates Antibiotic Resistant Genes in Swine Manure Coupled with Distinct Bacterial Population Change – Hang Wang – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Techniques

A method for simultaneous measurement of soil bacterial abundances and community composition via 16S rRNA gene sequencing – Wenke Smets – PeerJ PrePrints

Mock communities highlight the diversity of host-associated eukaryotes – Laura Wegener Parfrey – Molecular Ecology

Microbes in the news

Lab experiments question popular measure of ancient ocean temperatures – Hannah Hickey – University of Washington

Is your spacecraft contaminating the universe? – Jonathan Eisen – Microbe.net

Birmingham Zoo closes aviary after bacteria found in bird – Washington Times

Science, publishing, and career

EntryPoint! places students with disabilities on STEM tracks – Becky Ham – Science

[hr]

August 14, 2015

Two papers on detection of bacteria in blood, vaginal microbiome, a discussion on eukaryotes in the human gut, and fungal communities’ resistance and resilience to wild fires. And some extra non-microbial Bik’s Picks for the weekend!

Human blood / infection microbiome

Bacterial Landscape of Bloodstream Infections in Neutropenic Patients via High Throughput Sequencing – Peter Gyarmati – PLOS ONE

16S rRNA Gene Sequence-Based Identification of Bacteria in Automatically Incubated Blood Culture Materials from Tropical Sub-Saharan Africa – Hagen Frickmann – PLOS ONE

Human vaginal microbiome

A Study of the Vaginal Microbiome in Healthy Canadian Women Utilizing cpn60-Based Molecular Profiling Reveals Distinct Gardnerella Subgroup Community State Types – Arianne Y. K. Albert – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Are Human Intestinal Eukaryotes Beneficial or Commensals? – Julius Lukeš – PLOS Pathogens

Review: Role of the normal gut microbiota – Sai Manasa Jandhyala – World Journal of Gastroenterology

ReviewPaleolithic nutrition for metabolic syndrome: systematic review and meta-analysis – Eric W Manheimer – The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Animal models

In MiceAutophagy Protects against Colitis by the Maintenance of Normal Gut Microflora and Secretion of Mucus – Koichiro Tsuboi – Journal of Biological Chemistry

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities show low resistance and high resilience to wildfire disturbance – Xingjia Xiang – Plant and Soil

From lithotroph- to organotroph-dominant: directional shift of microbial community in sulphidic tailings during phytostabilization – Xiaofang Li – Scientific Reports

Water microbiome

A Dissolved Oxygen Threshold for Shifts in Bacterial Community Structure in a Seasonally Hypoxic Estuary – Rachel L. Spietz – PLOS ONE

Techniques

Collection media and delayed freezing effects on microbial composition of human stool – Roberto Flores – Microbiome

Bioinformatics

Sorting out viral dark matter – Denise Waldron – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Manifold Based Optimization for Single-Cell 3D Genome Reconstruction – Jonas Paulsen – PLOS Computational Biology

Other microbiology

Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Genome watch: Looking at Beijing’s skyline – Dorota Jamrozy & Teemu Kallonen – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Feeding My Curiosity – And My Microbes – Alanna Collen – uBiome

Crohn’s and Colitis video featuring Laboratory of Will DePaolo

Bik’s Picks – some extra for you for the weekend!

We’ve Used Up Our Annual Supply of Earth’s Resources—And It’s Only August – Maddie Stone – Gizmodo

Drones could be stressing out wildlife, scientists suggest – Chelsea Harvey – Washington Post

Low-fat diets ‘better than cutting carbs’ for weight loss – James Gallagher – BBC News

Google’s Life Sciences division to build a miniature glucose tracker – Mona Lalwani – EnGadget

Why scientists got an alligator to inhale helium – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

[hr]

August 4, 2015

Diet-induced metabolic changes, rhythmicity of mouse gut microbiome, the microbiome of Lake Michigan, and chicken skin virome.

General microbiome

Antibiotics, microbiota and health: are there dangers hiding in plain sight? – A. Clinton White Jr – Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases

Short Course in the Microbiome: Meeting Dispatch – Kimberly Falana – Journal of Circulating Biomarkers

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Influence of Intrapartum Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Group B Streptococcus on Gut Microbiota in the First Month of Life – Corvaglia, Luigi – Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition

Human gut microbiome

Quantifying Diet-Induced Metabolic Changes of the Human Gut Microbiome – Saeed Shoaie – Cell Metabolism

Effect of daily intake of pomegranate juice on fecal microbiota and feces metabolites from healthy volunteers – Juana I. Mosele – Molecular Nutrition & Food Research

Gut microbiota richness promotes its stability upon increased dietary fiber intake in healthy adults – Julien Tap – Environmental Microbiology

Review: The intestinal microbiome and health – Susan Tuddenham – Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases

Review: Trimethylamine N-Oxide From Gut Microbiota in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients: Focus on Diet – Cristiane Moraes – Journal of Renal Nutrition

Review: Gut permeability, its interaction with gut microflora and effects on metabolic health are mediated by the lymphatics system, liver and bile acid – Cuong D Tran – Future Medicine

Microbiome models

Rhythmicity of the intestinal microbiota is regulated by gender and the host circadian clock – Xue Liang – PNAS

Viability of gut microbes as a complementary earthworm biomarker of metal exposure – Shin Woong Kim – Ecological Indicators

Adaptation of the human aryl hydrocarbon receptor to sense microbiota-derived indoles – Troy D. Hubbard – Scientific Reports

Which games are growing bacterial populations playing? – Xiang-Yi Li – Interface

Animal microbiome

Chicken skin virome analyzed by high-throughput sequencing shows a composition highly different from human skin – Caroline Denesvre – Virus Genes

Variations in microbiota of culex (melanoconion) ocossa and culex (culex) declarator across periurban and rural environments – M Nelson Starkey – Honors Thesis – Andrews University

Plasmids from the gut microbiome of cabbage root fly larvae encode SaxA that catalyzes the conversion of the plant toxin 2-phenylethyl isothiocyanate – Cornelia U. Welte – Environmental Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Successional Trajectories of Rhizosphere Bacterial Communities over Consecutive Seasons
Shengjing Shi – mBio

Compositional differences in simulated root exudates elicit a limited functional and compositional response in soil microbial communities – Michael S. Strickland – Frontiers in Microbiology

Changes in soil microbial community functionality and structure in a metal-polluted site: The effect of digestate and fly ash applications – M. Garcia-Sánchez – Journal of Environmental Management

Metatranscriptome analysis reveals host-microbiome interactions in traps of carnivorous Genlisea species – Hieu X. Cao – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbial composition alters the response of litter decomposition to environmental change – Kristin L. Matulich – Ecology

Plant community richness and microbial interactions structure bacterial communities in soil – Daniel C. Schlatter – Ecology

Plant diversity effects on soil microbial functions and enzymes are stronger than warming in a grassland experiment – Katja Steinauer – Ecology

Persistence of the dominant soil phylum Acidobacteria by trace gas scavenging – Chris Greening – PNAS

Review: Current overview on the study of bacteria in the rhizosphere by modern molecular techniques: a mini‒review – L. Lagos – Journal of soil science and plant nutrition

Review: Harnessing phytomicrobiome signaling for rhizosphere microbiome engineering – Liliana Quiza – Frontiers in Plant Science

Water microbiome

The quality of organic matter shapes the functional biogeography of bacterioplankton across boreal freshwater ecosystems – Clara Ruiz-González – Global Ecology and Biogeography

Dissimilatory Arsenate Reduction and In Situ Microbial Activities and Diversity in Arsenic-rich Groundwater of Chianan Plain, Southwestern Taiwan – Suvendu Das – Microbial Ecology

Freshwater ice as habitat: Partitioning of phytoplankton- and bacteria between ice and water in central European reservoirs – R.M.L. McKay – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Urban microbial ecology of a freshwater estuary of Lake Michigan – Jenny C. Fisher – Elementa

Review: Bacterial microcompartments: widespread prokaryotic organelles for isolation and optimization of metabolic pathways – Thomas A. Bobik – Molecular Microbiology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

SuRankCo: supervised ranking of contigs in de novo assemblies – Mathias Kuhring – BMC Bioinformatics

More microbe research

Species-wide whole genome sequencing reveals historical global spread and recent local persistence in Shigella flexneri – Thomas R Conno – eLIFE

The Cipher Code of Simple Sequence Repeats in “Vampire Pathogens” – Geng Zou – Scientific Reports

Analysis of IS6110 insertion sites provide a glimpse into genome evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis – Tanmoy Roychowdhury – Scientific Reports

Protein synthesis by ribosomes with tethered subunits – Cédric Orelle – Nature

Long-term social dynamics drive loss of function in pathogenic bacteria – Sandra Breum Andersen – PNAS

New approaches to understanding the immune response to vaccination and infection
David Furman – Vaccine

Microbes in the news

Would You Wear a Face Mask Made From Bacteria? – Jenna Rosenstein – Allure

Times-Picayune asks – Did a moldy building kill 4 New Orleans Professors – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBEnet

How the bugs in your gut keep you healthy – Keri Wiginton – Chicago Tribune

Scientists successfully breed symbiotic bacteria in mosquitoes to control dengue fever – ZeeNews India

Weight-Loss Surgery Changes Gut Bacteria – Rachael Rettner – Live Science

Volcanic bacteria take minimalist approach to survival – Otago University

Science, publishing, and career

Achieving Speaker Gender Equity at the American Society for Microbiology General Meeting – Arturo Casadevall – mBio

Bik’s Picks

This one was striking: Lightning strike as a possible cause of mortality of Australian sea lions, Neophoca cinerea – Peter D. Shaughnessy – Marine Mammal Science

Chilly at Work? Office Formula Was Devised for Men – Pam Belluck – New York Times
Belongs to: Energy consumption in buildings and female thermal demand – Boris Kingma & Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt – Nature Climate Change

This Map Shows How New Yorkers View The Rest Of The United States. Finally, proof! – Carly Ledbetter – Huffington Post

[hr]

July 23, 2015

Proteobacteria in gut dysbiosis, microbes on seagrass, viral dark matter, metabolic ups and downs in the biofilm, bacteria/whiskey/copper, The Brown Lagoon, and I’ll see you in the gut.

Human gut microbiome

Review: Proteobacteria: microbial signature of dysbiosis in gut microbiota – Na-Ri Shin – Trends in Biotechnology

DGGE: Equol status and changes in faecal microbiota in menopausal women receiving long-term treatment for menopause symptoms with a soy-isoflavone concentrate – Lucía Guadamuro – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbiome models

Editorial with a clever title. LikeEscaping Negative Selection: ILC You in the Gut – Adam M. Farkas – Immunity

Maraviroc modifies gut microbiota composition in a mouse model of obesity: a plausible therapeutic option to prevent metabolic disorders in HIV-infected patients – Patricia Perez-Matute – Rev Esp Quimioter

Plants, roots, and soil microbiome

Oxalate secretion by ectomycorrhizal Paxillus involutus is mineral-specific and controls calcium weathering from minerals – A. Schmalenberger – Scientific Reports

Cultivation-dependent analysis the microbial diversity associated with the seagrass meadows in Xincun Bay, South China Sea (sic) – Yu-Feng Jiang – Ecotoxicology

Unearthing the genomes of plant-beneficial Pseudomonas model strains WCS358, WCS374 and WCS417 – Roeland L. Berendsen – BMC Genomics

Water microbiome

Microbial communities associated with benthic faunal assemblages at cold seep sediments of the Sonora Margin, Guaymas Basin – Perrine Cruaud – Frontiers in Marine Science

Assessment of Zooplankton Community Composition along a Depth Profile in the Central Red Sea – John K. Pearman – PLOS ONE

Waste and bioreactor microbiology

Functionally redundant but dissimilar microbial communities within biogas reactors treating maize silage in co-fermentation with sugar beet silage – Susanne G. Langer – Microbial Biotechnology

Effects of Calamagrostis epigejos, Chamaenerion palustre and Tussilago farfara on nutrient availability and microbial activity in the surface layer of spoil heaps after hard coal mining – Anna M. Stefanowicz – Ecological Engineering

Degradation of Biofumigant Isothiocyanates and Allyl Glucosinolate in Soil and Their Effects on the Microbial Community Composition – Franziska S. Hanschen – PLOS ONE

Assessing hog lagoon waste contamination in the Cape Fear Watershed using Bacteroidetes 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing – Ann M. Arfken – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Bacterial community structure and predicted alginate metabolic pathway in an alginate-degrading bacterial consortium – Akihisa Kita – Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Viral dark matter and virus-host interactions resolved from publicly available microbial genomes – Simon Roux – eLIFE

Conference abstract: MetaFast: fast reference-free graph-based comparison of shotgun
metagenomic data – Sergey V. Kazakov

Microbial Ecology

Metabolic co-dependence gives rise to collective oscillations within biofilms – Jintao Liu – Nature

Neutral Models of Microbiome Evolution – Qinglong Zeng – PLOS Computational Biology

Fitness cost of antibiotic susceptibility during bacterial infection – Damien Roux – Science Translational Medicine

New Paradigms in Sepsis: From Prevention to Protection of Failing Microcirculation
J. Hawiger – Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis

Helicobacter pylori eradication for the prevention of gastric neoplasia – Alexander C Ford – Cochrane Library

Microbes in the news

Mutations that make bacteria resistant to antibiotics might also make them deadlier – Arielle Duhaime-Ross – The Verge

Bacteria are many things, but selfish isn’t one of them, scientists say – Robert Gebelhoff – Washington Post

Ulcer-causing bacteria may be key to stomach cancer: A combination of antibiotics and a drug reducing the production of gastric acid can eliminate the bacteria – Stephen Feller – UPI

Project aims to use probiotic bacteria to protect algal crops and increase ecosystem resilience – Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Bacteria makes copper from whisky waste – Tereza Pultarova – E&T Institution for Engineering and Technology

Bik’s Picks – reptile edition

HT Ed Yong: No Motherhood Yet for 100-Year-Old Turtle – John R. Platt – Scientific American

Turns Out Boa Constrictors Might Not Actually Suffocate Their Prey – Hilary Hanson – Huffington Post

A Fossil Snake With Four Legs – Ed Yong – National Geographic
[hr]

May 5, 2015, part 2

There was so much literature today (more than 600 papers!) that I am doing a second digest today.

Human reproductive tract microbiome

Investigation and Characterization of the Microbiome of the Upper Female Reproductive Tract [10] – Shana M. Miles – Obstetrics & Gynecology

Animal and other models

Akkermansia muciniphila Adheres to Enterocytes and Strengthens the Integrity of the Epithelial Cell Layer – Justus Reunanen – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Animal microbiome

Effect of Diet on the Rumen Microbial Community Composition of Growing Cattle and the Role It Plays in Methane Emissions – Allison L. Knoell – Digital Commons University of Nebraska – Lincoln

Amphibian Symbiotic Bacteria Do Not Show a Universal Ability To Inhibit Growth of the Global Panzootic Lineage of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis – Rachael E. Antwis – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Reptiles as Reservoirs of Bacterial Infections: Real Threat or Methodological Bias? – Giulia Zancolli – Microbial Ecology

Plant root, soil and sediment microbiome

Effects of cultivation ages and modes on microbial diversity in the rhizosphere soil of Panax ginseng – Chunping Xiao – Journal of Ginseng Research

Soil-foraging animals alter the composition and co-occurrence of microbial communities in a desert shrubland – David J Eldridge – The ISME Journal

The bacterial community inhabiting temperate deciduous forests is vertically stratified and undergoes seasonal dynamics – Rubén López-Mondéjar – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Diversity of active microbial communities subjected to long-term exposure to chemical contaminants along a 40-year-old sediment core – Assia Kaci – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Soil moisture and land use are major determinants of soil microbial community composition and biomass at a regional scale in northeastern China – L. Ma – Biogeosciences

Bacterial Community Diversity in Soil Under two Tillage Practices as Determined by Pyrosequencing – Aditi Sengupta – Microbial Ecology

Soil Microorganisms Contribute to Plant Nutrition and Root Health – Mark S. Coyne and Robert Mikkelsen – Better Crops

Changes in northern Gulf of Mexico sediment bacterial and archaeal communities exposed to hypoxia – R. Devereux – Geobiology

Effect of Nitrogen Management on Soil Microbial Community and Enzymatic Activities in Jatropha curcas L. Plantation – Doongar Ram Chaudhary – CLEAN – Soil, Air, Water

Response of maize and soil microorganisms to decomposing poplar root residues after shallow or homogenous mixing into soil – Hikal Gad – Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science

Water microbiome

Metagenome Sequencing of a Coastal Marine Microbial Community from Monterey Bay, California – Ryan S. Mueller – Genome Announcements

Enrichment experiment changes microbial interactions in an ultra-oligotrophic environment – Gabriel Y. Ponce-Soto – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Marine-derived fungi: diversity of enzymes and biotechnological applications
Rafaella C. Bonugli-Santos – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review, but contains mostly plagiarized text: The Importance of Marine Genomics to Life – Popoola Raimot Titilade – Journal of Ocean Research

Extremophiles

Spatial microbial community structure and biodiversity analysis in “extreme” hypersaline soils of a semiarid Mediterranean area – Loredana Canfora – Applied Soil Ecology

Ecoenzymatic stoichiometry at the extremes: How microbes cope in an ultra-oligotrophic desert soil – Yunuen Tapia-Torres – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Microbial and Enzyme Activities of Saline and Sodic Soils – Kripal Singh – Land Degradation & Development

Identification of Anthraquinone-Degrading Bacteria in Soil Contaminated with Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons – Elyse A. Rodgers-Vieira – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Carbon Source Preference in Chemosynthetic Hot Spring Communities – Matthew R. Urschel – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Isolating the effects of storm events on arctic aquatic bacteria: temperature, nutrients, and community composition as controls on bacterial productivity – Heather E. Adams – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bioreactor microbiology

Analysis of microbial communities in the oil reservoir subjected to CO2-flooding by using functional genes as molecular biomarkers for microbial CO2 sequestration – Jin-Feng Liu – Frontiers in Microbiology

Viruses

Combining genomic sequencing methods to explore viral diversity and reveal potential virus-host interactions – Cheryl-Emiliane T. Chow – Frontiers in Microbiology

More microbiology

Global trends in antimicrobial use in food animals – Thomas P. Van Boeckel – PNAS USA

Review: Sugar coating: bacterial protein glycosylation and host–microbe interactions – Felicia Y.Y. Tan – Trends in Biochemical Sciences

Assay for estimating total bacterial load: relative qPCR normalization of bacterial load with associated clinical implications – Ivan Brukner – Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Review: A review on computational systems biology of pathogen–host interactions – Saliha Durmuş – Frontiers in Microbiology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Contact genomics: Scaffolding and phasing (meta)genomes using chromosome 3D physical signatures – Jean-Francois Flot – FEBS Letters

Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Episomes among Ecologically Cohesive Bacterial Populations – Hong Xue – mBio

Whole genome sequencing of extended-spectrum β-lactamase producing Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated from a patient in Lebanon – Sima Tokajian – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

A taxonomic framework for emerging groups of ecologically important marine gammaproteobacteria based on the reconstruction of evolutionary relationships using genome-scale data – Stefan Spring – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Strategies and approaches in plasmidome studies – uncovering plasmid diversity disregarding of linear elements? – Julian R. Dib – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Your Beard Is Covered in Bacteria: So is everything else. Don’t fall for the latest viral freak-out – David Coil – Slate

LongreadGut Feelings – The Mysteries of the Microbiome – Jo Chandler – The Monthly

Bik’s Picks

Dolphins Living in Closer Quarters Are Friendlier – Lori Cuthbert – Discovery

Space might make astronauts dumber, study shows – Craig Hlavaty – Chron.com

We could use some in California – pipeline, please! Where does all the water go? Watch Oregon’s mysterious Lost Lake disappear down a lava tube – Aileen Donnelly – National Post
[hr]

April 16, 2015

Human gut microbiome

Alcoholic Liver Disease: The Gut Microbiome and Liver Cross Talk – Phillipp Hartmann – Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research

Animal models of microbiome research

Xylo-oligosaccharides and virginiamycin differentially modulate gut microbial composition in chickens – Mohsen Pourabedin – Microbiome

Taking advantage of quorum sensing – Cláudio Nunes-Alves – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Changes in the colon microbiota and intestinal cytokine gene expression following minimal intestinal surgery – Susan Lapthorne – World Journal of Gastroenterology

Animal microbiome

Insect life history and the evolution of bacterial mutualism – Lee M. Henry – Ecology Letters

Bugs full of viruses – Astrid Gall – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Similar sponge-associated bacteria can be acquired via both vertical and horizontal transmission – Detmer Sipkema – Environmental Microbiology

Transcriptional activity of the giant barrel sponge, Xestospongia muta Holobiont: Molecular Evidence for Metabolic Interchange – Cara L. Fiore – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water microbiome

Shift of anammox bacterial community structure along the Pearl Estuary and the impact of environmental factors – Bingbing Fu – Journal of Geophysical Research

Metatranscriptome analyses indicate resource partitioning between diatoms in the field – Harriet Alexander – PNAS USA

Microbiome of the built environment

Total Concentrations of Virus and Bacteria in Indoor and Outdoor Air – Aaron J. Prussin – Environmental Science and Technology Letters
See also my blog post on MicroBE.net about this paper, with a lively discussion on filters and pore sizes

Food microbiology

Effect of Gamma Irradiation on the Bacteriological and Sensory Analysis of Raw Whole Milk under Refrigeration – Adriana Cristina de Oliveira Silva

Bioreactor microbiology

Disturbance opens recruitment sites for bacterial colonization in activated sludge – David C. Vuono – Environmental Microbiology

Metaproteomics of complex microbial communities in biogas plants – Robert Heyer – Microbial Biotechnology

16S rRNA gene analysis, not metagenomics: Metagenomic analysis for the microbial consortium of anaerobic CO oxidizers – Ying Guo – Microbial Biotechnology

Bioinformatics

Protocol: Bioinformatics and Microarray Data Analysis on the Cloud – Barbara Calabrese, Mario Cannataro – Methods in Molecular Biology

An Ontology-Based GIS for Genomic Data Management of Rumen Microbes – Saber Jelokhani-Niaraki – Genomics & Informatics

Behind a very thick paywall: Application of Meta-Mesh on the analysis of microbial communities from human associated-habitats – Xiaoquan Su – Quantitative Biology

Metagenomics

The metagenomic approach and causality in virology – Silvana Beres Castrignano and Teresa Keico Nagasse-Sugahara – Rev Saúde Pública

Techniques

Use of pressure cycling technology for cell lysis and recovery of bacterial and fungal communities from soil – Emily A. Bruner – BioTechniques

Microbial Ecology

Estimating and Mapping Ecological Processes Influencing Microbial Community Assembly – James C. Stegen – Frontiers in Microbiology

More microbiology

The Infallible Microbial Identification Test: Does It Exist? – Alex van Belkum – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Synthetic Cheese and the Microbiome – Alex A. — MicroBE.net

Total Concentrations of Virus and Bacteria in Indoor and Outdoor Air – Elisabeth Bik – MicroBE.net

A Review of the Oral Microbiome: Orli Reports – Orli Kadoch – uBiome Blog

To fight nasty digestive bugs, scientists set out to build a better gut—using stem cells – Medical Xpress

#BacteriaArePlural The bacteria that steals DNA from its surroundings – Mette Risbråthe – Norwegian University of Life Sciences

#BacteriaHysteria: Germ warfare: Kitchens can harbor hidden bacteria – Katherine Roth – The Pueble Chieftain

Science, publishing, and career

A resource for cell line authentication, annotation and quality control – Mamie Yu – Nature

Science AMA Series: We are Charon Pierson, journal editor and elected member of the Governing Council for the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch. AUA about publication ethics and retractions.

Rule rewrite aims to clean up scientific software – Nature Biotechnology asks peer reviewers to check accessibility of code used in computational studies – Erika Check Hayden – Nature

Bik’s Picks

Response of seafloor ecosystems to abrupt global climate change – Sarah E. Moffitt – PNAS USA

Longread: The Pollen Detective – He’d used science to crack cases from art forgery to bank robbery. But then a murder took place in his own backyard – David Wolman – Medium

This professor measured his fingernail growth for 35 years. The results will amaze you! – Seriously, Science? – Discover