Category Archives: Microbes in the News

November 13, 2024

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Today we are highlighting a recent call to action by leading scientists and scientific organizations around the globe aimed at drawing attention to the increasingly urgent climate catastrophe. The authors argue for the use of microbe-based solutions that could be promising in addressing the crisis, and yet are not used effectively at scale. Here we’ve included links to the press release and the journals which have jointly published the paper:

[PRESS RELEASE] Scientists issue call to action underlining importance of microbial solutions to tackle climate crisis – Linda Stewart – The Microbiologist by Applied Microbiology International

Microbial solutions must be deployed against climate catastrophe – Raquel Peixoto, Christian R Voolstra, Lisa Y Stein, Philip Hugenholtz, Joana Falcao Salles, Shady A Amin, Max Häggblom, Ann Gregory, Thulani P Makhalanyane, Fengping Wang, Nadège Adoukè Agbodjato, Yinzhao Wang, Nianzhi Jiao, Jay T Lennon, Antonio Ventosa, Patrik M Bavoil, Virginia Miller, Jack A Gilbert – Sustainable Microbiology

The paper can also be found in journals published by FEMS, ISME, ASM, and Nature.

Human gut microbiome

Predictable regulation of gut microbiome in immunotherapeutic efficacy of gastric cancer – Wei Gao et al – Genes & Immunity

Multimodal analysis identifies microbiome changes linked to stem cell transplantation-associated diseases – Alejandro Artacho et al – BMC Microbiome

Human oral microbiome

Large-scale metagenomic analysis of oral microbiomes reveals markers for autismspectrum disorders – Paolo Manghi et al – Nature Communications

[REVIEW] Viral infection and antiviral immunity in the oral cavity – Heather D. Hickman & Niki M. Moutsopoulos – Nature Reviews Immunology

Nepali oral microbiomes reflect a gradient of lifestyles from traditional to industrialized – Eria P. Ryu et al – BMC Microbiome

Human respiratory microbiome

Major alteration of lung microbiome and the host responses in critically ill COVID-19 patients with high viral load – Ingrid G. Bustos et al – Scientific Reports

Human skin microbiome

The healing process of diabetic ulcers correlates with changes in the cutaneous microbiota – Emanuele Bruni et al – Scientific Reports

Soil microbiome

Microplastic diversity increases the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes in soil – Yi-Fei Wang et al – Nature Communications

Built environment microbiome

Moving beyond species: fungal function in house dust provides novel targets for potential indicators of mold growth in homes – Neeraja Balasubrahmaniam et al – BMC Microbiome

Animal microbiome

Reef site and habitat influence effectiveness of Acropora palmata restoration and its microbiome in the Florida Keys – Stephanie M. Rosales et al – Nature Communications Earth & Environment

Melatonin alleviates heat stress-induced spermatogenesis dysfunction in male dairy goats by regulating arachidonic acid metabolism mediated by remodeling the gut microbiota – Xinrui Guo et al – BMC Microbiome

Pathobiont and symbiont contribute to microbiota homeostasis through Malpighian tubules-gut countercurrent flow in Bactrocera dorsalis – Yanning Liu et al – ISME Journal

Medium-chain fatty acid triglycerides improve feed intake and oxidative stress of finishing bulls by regulating ghrelin concentration and gastrointestinal tract microorganisms and rumen metabolites – Jiaming Luan et al – BMC Microbiome

Intestinal commensal bacteria promote Bactrocera dorsalis larval development through the vitamin B6 synthesis pathway – Jian Gu et al – BMC Microbiome

Water & extremophile microbiome

Latitudinal gradients and ocean fronts strongly influence protist communities in the southern Pacific Ocean – Daniela Sturm et al – FEMS Microbial Ecology

Urea assimilation and oxidation support activity of phylogenetically diverse microbial communities of the dark ocean – Nestor Arandia-Gorostidi et al – ISME Journal

Bioinformatics & tools

MAGqual: a stand-alone pipeline to assess the quality of metagenome-assembled genomes – Annabel Cansdale & James P.J. Chong – BMC Microbiome

April 17, 2024

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Good morning and welcome to another MicrobiomeDigest! Did you know that one group of scientists is using video games to crowdsource puzzle solutions to improve microbiome research? What a neat way to approach citizen science! On deck today we have a study about pesticide exposure and the gut microbiome, a review of the emerging field of skin microbiome-focused cosmetics, insights into the viral diversity of bats and rodents in East Africa, an editorial exploring research into microbial symbiosis through the lens of modern tools, and more.

Human microbiome

Modulation of the gut microbiome and Firmicutes phylum reduction by a nutraceutical blend in the obesity mouse model and overweight humans: A double-blind clinical trial – Victor Nehmi-Filho et al – Food Science & Nutrition

Ambient long-term exposure to organophosphorus pesticides and the human gut microbiome: an observational study – Keren Zhang et al – BMC Environmental Health

[REVIEW] Skin Deep: The Potential of Microbiome Cosmetics – Ju Hee Han & Hei Sung Kim – Journal of Microbiology

Metabolic Interaction Between Host and the Gut Microbiota During High-Fat Diet-Induced Colorectal Cancer – Chaeeun Lee et al – Journal of Microbiology

Longitudinal microbiome changes in children exposed to proton pump inhibitors – Jason Yanjia Zhang et al – Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology

High temperature and humidity in the environment disrupt bile acid metabolism, the gut microbiome, and GLP-1 secretion in mice – Song Chen et al – Nature Communications Biology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Exploring the interplay between the core microbiota, physicochemical factors, agrobiochemical cycles in the soil of the historic tokaj mád wine region – Judit Remenyik et al – PLOS One

[PREPRINT] Metabolic interactions underpinning high methane fluxes across terrestrial freshwater wetlands – Emily Bechtold et al – bioRxiv

An in-depth evaluation of metagenomic classifiers for soil microbiomes – Niranjana Rose Edwin – BMC Environmental Microbiome

Animal microbiome

Substantial viral diversity in bats and rodents from East Africa: insights into evolution, recombination, and cocirculation – Daxi Wang et al – BMC Microbiome

Association between the gut microbiome and carotenoid plumage phenotype in an avian hybrid zone – Marcella D. Baiz et al – Proceedings of the Royal Soc. of Biological Sciences

Effects of removing in-feed antibiotics and zinc oxide on the taxonomy and functionality of the microbiota in post weaning pigs – Juan M Ortiz Sanjuan et al – BMC Animal Microbiome

Integrated analysis of gut metabolome, microbiome, and exfoliome data in an equine model of intestinal injury – C.M. Whitfield-Gargile et al – BMC Microbiome

Responses of the coral reef cryptobiome to environmental gradients in the Red Sea – Rodrigo Villalobos et al – PLOS One

Microbial ecology

[EDITORIAL] Symbiosis: In search of a deeper understanding – Thomas A Richards & Nancy A Moran – PLOS Biology

Bioinformatics & techniques

Randomized feature selection based semi-supervised latent Dirichlet allocation for microbiome analysis – Namitha Pais et al – Nature Scientific Reports

Improving microbial phylogeny with citizen science within a mass-market video game – Roman Sarrazin-Gendron et al – Nature Biotechnology

February 21, 2024

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Human nasal microbiome

[PREPRINT]Nasal commensals reduce Staphylococcus aureus proliferation by restricting siderophore availability – Zhao et al. – bioRxiv

Human oral microbiome

Favorable subgingival plaque microbiome shifts are associated with clinical treatment for peri-implant diseases – Bazzani et al. – npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

Human gut microbiome

Horizontal gene transfer after faecal microbiota transplantation in adolescents with obesity – Behling et al. – Microbiome

Animal microbiome

Psychological stress-induced microbial metabolite indole-3-acetate disrupts intestinal cell lineage commitment – Wei et al. – Cell Metabolism

Gut microbiota contributes to bisphenol A-induced maternal intestinal and placental apoptosis, oxidative stress, and fetal growth restriction in pregnant ewe model by regulating gut-placental axis – Zhang et al. – Microbiome

Water and extremophile microbiome (sea, rivers, lakes, glaciers, permafrost, high-salt)

Novel insights into the rhizosphere and seawater microbiome of Zostera marina in diverse mariculture zones – Sun et al. – Microbiome

Alteration of bacterial community composition in the sediments of an urban artificial river caused by sewage discharge – Li et al. – PeerJ

The exometabolome of microbial communities inhabiting bare ice surfaces on the southern Greenland Ice Sheet – Doting et al. – Environmental Microbiology

Searching for microbial contribution to micritization of shallow marine sediments – Garuglieri et al. – Environmental Microbiology

Food microbiology

Unveiling the microbial communities and metabolic pathways of Keem, a traditional starter culture, through whole-genome sequencing – Rana et al. – Scientific Reports

Phages and viruses

[PREPRINT]Fecal Virome Transplantation (FVT) from healthy humans remodels the gut bacteriome and virome and reduces metabolic syndrome in mice – Cervantes-Echeverría et al. – bioRxiv

[PREPRINT]Discovering and exploring the hidden diversity of human gut viruses using highly enriched virome samples – Zolfo et al. – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news (popular press, EurekAlert, ScienceDaily, Youtube, NPR, etc)

Why addressing how our brain and our gut talk to each other matter for IBS – Gut microbiota for health

January 31, 2024

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General microbiome

Finding Candida auris in public metagenomic repositories – Mario-Vasquez et al. – PLOS One

Pregnancy and early life

A pilot study of fecal pH and redox as functional markers in the premature infant gut microbiome – Letourneau et al. – PLOS One

[PREPRINT]Assembly, stability, and dynamics of the infant gut microbiome are linked to bacterial strains and functions in mother’s milk – Allert et al. – bioRxiv

Human nasal microbiome

A genome-wide association study reveals the relationship between human genetic variation and the nasal microbiome – Liu et al. – Communications Biology

Human gut microbiome

Differential peripheral immune signatures elicited by vegan versus ketogenic diets in humans – Link et al. – Nature Medicine

Metagenomic analyses of 7000 to 5500 years old coprolites excavated from the Torihama shell-mound site in the Japanese archipelago – Nishimura et al. – PLOS One

[PREPRINT]Unravelling the ancient fungal DNA from the Iceman’s gut – Oskolkov et al. – bioRxiv

Animal experiments (mouse/rat experiments, chickens/pigs on different diets)

Streptococcus anginosus promotes gastric inflammation, atrophy, and tumorigenesis in mice – Fu et al. – Cell

Gut complement induced by the microbiota combats pathogens and spares commensals – Wu et al. – Cell

Complement in breast milk modifies offspring gut microbiota to promote infant health – Xu et al. – Cell

Antidiabetic effects and mechanism of γ-polyglutamic acid on type II diabetes mice – Li et al. – International Journal of Biological Macromolecules

Bacterial microbiome associated with cigarette beetle Lasioderma serricorne (F.) and its microbial plasticity in relation to diet sources – Srinivasan et al. – PLOS One

Animal microbiome (for animals in the wild)

Metagenomics reveals the temporal dynamics of the rumen resistome and microbiome in goat kids – Chai et al. – Microbiome

[PREPRINT]Thermal fluctuations independently modulate physiological plasticity and the dynamics of the gut microbiome in a tropical rocky shore oyster – Arromrak et al. – bioRxiv

[PREPRINT]Diversity and structure of the deep-sea sponge microbiome in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean – Williams et al. – bioRxiv

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

[PREPRINT]Temporal and spatial dynamics within the fungal microbiome of grape fermentation – Onetto et al. – bioRxiv

Water and extremophile microbiome (sea, rivers, lakes, glaciers, permafrost, high-salt)

Autotrophic biofilms sustained by deeply sourced groundwater host diverse bacteria implicated in sulfur and hydrogen metabolism – Valentin-Alvarado et al. – Microbiome

Phages and viruses

[PREPRINT]Viroid-like colonists of human microbiomes – Zheludev et al. – bioRxiv

Bioinformatics

[PREPRINT]DeepGOMeta: Predicting functions for microbes – Hoehndorf et al. – bioRxiv

[PREPRINT]Predicting microbial genome-scale metabolic networks directly from 16S rRNA gene sequences – Øyås et al. – bioRxiv

Techniques

[REVIEW]Unraveling metagenomics through long-read sequencing: a comprehensive review – Kim et al. – Journal of Translational Medicine

Microbes in the news

Non-prescription therapeutics for IBS: where are we? – Costantino – Gut Microbiota for Health by ESNM

August 31, 2022

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Human skin microbiome

[REVIEW]Staphylococcus epidermidis and its dual lifestyle in skin health and infection – Severn & Horswill – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Human oral microbiome

Effect of chewing gum containing Xylitol and blackberry powder on oral bacteria: A randomized controlled crossover trial – Miller et al. – Archives of Oral Biology

Human gut microbiome

Antimicrobial peptide production in response to gut microbiota imbalance – Cardoso et al. – Peptides

ROLE OF GUT MICROBIOTA IN DEPRESSION: UNDERSTANDING MOLECULAR PATHWAYS, RECENT RESEARCH, AND FUTURE DIRECTION – Rathour et al. – Behavioural Brain Research

Animal experiments (mouse/rat experiments, chickens/pigs on different diets)

Gut-derived metabolites influence neurodevelopmental gene expression and Wnt signaling events in a germ-free zebrafish model – Rea et al. – Microbiome

Animal microbiome (for animals in the wild)

Age as a primary driver of the gut microbial composition and function in wild harbor seals – Pacheco-Sandoval et al. – Scientific Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Biogeographical survey of soil microbiomes across sub-Saharan Africa: structure, drivers, and predicted climate-driven changes – Cowan et al. – Microbiome

Soil fungal communities show more specificity than bacteria for plant species composition in a temperate forest in China – Chen et al. – BMC Microbiology

Microbes in space

Machine learning algorithm to characterize antimicrobial resistance associated with the International Space Station surface microbiome – Madrigal et al. – Microbiome

Food microbiology

Extensive diversity and rapid turnover of phage defense repertoires in cheese-associated bacterial communities – Somerville et al. – Microbiome

Bioinformatics

Crowdsourced benchmarking of taxonomic metagenome profilers: lessons learned from the sbv IMPROVER Microbiomics challenge – Poussin et al. – BMC Genomics

Microbes in the news (popular press, EurekAlert, ScienceDaily, Youtube, NPR, etc)

Newly Renamed Prokaryote Phyla Cause Uproar – Dan Robitzski – The Scientist

April 8, 2022

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Good morning! Today’s microbiome digest is brought to you by mild insomnia induced by a mid-afternoon coffee. It includes two food related studies, one on pathogenic E. coli found in ready-to-eat foods and the other focused on a antifungal lipopeptide produced by B. velezensis isolated from honey, and an an article focused on a new approach for processing frozen lung and lavage samples for use in microbiome studies. Also included are several articles focused on the gut microbiome, and several preprints focused on soil microbiome studies. Finally, I want to highlight a piece that details the positive outcomes associated with the National Summer Undergraduate Research Project (NSURP). Registration for this year’s program is still open until April 15th, and the organizers are looking for both mentors, mentees, and donors!


Pregnancy and early life

Group B Streptococcus colonization at delivery is associated with maternal peripartum infection – Brigtsen et al. – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis and microbiome profile of patients in a referral gastrointestinal diseases centre in the Sudan – Elmagzoub et al. – PLOS ONE

Animal experiments

Vertical transmission of attaching and invasive E. coli from the dam to neonatal mice predisposes to more severe colitis following exposure to a colitic insult later in life – Brand et al. – PLOS ONE

Sex differences in the fecal microbiome and hippocampal glial morphology following diet and antibiotic treatment – Saxena et al. – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

Preprint: Anthropogenic disturbance impacts gut microbiome homeostasis in a Malagasy primate – Wasimuddin et al. – bioRxiv

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Preprint: Microclimate is a strong predictor of the native and invasive plant-associated soil microbiota on San Cristóbal Island, Galápagos archipelago – Schoenborn et al. bioRxiv

Preprint: The activity and functions of soil microbial communities in the Finnish sub-Arctic vary across vegetation types – Vitamaki et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: Tracing carbon metabolism with stable isotope metabolomics reveals the legacy of diverse carbon sources in soil – Wilhelm et al. – bioRxiv

Water and extremophile microbiome (sea, rivers, lakes, glaciers, permafrost, high-salt)

Preprint: Culexarchaeia, a novel archaeal class of anaerobic generalists inhabiting geothermal environments – Kohtz et al. – bioRxiv

Food microbiology

Processed ready-to-eat (RTE) foods sold in Yenagoa Nigeria were colonized by diarrheagenic Escherichia coli which constitute a probable hazard to human health – Beshiru et al. – PLOS ONE

Purification and characterization of antifungal lipopeptide produced by Bacillus velezensis isolated from raw honey – Ziong et al. – PLOS ONE

Techniques

An optimized approach for processing of frozen lung and lavage samples for microbiome studies – Wiscovitch-Russo et al. – PLOS ONE

Science, publishing, and career

***National Summer Undergraduate Research Project (NSURP): A Virtual Research Experience to Deliver REAL (Retention, Equity, Access, and Life-Changing) Outcomes for Underrepresented Minorities in STEM – Johnson & Knox – JMBE

March 23, 2022

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General microbiome

Microbial communities form rich extracellular metabolomes that foster metabolic interactions and promote drug tolerance – Yu et al. – Nature Microbiology

Human skin microbiome

Skin microbiota diversity among genetically unrelated individuals of Indian origin – Pothbhare et al. – PeerJ

Human gut microbiome

[REVIEW]Gut microbiota and allergic diseases in children – Akagawa & Kaneko – Allergology International

[REVIEW]Gut microbiome: New biomarkers in early screening of colorectal cancer – Zhou et al. – Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis

Can gut microbiota throughout the first 10 years of life predict executive functioning in childhood? – Eckermann et al. – Developmental Psychobiology

[PREPRINT]Meta-analysis of the autism gut microbiome identifies factors influencing study discrepancies and machine learning classification – Chavira, Wang & Mills – bioRxiv

Changes of Intestinal Microflora in Colorectal Cancer Patients after Surgical Resection and Chemotherapy – Huang et al. – Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine

Animal microbiome

Captivity and Animal Microbiomes: Potential Roles of Microbiota for Influencing Animal Conservation – Dallas & Warne – Microbial Ecology

Changes in gut microbiota composition with age and correlations with gut inflammation in rats – Meng et al. – PLOS One

[REVIEW]Translational multi-omics microbiome research for strategies to improve cattle production and health – Wang & Guan – Emerging Topics in Lefe Sciences

Multi-omics reveals host metabolism associated with the gut microbiota composition in mice with dietary ε-polylysine – Zhang et al. – Food & Function

Soil causes gut microbiota to flourish and total serum IgE levels to decrease in mice – Zhou et al. – Environmental Microbiology

Microbiome-metabolomics deciphers the effects of Cistanche deserticola polysaccharides on agedconstipated rats – Liu et al. – Food & Function

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

[PREPRINT]Plant Virus Database: a resource for exploring the diversity of plant viruses and their interactions with hosts – Wu et al. – bioRxiv

Waste microbiome

[PREPRINT]Identification of Microbial Flora and Isolation of Functional Strains Related to the Degradation of Domestic Waste – Huang, Liu & Zong – bioRxiv

Food microbiology

Comprehensive characterization of the bacterial community structure and metabolite composition of food waste fermentation products via microbiome and metabolome analyses – Li et al. – PLOS One

Bioinformatics

MetaPop: a pipeline for macro- and microdiversity analyses and visualization of microbial and viral metagenome-derived populations – Gregory et al. – Microbiome

HAM-ART: An optimised culture-free Hi-C metagenomics pipeline for tracking antimicrobial resistance genes in complex microbial communities – Kalmar et al. – PLOS Genetics

Techniques

[PREPRINT]Vaginal microbiome-host interactions modeled in a human vagina-on-a-chip – Mahajan et al. – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news (popular press, EurekAlert, ScienceDaily, Youtube, NPR, etc)

Florence tomb by Michelangelo restored with aid of bacteria – The Guardian

October 22, 2021

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Happy Friday!

Today’s digest includes an article on the role of age in the human intestinal microbiome, research on the role of a novel Acidobacteriota in seafloor sulfur cycling, work demonstrating the use of machine learning to predict camplyobacter source data, and much more! I also included the link to a page on “The Secret World Inside You”, a science exhibit focused on the human microbiome that is at the Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas from now until April 10, 2022. If anyone ends up checking it out, I’d love to hear about it!

Events

A microbiome science exhibit, “The Secret World Inside You,” is at The Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas from October 16, 2021 to April 10, 2022 .

Human gut microbiome

Bile acid-independent protection against Clostridioides difficile infection – Aguirre et al. – PLOS PATHOGENS

The importance of age in compositional and functional profiling of the human intestinal microbiome – Herzog et al. – PLOS ONE

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

The chosen few—variations in common and rare soil bacteria across biomes – Bickel & Or – The ISME Journal

The fungus Kalmusia longispora is able to cause vascular necrosis on Vitis vinifera – Karácsony et al. – PLOS ONE

Water and extremophile microbiome

Novel taxa of Acidobacteriota implicated in seafloor sulfur cycling – Flieder et al. – The ISME Journal

Beach sand oil spills select for generalist microbial populations – Heritier-Robbins et al. – The ISME Journal

Preprint: Influence of DNA extraction kits on the fungal DNA metabarcoding for freshwater environmental DNA – Matsuoka et al. – bioRxiv

Marine signature taxa and core microbial community stability along latitudinal and vertical gradients in sediments of the deepest freshwater lake – Reboul et al. – The ISME Journal

Phages and viruses

Review: Community context matters for bacteria-phage ecology and evolution – Blazanin & Turner – The ISME Journal

Bioinformatics

Machine learning to predict the source of campylobacteriosis using whole genome data – Arning et al. – PLOS GENETICS

June 4, 2021

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Greetings from Pittsburgh!

Today’s digest includes a review about the digestibility of adult dog diets, several articles about the human gut microbiome, an article about the spinach phyllosphere, and research about the effect of fertilizer and continuous garlic cultivation on the soil microbiome. It also includes topics such as microorganisms in ancient Siberian permafrost, the use of a probiotic consortium as an alternative to chemical remediation of oil spills, and much more!

If you want a lighter read, I’ve also included a fun Smithsonian Magazine article about the use of bacteria in art restoration.

Happy Friday!

General microbiome

Review: An evolving view on biogeochemical cycling of iron – Kappler et al. – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Review: Beyond horizontal gene transfer: the role of plasmids in bacterial evolution – Rodríguez-Beltrán et al. – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Review: Cells within cells: Rickettsiales and the obligate intracellular bacterial lifestyle – Salje – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Reviews: Microbial volatile organic compounds in intra-kingdom and inter-kingdom interactions – Weisskopf et al. – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Human skin microbiome

Apple cider vinegar soaks do not alter the skin bacterial microbiome in atopic dermatitis – Luu et al. – PLOS One

Human gut microbiome

Metabolomic profiling identifies complex lipid species and amino acid analogues associated with response to weight loss interventions – Bihlmeyer et al. – PLOS One

Gut microbiome differences among Mexican Americans with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus – Kitten et al. – PLOS One

Enlightening the taxonomy darkness of human gut microbiomes with a cultured biobank – Liu et al. – Microbiome

Gut microbiota profiles of young South Indian children: Child sex-specific relations with growth – Shivakumar et al. – PLOS One

Animal experiments

Review: Soybean meal and poultry offal meal effects on digestibility of adult dogs diets – Vanelli et al. – PLOS One

Animal microbiome

A survey of mosquito-borne and insect-specific viruses in hospitals and livestock markets in western Kenya – Chiuya et al. – PLOS One

Microbiomes of clownfish and their symbiotic host anemone converge before their first physical contact – Émie et al. – Microbiome

Characterization of oral and cloacal microbial communities in cold-stunned Kemp’s ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) during the time course of rehabilitation – McNally et al. – PLOS One

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Influence of seasonal changes and salinity on spinach phyllosphere bacterial functional assemblage – Ibekwe et al. – PLOS One

Comparison of bacterial and archaeal communities in two fertilizer doses and soil compartments under continuous cultivation system of garlic – Zhou et al. – PLOS One

Water and extremophile microbiome

Meanders as a scaling motif for understanding of floodplain soil microbiome and biogeochemical potential at the watershed scale – Carnevali et al. – Microbiome

Urban wastewater bacterial communities assemble into seasonal steady states – LaMartina et al. – Microbiome

Genomic reconstruction of fossil and living microorganisms in ancient Siberian permafrost – Liang et al. – Microbiome

Genomic and immunogenic changes of Piscine novirhabdovirus (Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia Virus) over its evolutionary history in the Laurentian Great Lakes – Niner et al. – PLOS One

Built environment

Multi-domain probiotic consortium as an alternative to chemical remediation of oil spills at coral reefs and adjacent sites – Silva et al. – Microbiome

Microbes in the news

Italian Art Restorers Used Bacteria to Clean Michelangelo Masterpieces – Davis-Marks – Smithsonian Magazine

April 16, 2021

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In today’s digest read about the presence/absence of ACBP orthologues in human gut metagenomes and how the gut microbiome links nutrition with cardiometabolic health, LEGO-based microscope, SIAMCAT for statistical inference of associations between microbial communities and host phenotypes, bacteriophage plaques size tool, and more. Check out a list of awesome webinars and courses. Happy Friday!

OPEN #NSURP2021 CALL for mentors and mentees: The National Summer Undergraduate Research Project – A community-driven initiative to create rewarding remote summer research opportunities for BIPOC and Latinx undergraduate students in the microbial sciences.

Microbiome in the news

*Microbiome research in general and business newspapers: How many microbiome articles are published and which study designs make the news the most? – Andreu Prados-Bo and Gonzalo Casino – PlosOne

General

Prokaryotic taxonomy and nomenclature in the age of big sequence data – Philip Hugenholtz – The ISME Journal

The metabolic network of the last bacterial common ancestor – Joana C. Xavier – Communications Biology

Techniques

*Designing a high-resolution, LEGO-based microscope for an educational setting – Bart Eduard Vos – bioRxiv

Genome-Based Targeted Sequencing as a Reproducible Microbial Community Profiling Assay – Jacquelynn Benjamino – mSphere

Gut microbiome

*Microbial ACBP/DBI-like genes are rare in the human gut microbiome and show no links with obesity – Andrew Maltez Thomas – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

The long-term genetic stability and individual specificity of the human gut microbiome – Lianmin Chen – Cell

Review: Emulating the gut–liver axis: Dissecting the microbiome’s effect on drug metabolism using multiorgan-on-chip models – Mara Lucchetti – Current Opinion in Endocrine and Metabolic Research

Urinary microbiome

The human urobiome – Linda Brubaker – Mammalian Genome

Urinary microbiota of women with recurrent urinary tract infection: collection and culture methods – Baylie R. Hochstedler – International Urogynecology Journal

Vaginal microbiome

Characterization of the first vaginal Lactobacillus crispatus genomes isolated in Brazil – Marcelle Oliveira de Almeida – PeerJ

Comparative Genome Analyses of Lactobacillus crispatus Isolates from Different Ecological Niches Reveal an Adaptation of This Species to the Human Vaginal Environment – Leonardo Mancabelli – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Probiotics

Review: Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GR-1, a.k.a. Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1: Past and Future Perspectives – Mariya I.Petrova – Trends in Microbiology

Probiotic Lactobacillus sp. Strains Inhibit Growth, Adhesion, Biofilm Formation, and Gene Expression of Bacterial Vaginosis-Inducing Gardnerella vaginalis – Zhixiang Qian – Microorganisms

Oral microbiome

Dental biofilm microbiota dysbiosis is associated with the risk of acute graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation – Vitor Heidrich – medRxiv

Soil microbiome

Shotgun metagenomics reveals distinct functional diversity and metabolic capabilities between 12 000-year-old permafrost and active layers on Muot da Barba Peider (Swiss Alps) – Carla Perez-Mon – Microbial Genomics

Phages and viruses

*Plaque Size Tool: an automated plaque analysis tool for simplifying and standardising bacteriophage plaque morphology measurements – Ellina Trofimova and Paul R Jaschke – bioRxiv

The gut virome of healthy children during the first year of life is diverse and dynamic – Blanca Taboada – PlosOne

Bioinformatics

Taxonomic analysis of metagenomic data with kASA – Silvio Weging – Nucleic Acids Research

*Microbiome meta-analysis and cross-disease comparison enabled by the SIAMCAT machine learning toolbox – Jakob Wirbel – Genome Biology

Review: Integrating pan-genome with metagenome for microbial community profiling – Chaofang Zhong – Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

Connecting structure to function with the recovery of over 1000 high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes from activated sludge using long-read sequencing – Caitlin M. Singleton – Nature Communications

Evaluation of the effects of library preparation procedure and sample characteristics on the accuracy of metagenomic profiles – Christopher Gaulke – bioRxiv

Democratising deep learning for microscopy with ZeroCostDL4Mic – Lucas von Chamier – Nature Communications

Webinars

Offered talks on Plasmids and Mobile Elements for 2021 – Plasmids around the globe – International Society for Plasmid Biology and Other Mobile Genetic Elements

Spring 2021 Microbiome Informatics webinars – OSU Center of Microbiome Science

EMBARK Spring Webinars – AMR focused webinars – EMBARK project

BISMiS Live – Microbial taxonomy: where are we now and where are we going? Iain Sutcliffe – Bergey’s Intl. Society for Microbial Systematics; registration here

Berkeley Lab Live Science – Exploring Earth – Berkeley Lab – April 23

Conferences

ISAPP 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting – International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics – June 1–2

Courses

Open Online R Stream – Wolfgang Viechtbauer

RaukR: Advanced R for Bioinformatics Summer School – NBIS/SciLifeLab – June 14-24