Category Archives: Microbes in the News

August 27, 2016

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Gut microbiome in pre-Columbian mummies, spacecraft assembly cleanrooms, smokeless tobacco products, time series data, and a return of the Musical Microbes.

Human skin microbiome

Skin fungal community and its correlation with bacterial community of urban Chinese individuals – Marcus H. Y. Leung – Microbiome

Human oral microbiome

High-throughput quantitative method for assessing coaggregation among oral bacterial species – E. Levin-Sparenberg – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Taxonomic and predicted metabolic profiles of the human gut microbiome in pre-Columbian mummies – Tasha M. Santiago-Rodriguez – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Note: unclear definition of “redemption”; means that a medication prescription was filled. Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Treatment and Subsequent Childhood Type 1 Diabetes: A Nationwide Danish Cohort Study – Tine D. Clausen – PLOS ONE

Animal experiments

Impact of dietary fibre:starch ratio in shaping caecal archaea revealed in rabbits – Y. Zhu – Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Endolithic microbial diversity in sandstone and granite from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica – Stephen D. J. Archer – Polar Biology

Dry Season Constrains Bacterial Phylogenetic Diversity in a Semi-Arid Rhizosphere System – Rodrigo Gouvêa Taketani – Microbial Ecology

Review: Bacteria in decomposing wood and their interactions with wood-decay fungi – Sarah R. Johnston – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Water microbiome

Multitaxon activity profiling reveals differential microbial response to reduced seawater pH and oil pollution – Francisco J. R. C. Coelho – Molecular Ecology

High-throughput metabarcoding of eukaryotic diversity for environmental monitoring of offshore oil-drilling activities – Anders Lanzén – Molecular Ecology

Microbial source tracking in impaired watersheds using PhyloChip and machine-learning classification – Eric A. Dubinsky – Water Research

Spacecraft microbiome

Functional metagenomics of spacecraft assembly cleanrooms: Presence of virulence factors associated with human pathogens – Mina Bashir – Frontiers in Microbiology

Tobacco microbiome

Bacterial Populations Associated with Smokeless Tobacco Products – Jing Han – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Bacteria in smokeless tobacco products may be a health concern – American Society for Microbiology
http://www.asm.org/index.php/journal-press-releases/94525-bacteria-in-smokeless-tobacco-products-may-be-a-health-concern
Proteomics

Development of an Integrated Pipeline for Profiling Microbial Proteins from Mouse Fecal Samples by LC-MS/MS – Jing Wu – Journal of Proteome Research

Bioinformatics, metagenomics, and statistics

Modeling time-series data from microbial communities – Benjamin J Ridenhour – bioRxiv

Improving ancient DNA genome assembly – Alexander Seitz – PeerJ Preprint

More microbiology

The Musical Microbes are back! Influence of a mono-frequency sound on bacteria can be a function of the sound-level – Vijay Kothari – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

Focus: California drought reducing beach bacteria: Reduced runoff has meant fewer health advisories, data show – Daniel Wheaton – San Diego Union Tribune
Mystery Solved: How Lyme Disease Bacteria Spread Around the Body – Rachael Rettner – LiveScience

In sub-Saharan Africa, cancer can be an infectious disease – ScienceDaily

#BacteriaHysteria: You Should Never Ask For a Slice Of Lemon In Your Drink – Alice Sholl – Yahoo

Science, publishing, and career

There Was A Huge Outpouring Of Support For This Little Girl Who Got Bullied For Loving Bugs. Let Sophia play with her bugs! – Ishmael N. Daro – BuzzFeed

August 26, 2016

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MRI scans of colonic contents in setting of diet or defaecation, fecal transplants, the microbiome of ambulances, and a core taxa tool.

Pregnancy and birth

Longitudinal study on clinical and microbial analysis of periodontal status in pregnancy – Fernanda Campos Machado – Brazilian Oral Research

Review: Role of microbiota function during early life and children neurodevelopment – Tomás Cerdó – Trends in Food Science & Technology

Human oral microbiome (also see above)

Evaluation of oral microbiota in undernourished and eutrophic children using checkerboard DNA-DNA hybridization – M. Testa – Anaerobe

Review: Human neutrophils and oral microbiota: a constant tug-of-war between a harmonious and a discordant coexistence – Silvia M. Uriarte – Immunological Reviews

Human skin microbiome

Temporal stability in chronic wound microbiota is associated with poor healing – Michael Loesche – Journal of Investigative Dermatology

Human gut microbiome

Colonic content: effect of diet, meals, and defecation – R. A. Bendezú – Neurogastroenterology & Motility

Gut microbiota associated with HIV infection is significantly enriched in bacteria tolerant to oxygen – Grégory Dubourg – BMJ Open Gastroenterology

Prevalence and genetic diversity of Blastocystis in family units living in the United States – Pauline D. Scanlan – Infection, Genetics and Evolution

Nitrogen fixation and nifH diversity in human gut microbiota – Katsura Igai – Scientific Reports

Letter: Intestinal Microbiota and Health of Adults Who Were Born by Cesarean Delivery – James J. Goedert – JAMA Pediatrics

Opinion: The microbiome, microbial generated pro-inflammatory neurotoxins, and Alzheimer’s disease – Walter J. Lukiw – Journal of Sport and Health Science

Review: Estrogen and Microbiota Crosstalk: Should We Pay Attention? – Karen L. Chen – Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism

Review: Gender, aging and longevity in humans: an update of an intriguing/neglected scenario paving the way to a gender-specific medicine – Rita Ostan – Clinical Science

Fecal transplants

Estimating the risks of faecal transplants – K. Patel – The Journal of Hospital Infection

Effect of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation on Recurrence in Multiply Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection: A Randomized Trial – Colleen R. Kelly – Annals of Internal Medicine

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi communities from tropical Africa reveal strong ecological structure – Susana Rodríguez-Echeverría – New Phytologist

Gall-ID: tools for genotyping gall-causing phytopathogenic bacteria – Edward W. Davis II – PeerJ

Water microbiome

Structure and function of methanogenic microbial communities in sediments of Amazonian lakes with different water types – Yang Ji – Environmental Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Detection and characterization of surface microbial contamination in emergency ambulances – Aketza Varona-Barquin – American Journal of Infection Control

Fitness and recovery of bacterial communities and antibiotic resistance genes in urban wastewaters exposed to classical disinfection treatments – Andrea Di Cesare – Environmental Science & Technology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

PhyloCore: A phylogenetic approach to identifying core taxa in microbial communities – Tiantian Ren – Gene

Microbes in the news

Gut reaction: the surprising power of microbes – Ed Yong – The Guardian

Want to feel better? Be kind to your bugs. Ed Yong’s new book will give you a positive outlook on your body’s trillions of bacteria – Kate Womersley – The Spectator

The world’s largest bacterial study of baby poo – MedicalXpress

What’s in Your Poo? The nonmicrobial components of feces may have important consequences as we try to grapple with microbiome research – Kevin Bonham – Scientific American

Solving a 48-year-old mystery: scientists succeed at growing noroviruses in human intestinal cell cultures in the lab – Graciela Gutierrez – Baylor College of Medicine

MSU researchers spread the buzz about bee viruses – Marshall Swearingen – Montana State University

Science, publishing, and career

Family ties ‘help scientists to get ahead’ in some countries. Levels of nepotism in scientific publishing have been revealed by report – Jack Grove  – Times Higher Education

Supervisors can do a lot more to support PhD students. Many doctoral candidates feel poorly looked after. More awareness and empathy from academics can help fight that – Geoffrey Cantor – Times Higher Education

New leader of NIH’s research watchdog faces staff revolt – Jocelyn Kaiser – Science

August 23, 2016

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The bagpipe microbiome, antibiotic disturbance and diabetes risk, tubeworm metamorphosis, and immune tolerance to intestinal bacteria.

Jobs

Assistant or Associate Professor in Immunology (Tenure Track), Division of Immunology of the Department of Microbiology & Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Assistant/Associate/Professor of Microbiology and Infectious Disease, Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, TN

Respiratory microbiome

Bagpipe lung; a new type of interstitial lung disease? – Jenny King – Thorax

Human gut microbiome / bioinformatics

Bioinformatics support for the Tübiom community gut microbiome project – Sina Beier- PeerJ Preprint

Review: Eosinophils, probiotics, and the microbiome – Helene F. Rosenberg – Journal of Leukocyte Biology

Animal experiments

Antibiotic-mediated gut microbiome perturbation accelerates development of type 1 diabetes in mice – Alexandra E. Livanos – Nature Microbiology

Antibiotic Therapy During Infancy Increases Type 1 Diabetes Risk in Mice – Alison F. Takemura – The Scientist

Life Inside an Acorn: How Microclimate and Microbes Influence Nest Organization in Temnothorax Ants – Joseph Karlik – Ethology

Stepwise metamorphosis of the tubeworm Hydroides elegans is mediated by a bacterial inducer and MAPK signaling – Nicholas J. Shikuma – PNAS

Strange experiment: Gut microbiota can transfer fiber characteristics and lipid metabolic profiles of skeletal muscle from pigs to germ-free mice – Honglin Yan – Scientific Reports

pH drop impacts differentially skin and gut microbiota of the Amazonian fish tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) – François-Étienne Sylvain – Scientific Reports

Immune tolerance to an intestine-adapted bacteria, Chryseobacterium sp., injected into the hemocoel of Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis – Jiae Lee – Scientific Reports

Alternative for antibiotics: Predatory bacteria are nontoxic to the rabbit ocular surface – Eric G. Romanowski – Scientific Reports

Animal microbiome

Multi-marker metabarcoding of coral skeletons reveals a rich microbiome and diverse evolutionary origins of endolithic algae – Vanessa Rossetto Marcelino – Scientific Reports

Techniques
Common methods for fecal sample storage in field studies yield consistent signatures of individual identity in microbiome sequencing data – Ran Blekhman – Scientific Reports

Microbes in the news

Why We Sit on One Type of Stool but, Ideally, Not on Another – Julie Taylor – uBiome Blog
Gene-modified soil bacteria promise eco-friendly computing. The US Navy is creating nanowires from one of the most renewable resources on the planet – Jon Fingas – EnGadget

Inaugural ACS Infectious Diseases Young Investigator Awards Winners Announced: Audrey Odom, Timothy Wencewicz, Marcos Pires – ACS Axial

Ghent scientist uses bacteria to remove methane from air – Andy Furniere – Flanders Today

Microbes are More Social Than You Think, But Not Always in a Good Way – Jeffrey Marlow – Discover

Science, publishing, and career

More Faculty Diversity, Not on Tenure Track – Colleen Flaherty – InsideHigherEd

 

the Macroscope – a Big Picture view of Planet Earth… articles, essays, and photographs by Jonathan Foley

August 22, 2016

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Human skin microbiome

Cutaneous microbiome effects of fluticasone propionate cream and adjunctive bleach baths in childhood atopic dermatitis – Mercedes E. Gonzalez – Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology

Animal microbiome

Yeasts from the microbiota of bats: a focus on the identification and antimicrobial susceptibility of cryptic species of Candida – Raimunda S. N. Brilhante – Journal of Medical Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Intrinsic factors of Peltigera lichens influence the structure of the associated soil bacterial microbiota – Diego Leiva – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Bacterial succession on decomposing leaf litter exhibits a specific occurrence pattern of cellulolytic taxa and potential decomposers of fungal mycelia – Vojtěch Tláskal – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Local Environmental Factors Drive Divergent Grassland Soil Bacterial Communities in the Western Swiss Alps – Erika Yashiro – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Watershed Assessment with Beach Microbial Source Tracking (MST) and Outcomes of Resulting Gull Management – Kelly D. Goodwin – Environmental Science & Technology

Microbial ecology

The importance of neutral and niche processes for bacterial community assembly differs between habitat generalists and specialists – Jingqiu Liao – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

A scalable assembly-free variable selection algorithm for biomarker discovery from metagenomes – Anestis Gkanogiannis – BMC Bioinformatics

Microbes in the news

The Strange Case of the Butterfly and the Male-Murdering Microbe – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

Bigelow Lab’s role in algae industry is growing – Kevin Miller – Press Herald

Science, publishing, and career

Why academics should make time for social media – Andy Miah – Times Higher Education

Introducing our special section on “The Integrity of Science” – The New Atlantis

August 20, 2016

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Microbial eukaryotes along a pollution gradient, bacteria binding to ice, and testing the neutral theory.

Jobs and events

Assistant Professor in Genomics and Ecology of Microbial Pathogens in Food Systems Department of Food Science & Technology, University of California, Davis (via Jonathan Eisen – MicroBE.net)

Human gut microbiome

Gastrointestinal microbial populations can distinguish pediatric and adolescent Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) at the time of disease diagnosis – Seesandra V. Rajagopala – BMC Genomics

Review: Diet and Gut Microbial Function in Metabolic and Cardiovascular Disease Risk – Katie A. Meyer – Current Diabetes Reports

Review: Other Helicobacters and gastric microbiota – Chloë De Witte – Helicobacter

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Spatial Distribution of Eukaryotic Communities Using High-Throughput Sequencing Along a Pollution Gradient in the Arsenic-Rich Creek Sediments of Carnoulès Mine, France – A. Volant – Microbial Ecology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Putting life on ice: bacteria that bind to frozen water – Maya Bar Dolev – Journal of the Royal Society Interface

Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient – Ryan P. Kelly – PeerJ Preprint

Surveys, simulation and single-cell assays relate function and phylogeny in a lake ecosystem – Sarah P. Preheim – Nature Microbiology

Book: Microbes from Hell: archaea and hyperthermophiles – Patrick Forterre

Drinking water and water treatment microbiology

Elucidation of Taste- and Odor-Producing Bacteria and Toxigenic Cyanobacteria in a Midwestern Drinking Water Supply Reservoir by Shotgun Metagenomic Analysis – Timothy G. Otten – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Elucidating selection processes for antibiotic resistance in sewage treatment plants using metagenomics – Johan Bengtsson-Palme – Science of the Total Environment

Microbial Ecology

Testing the Neutral Theory of Biodiversity with Human Microbiome Datasets – Lianwei Li – Scientific Reports

Review: The Ecology and Evolution of Microbial Competition – Melanie Ghoul – Trends in Microbiology

Microbes in the news

We need to stop sanitizing everything and let bacteria back in our lives – Joselin Linder – New York Post

Bacteria may be key to environmentally friendly extraction of minerals – Angela Kean – S&P Capital IQ

Science, publishing, and career

What lurks in ageing academics’ unvisited personal archives? – Ron Iphofen – Times Higher Education
Army report says science director creating ‘environment of fear’ at USAMRIID – Sylvia Carignan – Frederick News Post

August 19, 2016

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Gingivitis and periodontitis in Malawian cohort, gut Bifidobacteria during aging, picornaviruses in rats from 2 locations.

Jobs and events

QIIME 2 workshop Nov 4-5 (just prior to SSSA meeting) in Phoenix, AZ – Greg Caporaso – Microbe.net

Three postdoctoral researchers and one Ph.D. student: role of microbes in post-fire soil organic matter dynamics – University of Wisconsin-Madison

Human oral microbiome

Distinguishing the Signals of Gingivitis and Periodontitis in Supragingival Plaque: A Cross-Sectional Cohort Study in Malawi – Liam Shaw – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Press: Investigators chart microbial ecology of gingivitis, periodontitis – EurekAlert

Association of metabolic syndrome and chronic periodontitis in Colombians – Adriana Jaramillo – Clinical Oral Investigations

Microbial Signatures of Oral Dysbiosis, Periodontitis and Edentulism Revealed by Gene Meter Methodology – M Colby Hunter – bioRxiv

Human gut microbiome

Review: Gut Bifidobacteria Populations in Human Health and Aging – Silvia Arboleya – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Correlations of host genetic and gut microbiome composition – Krystyna Dabrowska – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Gut Microbiota: a contributing factor to obesity – Steve M. Harakeh – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Animal microbiome

High diversity of picornaviruses in rats from different continents revealed by deep sequencing – Thomas Arn Hansen – Emerging Microbes & Infections

Composition of Ileal Bacterial Community in Grazing Goats Varies across Non-rumination, Transition and Rumination Stages of Life – Jinzhen Jiao – Frontiers in Microbiology

Spatial and temporal dynamics of Pacific oyster hemolymph microbiota across multiple scales – Ana Lokmer – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Unexpectedly high beta-diversity of root-associated fungal communities in the Bolivian Andes – Christopher J. Barnes – Frontiers in Microbiology

Fungal Assemblages in Different Habitats in an Erman’s Birch Forest – Teng Yang – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water microbiome

Chronic Polyaromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) Contamination Is a Marginal Driver for Community Diversity and Prokaryotic Predicted Functioning in Coastal Sediments – Mathilde Jeanbille – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbes in space

The theory and application of space microbiology: China’s experiences in space experiments and beyond – Changting Liu – Environmental Microbiology

Bioreactor microbiology

Colonic Transit Time Is a Driven Force of the Gut Microbiota Composition and Metabolism: In Vitro Evidence – William Tottey – Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility

Bioinformatics

Resolving microbial membership using Abundance and Variability In Taxonomy (‘AVIT ) – Anirikh Chakrabarti – Scientific Reports

Microbes in the news

Trillions of Tiny Dictators. Microbes have taken over our bodies and maybe even our minds. What, exactly, are they? – Emily Willingham – The Wall Street Journal
With a little help from my friends. The microbiome gets a worthy biography – The Economist
Eating Yogurt Is Not Enough: Rebalancing The Ecosystem Of ‘The Microbes Within Us’ – Terry Gross – NPR Fresh Air (Transcript of interview with Ed Yong)

Prebiotics Take Front and Center Stage on the 700 Club – PR NewsWire

Uncovering the female body’s secret protection against HIV – Heather Boerner – PBS Newshour

Scientific Studies Using Mice May Be Hard to Replicate Due to Gut Microbes – Paul Ratner – BigThink

Scientists Investigate How Multidrug-Resistant Pathogens are Brought into Hospitals – SciCasts

MSU team shows biofilm and mineral-producing bacteria have potential for plugging oil and gas leaks – Marshall Swearingen – Montana State University

Montana Officials Close Yellowstone River To Fight Fish-Killing ParasiteMontana Officials Close Yellowstone River To Fight Fish-Killing Parasite – Richard Gonzales – NPR

Science, publishing, and career

Peer Review Week September 2016 #RecognizeReview – Alice Meadows – The Scholarly Kitchen

With Kate Rubins, a former PhD student in our lab: NASA Astronauts Successfully Install New Space Station Docking Port – Samantha Mathewson – Space.com

August 18, 2016

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Human gut microbiome

Aberrant IgA responses to the gut microbiota during infancy precedes asthma and allergy development – Majda Dzidic – The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Plasmid metagenomics reveals multiple antibiotic resistance gene classes among the gut microbiomes of hospitalised patients – Tossawan Jitwasinkul – Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance

Review: The Role of the Microbiome in Gastrointestinal Cancer – Lydia E. Wroblewski – Gastroenterology Clinics of North America

Animal experiments

The Spectrum and Regulatory Landscape of Intestinal Innate Lymphoid Cells Are Shaped by the Microbiome – Meital Gury-BenAri – Cell

Animal microbiome

The Gut Microbiomes of Two Pachysoma MacLeay Desert Dung Beetle Species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) Feeding on Different Diets – Philippa Z. N. Franzini – PLOS ONE

A different gut microbial community between larvae and adults of a wild bumblebee nest (Bombus pascuorum) – Anneleen Parmentier – Insect Science

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Plant Growth Promotion and Suppression of Bacterial Leaf Blight in Rice by Inoculated Bacteria – Sumera Yasmin – PLOS One

Bioinformatics

NCBI prokaryotic genome annotation pipeline – Tatiana Tatusova – Nucleic Acids Research

More microbiology

Design, synthesis, and testing toward a 57-codon genome – Nili Ostrov – Science

Microbes in the news

New polio cases in Nigeria spur massive response – Leslie Roberts – Science

Science, publishing, and career

This woman may know a secret to saving the brain’s synapses – Emily Underwood – Science

 

August 17, 2016

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Beneficial bacteria in the nose suppress pathogenic bacteria,  gut microbiome and Entamoeba histolytica infection, viromes of the Earth.

Jobs

Assistant/Associate Professor in Microbiology & Immunology, University of Illinois at Chicago – Science Careers

Internship: Coral microbiome under ocean acidification – King Abdullah University of Science and Technology – Saudi Arabia

Pregnancy and birth

Microbiota in Breast Milk of Chinese Lactating Mothers – Olga Sakwinska – PLOS ONE

Human skin microbiome

Review: Factors shaping the composition of the cutaneous microbiota – K. Szabó – British Journal of Dermatology

Human respiratory microbiome

Staphylococcus aureus Shifts toward Commensalism in Response to Corynebacterium Species – Matthew M. Ramsey – Frontiers in Microbiology

Press: New findings detail how beneficial bacteria in the nose suppress pathogenic bacteria– Science Daily

Human gut microbiome

Disease Severity and Immune Activity Relate to Distinct Interkingdom Gut Microbiome States in Ethnically Distinct Ulcerative Colitis Patients – Jordan S. Mar – mBio

Stool microbiome reveals diverse bacterial ureases as confounders of oral urea breath testing for Helicobacter pylori and Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Bamako, Mali – Mamoudou Maiga – Journal of Breath Research

Review: Antibiotics as deep modulators of gut microbiota: between good and evil – Gianluca Ianiro – Gut

Review: The Intestinal Bacterial Microbiome and E. histolytica Infection – Stacey L. Burgess – Curr Trop Med Reports

Review: The microbiome and immune regulation after transplantation – Tabibian, James H. – Transplantation

Review: Experimental design considerations in microbiota/inflammation studies – Robert J Moore – Clin Transl Immunology

Animal experiments

Wolbachia Endosymbionts Modify Drosophila Ovary Protein Levels in a Context-Dependent Manner – Steen Christensen – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Composition of the Cockroach Gut Microbiome in the Presence of Parasitic Nematodes – Cláudia S. L. Vicente – Microbes and Environments

Animal microbiome

Link of a ubiquitous human coronavirus to dromedary camels – Victor M. Corman – PNAS

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Changes in the composition of the RNA virome mark evolutionary transitions in green plants – Arcady Mushegian – BMC Biology

Review: Identifying the role of soil microbes in plant invasions – Wayne Dawson – Journal of Ecology

Water microbiome

Uncovering Earth’s virome – David Paez-Espino – Nature

Press: Unveiled: Earth’s Viral Diversity. Environmental datasets help researchers double the number of microbial phyla known to be infected by viruses.- Joint Genome Institute
Researchers complete unprecedented study of the global virome – Katherine Lindemann – Research Gate Blog

290 Metagenome-assembled Genomes from the Mediterranean Sea: Ongoing Effort to Generate Genomes from the Tara Oceans Dataset – Benjamin J Tully – bioRxiv

The Microbiome and Mental Health: Looking Back, Moving Forward with Lessons from Allergic Diseases – Alan C. Logan

Extremophile microbiome

Yeasts from macroalgae and lichens that inhabit the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica –
Alysson Wagner Fernandes Duarte – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Comparison of bacterial genome assembly software for MinION data and their applicability to medical microbiology – Kim Judge – Microbial Genomics

Fast comparison of genomic and meta-genomic reads with alignment-free measures based on quality values – Matteo Comin – BMC Medical Genomics

Gifted microbes for genome mining and natural product discovery – Richard H. Baltz – Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Microbial Ecology

Biodiversity at multiple trophic levels is needed for ecosystem multifunctionality – Santiago Soliveres – Nature

Extrapolating abundance curves has no predictive power for estimating microbial biodiversity – Amy Willis – PNAS

Synergistic elimination of bacteria by phage and the immune system – Chung Yin (Joey) Leung – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

The Counterintuitive Way That Microbes Survive in Antarctica – And what it could mean for the search for life on other worlds – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

Human Cells Make Up Only Half Our Bodies. A New Book Explains Why – Jonathan Weiner – New York Times

Journalist Edmund Soon-Weng Yong awarded 2016 Byron H. Waksman Award for excellence in the public communication of Life Sciences – NewsWise

Mouse microbes may make scientific studies harder to replicate – Kelly Servick – Science Mag

Biome, Genome, Microbiome…Houdinisome? – Jason Tetro – Germ Guy

Tiny Stanford invention purifies water in minutes using the sun – CNET

The importance of quality pre-analytical factors and their impact on microbiome analysis – Lisa Gamwell – DNA Genotek’s Microbiome Collection and Stabilization Blog

Behind paywall: Brazilian Researchers Profile Microbiome of Rio Before, During, After Olympic Games – Genome Web
Rio 2016 organizers are confident everything is fine. I’m not reassured – Sally Jenkins – Washington Post

Science, publishing, and career

Stanford programs prepare underrepresented high schoolers for careers in science, engineering and medicine – Victoria Chesley – Stanford News

August 13, 2016

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Fracking, floating islands and a multivariate statistical framework.

Human respiratory microbiome

Editorial: Another piece in the ‘research mosaic’ that describes the role of the lung microbiome in COPD – Gary B Huffnagle – Thorax

Review: Toward revision of antimicrobial therapies in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: target the pathogens, but protect the indigenous microbiota – Alexander Khoruts – Translational Research

Human urinary tract microbiome

Note: no mention of extraction controls. Does the Urinary Microbiome Play a Role in Urgency Urinary Incontinence and Its Severity? – Lisa Karstens – Frontiers in Cellular Infection Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Review: Gut Microbiota: Modulation of Host Physiology in Obesity – Vandana Nehra – Physiology

Close encounters of the type‐six kind: injected bacterial toxins modulate gut microbial composition – Martina Sassone‐Corsi – EMBO Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Floating islands: Metagenomic approach to characterize soil microbial diversity of Phumdi at Loktak Lake – Sampada Puranik – Water Science & Technology

Hydraulic fracturing offers view of microbial life in the deep terrestrial subsurface – Paula J. Mouser – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Isolation studies reveal a shift in the cultivable microbiome of oak affected with Acute Oak Decline – Sandra Denman – Systematic and Applied Microbiology

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities in forest plant roots are simultaneously shaped by host characteristics and canopy-mediated light availability – Kadri Koorem – Plant and Soil

Soil and plant components ecological stoichiometry in four steppe communities in the Loess Plateau of China – Quanchao Zeng – CATENA

Effect of cobalt and silver nanoparticles and ions on Lumbricus rubellus health and on microbial community of earthworm faeces and soil – Livia Vittori Antisari – Applied Soil Ecology

Bioreactor microbiology

Engineering artificial communities for enhanced FTOH degradation – Matthew Lewis – Science of the Total Environment

Metagenomics, phages and viruses, bioinformatics

Metagenomic recovery of phage genomes of uncultured freshwater actinobacteria – Rohit Ghai – The ISME Journal

MixMC: A Multivariate Statistical Framework to Gain Insight into Microbial Communities – Kim-Anh Lê Cao – PLOS ONE

Book: Algorithms in Bioinformatics. 16th International Workshop, WABI 2016, Aarhus, Denmark, August 22-24, 2016. Proceedings
Better Identification of Repeats in Metagenomic Scaffolding – Jay Ghurye –
Compact Universal k-mer Hitting Sets – Yaron Orenstein

Proteomics

Review: Environmental Microbial Community Proteomics: Status, Challenges and Perspectives – Da-Zhi Wang – Int J Mol Sci

Microbes in the news

Saving antibiotics for when they are really needed: the Dutch example – Tony Sheldon – BMJ

Could friendly bacteria be used to treat cancer? – Paul Dyson – The Conversation

August 12, 2016

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On vacation, so here is a short and late Digest for you: Metabolomics of preterm birth, mouse gut bacteria collection, bacteria associated with mosses.

Pregnancy and birth

Use of metabolomics for the identification and validation of clinical biomarkers for preterm birth: Preterm SAMBA – Jose G. Cecatti – BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth

Animal microbiome

The Mouse Intestinal Bacterial Collection (miBC) provides host-specific insight into cultured diversity and functional potential of the gut microbiota – Ilias Lagkouvardos – Nature Microbiology

First public collection of bacteria from the intestine of mice. Mouse gut bacteria find a new home – Science Daily

Environment shapes the fecal microbiome of invasive carp species – Jessica J. Eichmiller – Microbiome

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Comparative analysis of bacteria associated with different mosses by 16S rRNA and 16S rDNA sequencing – Yang Tian – Journal of Basic Microbiology

Water microbiome

A metabolomics guided exploration of marine natural product chemical space – Dimitrios J. Floros – Metabolomics

Bioreactor microbiome

Unraveling the microbiome of a thermophilic biogas plant by metagenome and metatranscriptome analysis complemented by characterization of bacterial and archaeal isolates – Irena Maus – Biotechnology for Biofuels

Food microbiology

Vegemite Beer: yeast extract spreads as nutrient supplements to promote fermentation – Edward D. Kerr – PeerJ

Microbial Ecology and other

Compartmentalization in PVC super-phylum: evolution and impact – Sandrine Pinos – Biology Direct

Conflicts over host manipulation between different parasites and pathogens: Investigating the ecological and medical consequences – Nina Hafer – BioEssays

Microbes in the news

Soil Has a Microbiome, too. The unique mix of microbes in soil has a profound effect on which plants thrive and which ones die – Carrie Arnold – Smithsonian

Gut bacteria have own circadian clock – MedicalXpress

Not your momma’s microbe lab: a new genetic engineering machine takes microbial design to the masses – Casey Gilman – Philly.com

How brushing your teeth could prevent cancer: Twice daily scrub reduces bacteria linked to bowel tumours – Colin Fernandez – Daily Mail

Picture of the day: Metal-oxidizing bacteria from a gold mine – Science 360

Attendee Shares Experience from DDW® 2016 Active Learning Session on the Gut Microbiome – Gasto.org

Science, publishing, and career

The manterruption is real. Why Women Talk Less Than Men at Work – Alicia Adamczyk – Time / Money Magazine

Satire: First Draft of Peer-Review Rebuttal Just Says “Fuck Off” – The Allium