May 11, 2016

Microbiomes in low-income human habitats, graph mining for sequence datasets, and a PhD Comics video on the microbiome.

Events

The Barcelona Debates on The Human Microbiome – June 30th and July 1st, 2016 – Barcelona

2016 Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages Meeting in Madison, Wisconsin – August 8-12

General microbiome

Book: Microbiota of the Human Body – Implications in Health and Disease – Editor: Andreas Schwiertz – Springer

Human skin microbiome

Analysis of Facial Implants for Bacterial Biofilm Formation Using Scanning Electron Microscopy – Thomas J. Walker – JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery

Human gut microbiome

Interconnected microbiomes and resistomes in low-income human habitats – Erica C. Pehrsson – Nature

Review: The human gut microbiota and its interactive connections to diet – C. Milani – Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics

Editorial: The Bugs Within Our Body: The Human Microbiota – DJ Philpott – Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Fate of classical faecal bacterial markers and ampicillin-resistant bacteria in agricultural soils under Mediterranean climate after urban sludge amendment – Clarissa Gondim-Porto – Science of the Total Environment

Survival trade-offs in plant roots during colonization by closely related beneficial and pathogenic fungi – Stéphane Hacquard – Nature Communications

Gypsum amendment to rice paddy soil stimulated bacteria involved in sulfur cycling but largely preserved the phylogenetic composition of the total bacterial community – Susanne Wörner – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Built environment microbiome

Interconnected microbiomes and resistomes in low-income human habitats – Erica C. Pehrsson – Nature

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Graph mining for next generation sequencing: leveraging the assembly graph for biological insights – Julia Warnke-Sommer – BMC Genomics

More microbiology

Phenotypic heterogeneity driven by nutrient limitation promotes growth in fluctuating environments – Frank Schreiber – Nature Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Video: The Hidden World of Microbiomes – PhD Comics

Microbiome Monday: What Are You Made Of? – American Museum of Natural History

How dust from the Sahara fuels poisonous bacteria blooms in the Caribbean – Sarah Kaplan – Washington Post

UGA study finds Saharan dust affects marine bacteria, potential pathogen Vibrio
Vibrio can cause serious illness in humans, other marine organisms – EurekAlert

Thank Me Later: New Planet-Saving Bacteria Eats Switchgrass, Makes Biofuel – Tina Casey – Clean Technica

Game-Changing Bacteria Transmits Tuberculosis Through the Skin – HCP Live

Narrow spectrum antibiotic kills pathogens without killing good bacteria – EurekAlert

Dr Paul Blatchford awarded Emerging Researcher Grant – Press Release: Plant and Food Research

The Eye of a Microbial Camera – Nils Schuergers and Tchern Lenn – Natural History Mag

Science, publishing, and career

There’s a huge gender pay gap for STEM careers — just one year after graduation – Brian Resnick – Vox

Young women in STEM fields earn up to one-third less than men – EurekAlert

Bik’s Non-Microbiology Picks

Coral snakes predict the evolution of mimicry across New World snakes – Alison R. Davis Rabosky – Nature Communications

Meet the scientist debunking every dumb food myth on the internet
For every pseudoscientific blog parroting the latest trend, Yvette d’Entremont has a fact-based response – Diana Duong – Chatelaine

Is it safe to eat a newspaper? A Washington Post columnist is about to find out – Damian Garde – STAT news

May 10, 2016, 2nd edition

Nitrate and oral microcosms, microbial tryptophan metabolism effects on astrocytes, creating germ free plants, a systematic review of the (lack of) effect of probiotics on the gut microbiome, and a phage/host prediction tool.

Event

Starts today: Food-Microbiome Interaction: Implications for Health & Disease – New York Academy of Sciences and the Quadram Institute at The Royal Society in London

Pregnancy and birth

Prenatal and post-natal exposure to antibiotics and risk of asthma in childhood – J. Metsälä – Clinical & Experimental Allergy

Review: Obesity and overweight: Impact on maternal and milk microbiome and their role for infant health and nutrition – Izaskun Garcia-Mantrana – Molecular Nutrition and Food Research

Human respiratory microbiome

Comparison of two commercial DNA extraction kits for the analysis of nasopharyngeal bacterial communities – Marcos Pérez-Losada – AIMS Microbiology

Human oral microbiome

Nitrate and the Origin of Saliva Influence Composition and Short Chain Fatty Acid Production of Oral Microcosms – Jessica E. Koopman – Microbial Ecology

Human skin microbiome

A systematic review and meta-analysis on Staphylococcus aureus carriage in psoriasis, acne and rosacea – J. E. E. Totté – European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases

Human gut microbiome

Global investigation of composition and interaction networks in gut microbiomes of individuals belonging to diverse geographies and age-groups – Deepak Yadav – Gut Pathogens

Alterations in fecal microbiota composition by probiotic supplementation in healthy adults: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials – Nadja B. Kristensen – Genome Medicine

Tissue Microbiome Profiling Identifies An Enrichment of Specific Enteric Bacteria In Opisthorchis viverrini Associated Cholangiocarcinoma – Kern Rei Chng – EBioMedicine

EditorialTranskingdom interactions: Liver flukes and the microbiota in cancer – Lisa Osborne – EBioMedicine

Review: Could physical exercise help modulate the gut microbiota in chronic kidney disease? – Marta Esgalhado – Future Microbiology

Review: The Gut Microbiota and Immune System Relationship in Human Graft-versus-Host Disease – Lucrezia Laterza – Mediterranean Journal of Hematology and Infectious Diseases

Review: Gut Immunity and Type 1 Diabetes: a Mélange of Microbes, Diet, and Host Interactions? – David Endesfelder – Current Diabetes Reports

Animal experiments

Rumen and Cecum Microbiomes in Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) Are Changed in Response to a Lichen Diet and May Affect Enteric Methane Emissions – Alejandro Salgado-Flores – PLOS ONE

Specific microbiome-dependent mechanisms underlie the energy harvest efficiency of ruminants – Sheerli Kruger Ben Shabat – The ISME Journal

Book Chapter: Germ-Free Mice Model for Studying Host–Microbial Interactions – Yogesh Bhattarai – Mouse Models for Drug Discovery – Springer

Animal microbiome

Review: Bioprospecting Sponge-Associated Microbes for Antimicrobial Compounds – Anak Agung Gede Indraningrat – Marine Drugs

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Wheat seed embryo excision enables the creation of axenic seedlings and Koch’s postulates testing of putative bacterial endophytes – Rebekah J. Robinson – Scientific Reports

Evidence of novel plant-species specific ammonia oxidizing bacterial clades in acidic South African fynbos soils – Jean-Baptiste Ramond – Journal of Basic Microbiology

Plants of the Fynbos biome harbour host species-specific bacterial communities – Tsakani Miyambo – FEMS Microbiology Letters

Extremophile microbiome

In situ hydrogen dynamics in a hot spring microbial mat during a diel cycle – Niels Peter Revsbech – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Metabolomics

Type I interferons and microbial metabolites of tryptophan modulate astrocyte activity and central nervous system inflammation via the aryl hydrocarbon receptor – Veit Rothhammer – Nature Medicine

CARD9 impacts colitis by altering gut microbiota metabolism of tryptophan into aryl hydrocarbon receptor ligands – Bruno Lamas – Nature Medicine

Review: Urolithins, the rescue of ‘old’ metabolites to understand a ‘new’ concept: metabotypes as a nexus between phenolic metabolism, microbiota dysbiosis and host health status – Francisco A. Tomás-Barberán – Molecular Nutrition & Food Research

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Improved metagenome assemblies and taxonomic binning using long-read circular consensus sequence data – J. A. Frank – Scientific Reports

OrfM: A fast open reading frame predictor for metagenomic data – Ben J. Woodcroft – Bioinformatics

Phages and viruses

HostPhinder: A Phage Host Prediction Tool – Julia Villarroel – MDPI Viruses

More microbiology

Nonclinical Safety Assessment of SYN-004: An Oral β-lactamase for the Protection of the Gut Microbiome From Disruption by Biliary-Excreted, Intravenously Administered Antibiotics – John F. Kokai-Kun – International Journal of Toxicology

Rapid identification of health care–associated infections with an integrated fluorescence anisotropy system – Ki Soo Park – Science Advances

In situ real-time evaluation of radiation-responsive promoters in the extremely radioresistant microbe Deinococcus radiodurans – Narasimha Anaganti – Journal of Biosciences

Microbes in the news

Stool Bank OpenBiome Is Expanding to Somerville. The bank wants more Boston-area residents to donate – Jamie Ducharme

Do probiotics have an effect on healthy adults? It’s too early to tell – EurekAlert

The Microbiome in Pediatric Rheumatic Diseases – Matthew Stoll – The Rheumatologist

May 3, 2016

Counting the microbial species on Earth, goat rumen microbiome development, red kangaroos who died a tragic death, fungi in burgundy vineyards, Archaea in  Yellowstone, and image irregularities at a Pfizer lab in La Jolla.

Jobs and Events

Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunity: Microbiology of the Built Environment – Sloan Foundation

Bioinformatics for the Microbiome, May 27 – Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine, $49

General microbiology

Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity: Earth is home to as many as 1 trillion (10exp12) microbial species – Kenneth J. Locey – PNAS

Pregnancy and birth

Impact of Prematurity and Perinatal Antibiotics on the Developing Intestinal Microbiota: A Functional Inference Study – Silvia Arboleya – MDPI International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Review: Young microbes for adult obesity – M. Serino – Pediatric Obesity

Review: Microbial therapeutic interventions – Nicole G. Grady – Seminars in Fetal and Neonatal Medicine

Human oral microbiome

Microbiome of Deep Dentinal Caries Lesions in Teeth with Symptomatic Irreversible Pulpitis – Isabela N. Rôças – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory tract microbiome

Nasopharyngeal Microbiota, Host Transcriptome and Disease Severity in Children with Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection – Wouter A.A. de Steenhuijsen Piters – Am J Respir Crit Care Med.

Human reproductive tract microbiome

Detection of DNA viruses in prostate cancer – Vitaly Smelov – Scientific Reports

Human gut microbiome

Effect of probiotic yoghurt on animal-based diet-induced change in gut microbiota: an open, randomised, parallel-group study – T. Odamaki – Beneficial Microbes

Fecal microbiota transplant for Clostridium difficile infection in older adults – William M. Tauxe – Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology

Review: Fine-tuning of the mucosal barrier and metabolic systems using the diet-microbial metabolite axis – Motoyoshi Nagai – International Immunopharmacology

Review: Gut Microbiome in CKD: challenges and opportunities – Anitha Nallu – Translational Research

Editorial: Transplanting a Microbial Organ: the Good, the Bad, and the Unknown – Dionysios A. Antonopoulos – mBio

Animal models
A polyphenol-rich fraction obtained from table grapes decreases adiposity, insulin resistance and markers of inflammation and impacts gut microbiota in high-fat-fed mice – Brian Collins – The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry

Diet-induced obesity, energy metabolism and gut microbiota in C57BL/6J mice fed Western diets based on lean seafood or lean meat mixtures – Jacob Bak Holm – The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry

Colonic Inflammation Accompanies An Increase of β-Catenin Signaling and Lachnospiraceae/Streptococcaceae in the Hind Gut of High-Fat Diet-Fed Mice – Huawei Zeng – The FASEB Journal

Gut commensal Bacteroides acidifaciens prevents obesity and improves insulin sensitivity in mice – J-Y Yang – Mucosal Immunology

Composition and Predicted Metabolic Capacity of Upper and Lower Airway Microbiota of Healthy Dogs in Relation to the Fecal Microbiota – Aaron C. Ericsson – PLOS ONE

Cultivation and qPCR Detection of Pathogenic and Antibiotic-Resistant Bacterial Establishment in Naive Broiler Houses – J. P. Brooks – Journal of Environmental Quality

Exploring the Goat Rumen Microbiome from Seven Days to Two Years – Lizhi Wang – PLOS ONE

Bacteriocin from epidemic Listeria strains alters the host intestinal microbiota to favor infection – Juan J. Quereda – PNAS

Animal microbiome

Spatial dynamics of the bacterial community structure in the gastrointestinal tract of red kangaroo (Macropus rufus) – Meirong Li – World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Assessment of Bacterial Communities in Thirteen Species of Laboratory-Cultured Domestic Mites (Acari: Acaridida) – Jan Hubert – Journal of Economic Entomology

Bacterial community in Haemaphysalis ticks of domesticated animals from the Orang Asli communities in Malaysia – Jing-Jing Khoo – Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases

Metabolomics of reef benthic interactions reveals a bioactive lipid involved in coral defence – Robert A. Quinn – Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Taxonomic and functional diversity of the culturable microbiomes of epigeic earthworms and their prospects in agriculture – Arjun Singh – Journal of Basic Microbiology

Methanogen Diversity in Indigenous and Introduced Ruminant Species on the Tibetan Plateau – Xiao Dan Huang – Archaea

Horse Species Symposium abstracts: Journal of Animal Science
Recent advances in the microbiome and physiology of the hindgut of the horse and dog – F. Camargo
Canine intestinal microbiology and metagenomics: From phylogeny to function – B. C. Guard – Journal of Animal Science
The microbiome of the horse hindgut: History and current knowledge – V. Julliand

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Bacterial diversity and composition in major fresh produce growing soils affected by physiochemical properties and geographic locations – Jincai Ma – Science of the Total Environment

Microbial diversity limits soil heterotrophic respiration and mitigates the respiration response to moisture increase – Fen-Guo Zhang – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Total and active microbial communities and phoD as affected by phosphate depletion and pH in soil – Sabine A. Ragot – Plant and Soil

Genetically modified WYMV-resistant wheat exerts little influence on rhizosphere microbial communities – Zhenhua Zhang – Applied Soil Ecology

Loss of testate amoeba functional diversity with increasing frost intensity across a continental gradient reduces microbial activity in peatlands – Vincent E.J. Jassey – European Journal of Protistology

Regional-scale analysis of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: the case of burgundy vineyards – Marie-Lara Bouffaud – Oeno One

Review: Role of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria in Agricultural Sustainability—A Review – Pravin Vejan – MDPI Molecules

Chapter: Mycorrhizas in Agroecosystems – Marcela C. Pagano – Recent Advances on Mycorrhizal Fungi

Water and extremophile microbiome

Next-Generation Sequencing Assessment of Eukaryotic Diversity in Oil Sands Tailings Ponds Sediments and Surface Water – Maria Aguilar – The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology

Drift in ocean currents impacts intergenerational microbial exposure to temperature – Martina A. Doblin – PNAS

Low Genome Content Diversity of Marine Planktonic Thaumarchaeota – Haiwei Luo – Environmental Microbiology Reports

The distribution, diversity and function of predominant Thermoproteales in high-temperature environments of Yellowstone National Park – Zackary J. Jay – Environmental Microbiology

Multidrug resistance phenotypes are widespread over different bacterial taxonomic groups thriving in surface water – Carlos Narciso-da-Rocha – Science of the Total Environment

A 150-year record of phytoplankton 1 community succession controlled by hydroclimatic variability in a tropical lake – Kweku Afrifa Yamoah – Biogeosciences

Review: Hydrothermal Vents and Methane Seeps: Rethinking the Sphere of Influence – Lisa A. Levin – Frontiers in Marine Science

ReviewMicrobial associations with macrobiota in coastal ecosystems: patterns and implications for nitrogen cycling – Orissa M Moulton – Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

Book: Biotechnology of Extremophile – Springer

Waste and pollution microbiology

Revealing colonisation and biofilm formation of an adherent coal seam associated microbial community on a coal surface – Silas H.W. Vick – International Journal of Coal Geology

Enhanced Degradation of Diesel in the Rhizosphere of Lupinus luteus after Inoculation with Diesel-Degrading and Plant Growth-Promoting Bacterial Strains – María Balseiro-Romero – Journal of Environmental Quality

Built environment microbiology

Urban Microbiomes and Urban Agriculture: What Are the Connections and Why Should We Care? – Gary M. King – Sowing Seeds in the City

Bioinformatics, transcriptomics, metagenomics

rnaQUAST: a quality assessment tool for de novo transcriptome assemblies – Elena Bushmanova – Bioinformatics

Feature: Microbiology: the road to strain-level identification – Vivien Marx – Nature Methods

Protocol BookData Mining Techniques for the Life Sciences – Springer
Bacterial Genomic Data Analysis in the Next-Generation Sequencing Era – Massimiliano Orsini
Update on Genomic Databases and Resources at the National Center for Biotechnology Information – Tatiana Tatusova
Big Data, Evolution, and Metagenomes: Predicting Disease from Gut Microbiota Codon Usage Profiles – Maja Fabijanić

More microbiology

Riches of phenotype computationally extracted from microbial colonies – Tzu-Yu Liu – PNAS

Microbes in the news

UB’s microbiome hunters. These are exciting times at UB as its work on the human genome and microbiome matures. – Research Foundation for The State University of New York

Video: How Your City Has Its Own Unique Microbiome – Discovery News – YouTube

Wrapping up multiple sclerosis at UCSF – Claire Conway – UC San Francisco

Stalking Cave Bacteria to Make Secret Weapons Against Superbugs: Dr. Naowarat Cheeptham – Sam Grobart – Bloomberg

Seres Therapeutics Announces Achievement of Target Enrollment of SER-109 Phase 2 Study for the Prevention of Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection – Business Wire

Bacteria use traffic-cop-like mechanism to infect gutWSU scientists discover mechanism critical to pathogens’ success – EurekAlert

Tesla’s Bioweapon Defense Mode can protect you from bacteria, and reduce pollution
Cars. Tesla’s AC unit is available on the Model X and the new Model S – Alphr

Bacteria Hysteria

This odor-fighting, bacteria-killing underwear is made with pure silver – Christian de Looper – Yahoo Digital Trends
Millions of people are drinking mold and bacteria with their coffee. This is how to avoid it! – David Wolfe

Science, publishing and career

Image integrity concerns in papers from a Pfizer lab – Leonid Schneider – For Better Science

May 1, 2016

Events

Bioinformatics for the Microbiome – Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine – May 27, 2016

General microbiome

Microbiome sequencing: challenges and opportunities for molecular medicine – Thomas Clavel – Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics

Human skin microbiome

An In vitro Model for Bacterial Growth on Human Stratum Corneum – Danique A. van der Krieken – Acta Dermato-Venereologica

Human respiratory microbiome

Launching into the Deep: Does the Pulmonary Microbiota Promote Chronic Lung Inflammation and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Pathogenesis? – Marc A. Sze – American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

Human gut microbiome

Targeting the gut to protect the bladder: Oral Phage therapy approaches against urinary Escherichia coli infections? – Harald Brüssow – Environmental Microbiology

Characterization of gut microbiota profiles in coronary artery disease patients using data mining analysis of terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism: gut microbiota could be a diagnostic marker of coronary artery disease – Takuo Emoto – Heart and Vessels

Review: Gut microbiota: an Indicator to Gastrointestinal Tract Diseases – Trupti Patel – Journal of Gastrointestinal Cancer

Review: Gut microbiome and kidney disease: a bidirectional relationship – Souhaila Al Khodor – Pediatric Nephrology

Animal models

Akkermansia Muciniphila Protects Against Atherosclerosis by Preventing Metabolic Endotoxemia-Induced Inflammation in Apoe-/- Mice – Jin Li – Circulation

The effects of maternal and post-weaning diet on gut microbiota and glucose metabolism in mice offspring – Jia Zheng – Bioscience Reports

Effect of Dietary Starch Source and Concentration on Equine Fecal Microbiota – Brittany E. Harlow – PLOS ONE

Faecal bacterial composition in dairy cows shedding Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in faeces in comparison with nonshedding cows – Marija Kaevska – Canadian Journal of Microbiology

Molecular exploration of fecal microbiome in quinoa-supplemented obese mice – Jose F. Garcia-Mazcorro – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Lingonberries alter the gut microbiota and prevent low-grade inflammation in high-fat diet fed mice – Lovisa Heyman-Lindén – Food and Nutrition Research

The influence of fishmeal-free diets on microbial communities in Atlantic salmon Salmo salar recirculation aquaculture systems – Victor Schmidt – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Insights into the biodiversity of the gut microbiota of broiler chickens – Leonardo Mancabelli – Environmental Microbiology

Maternal exposure to a Western-style diet causes differences in intestinal microbiota composition and gene expression of suckling mouse pups – Wilma T. Steegenga – Molecular Nutrition & Food Research

Animal microbiome

Environmental filtering decreases with fish development for the assembly of gut microbiota – Qingyun Yan- Environmental Microbiology

Global microbialization of coral reefs – Andreas F. Haas – Nature Microbiology

Comparison of Varroa destructor and Worker Honeybee Microbiota Within Hives Indicates Shared Bacteria – Jan Hubert – Microbial Ecology

Review: Diagnosis and interpretation of intestinal dysbiosis in dogs and cats – Jan Suchodolski – The Veterinary Journal

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Selective isolation of potentially phosphate-mobilizing, biosurfactant-producing and biodegradative bacteria associated with a sub-Arctic, terricolous lichen, Peltigera membranacea – Margrét Auður Sigurbjörnsdóttir – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Soil Protists in Three Neotropical Rainforests are Hyperdiverse and Dominated by Parasites – Frederic Mahe – bioRxiv

Edaphic properties override the influence of crops on the composition of the soil bacterial community in a semiarid agroecosystem – Luke D. Bainard – Applied Soil Ecology

Effects of land use change on the composition of soil microbial communities in a managed subtropical forest – Xiaoping Guo – Forest Ecology and Management

Bioprospecting of Plant Growth Promoting Bacilli and Related Genera Prevalent in Soils of Pristine Sacred Groves: Biochemical and Molecular Approach – Nathaniel A. Lyngwi – PLOS ONE

Aligning molecular studies of mycorrhizal fungal diversity with ecologically important levels of diversity in ecosystems – Ian R Sanders – The ISME Journal

Dynamics of microbial community composition and soil organic carbon mineralization in soil following addition of pyrogenic and fresh organic matter – Thea Whitman – The ISME Journal

Deterministic assembly processes govern bacterial community structure in the Fynbos, South Africa – I. Moroenyane – Microbial Ecology

Plant nitrogen-use strategy as a driver of rhizosphere archaeal and bacterial ammonia oxidiser abundance – Cécile E. Thion – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Ecological restoration alters microbial communities in mine tailings profiles – Yang Li – Scientific Reports

Water and extremophile microbiome

Co-occurrence analysis of microbial taxa in the Atlantic Ocean reveals high connectivity in the free-living bacterioplankton – Mathias Milici – Frontiers in Microbiology

Identification of Free-living and Particle-Associated Microbial Communities Present in Hadal regions of the Mariana Trench – Jonathan Tarn – Frontiers in Microbiology

Variation in coastal Antarctic microbial community composition at sub-mesoscale: spatial distance or environmental filtering? – Mario Moreno-Pino – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Microbial communities and arsenic biogeochemistry at the outflow of an alkaline sulfide-rich hot spring – Zhou Jiang – Scientific Reports

Comparative activity and functional ecology of permafrost soils and lithic niches in a hyper-arid polar desert – J. Goordial – Environmental Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Melding the Old with the New: Trends in Methods Used to Identify, Monitor, and Control Microorganisms on Cultural Heritage Materials – Patricia Sanmartín – Microbial Ecology

Food microbiology

Overlap of spoilage microbiota between meat and meat processing environment in small-scale vs large-scale retail distribution – Giuseppina Stellato – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Fermentative capabilities and volatile compounds produced by Kloeckera/Hanseniaspora and Saccharomyces yeast strains in pure and mixed cultures during Agave tequilana juice fermentation – Ivonne Wendolyne González-Robles – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Pollution and waste microbiology

The effects of salinity on nitrification using halophilic nitrifiers in a Sequencing Batch Reactor treating hypersaline wastewater – Scientific Reports – You-Wei Cui

Metagenomic analysis of rapid gravity sand filter microbial communities suggests novel physiology of Nitrospira spp.– Alejandro Palomo – The ISME Journal

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Metaxa2 Diversity Tools: Easing microbial community analysis with Metaxa2 – Johan Bengtsson-Palme – Ecological Informatics

IPED: a highly efficient denoising tool for Illumina MiSeq Paired-end 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing data – Mohamed Mysara – BMC Bioinformatics

Minireview: Tracking strains in the microbiome: insights from metagenomics and models – Ilana L. Brito – Frontiers in Microbiology

Viruses and phages

Review: Endogenized viral sequences in mammals – Nicholas F. Parrish – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Probiotics

Probiotic Cream: Viability of Probiotic Bacteria and Chemical Characterization – Lutfiye Yilmaz-Ersan – Journal of Food Processing and Preservation

Transcriptomics

Use of Metatranscriptomics in Microbiome Research – Stavros Bashiardes – Bioinform Biol Insights

More microbiology

Complex molecular mixtures under cycling gradients as basis for lifes origins – Bert Poolman – bioRxiv

Phylogenomic analysis of lipid biosynthetic genes of Archaea shed light on the ‘lipid divide’ – Laura Villanueva – Environmental Microbiology

Review: Are you my symbiont? Microbial polymorphic toxins and antimicrobial compounds as honest signals of beneficial symbiotic defensive traits – Kai Hillman – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Findings from the Gut—New Insights into the Human Microbiome – Karen Weintraub – Scientific American

What our gut tells us about the ‘hygiene hypothesis’ – Veronica Meade-Kelly – MedicalXpress

Russian scientists prove Antarctic bacteria brought from other continents – TASS

Beer made from belly button fluff has a bit of the brewer in every glass – Jenni Ryal – Mashable @7centBrewery

Yep, This Brewery Makes Beer Using Bacteria From People’s Belly Buttons: “7 cent Brewery” – Alec MacDonald – Elite Daily

Bacteria from Burning Tree mastodon survived 13,000 years – Laura Arenschield – Dispatch

Echo Bay woman caught harvesting bacteria at gardening event – Jeff Klassen – Soo Today

Weakened coral reefs are facing the threat of algae colonisation – Kemal Atlay – SBS Australia

Junk Food Is Bad For Plants, Too – How a steady diet of fertilizers has turned crops into couch potatoes – Anne Biklé and David R. Montgomery – Nautilus

From running shoes to carbon sinks: four surprising uses for algae – ABC Future Tense

Science, publishing, and career

“Everyone” Downloads Research Papers Illegally – Science magazine just published a great piece on the utility of Sci-Hub. Unfortunately, its defense of its own business model is flawed – Justin Peters – Slate

April 20, 2016

Posting from SJC: The reproductive tract microbiome from heterosexual couples, olfactory epithelium changes in GF mice, and life in the twilight zone.

Jobs

Post doc positions in human microbiome research in the Lynch Lab at #UCSF – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBEnet

Human respiratory microbiome

Culture-Independent Identification of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria in Cystic Fibrosis Respiratory Samples – Lindsay J. Caverly – PLOS ONE

Human reproductive tract microbiome

Rationale and Safety Assessment of a Novel Intravaginal Drug-Delivery System with Sustained DL-Lactic Acid Release, Intended for Long-Term Protection of the Vaginal Microbiome – Hans Verstraelen – PLOS ONE

Bacterial communities in penile skin, male urethra, and vaginas of heterosexual couples with and without bacterial vaginosis – Marcela Zozaya – Microbiome

Human gut microbiome

Review: Antibiotics, obesity and the link to microbes – what are we doing to our children? – Olli Turta – BMC Medicine

Review: Microbiome mediation of infections in the cancer setting – Ying Taur – Genome Medicine

Review: Moody microbes or fecal phrenology: what do we know about the microbiota-gut-brain axis? – Paul Forsythe – BMC Medicine

Animal models

Olfactory epithelium changes in germfree mice – Adrien François – Scientific Reports

Association between Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Gut Microbiota – Yanjie Guo – PLOS ONE

Effect of fidaxomicin versus vancomycin on susceptibility to intestinal colonization with vancomycin-resistant enterococci and Klebsiella pneumoniae in mice – Abhishek Deshpande – Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy

Intestinal microbiota and oral administration of Enterococcus faecium associated with the growth performance of new-born piglets – Y.B. Wang – Beneficial Microbes

Animal microbiome

Impact of the Chromatin Remodeling Factor CHD1 on Gut Microbiome Composition of Drosophila melanogaster – Johanna Sebald – PLOS ONE

MinireviewLower Termite Associations with Microbes: Synergy, Protection, and Interplay – Brittany F. Peterson – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Volatile compounds emitted by diverse phytopathogenic microorganisms promote plant growth and flowering through cytokinin action – Ángela María Sánchez-López – Plant, Cell & Environment

Quantifying the associations between fungal endophytes and biocontrol-induced herbivory of invasive purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria L.) – Aaron S David – Mycologia

Effect of CaMSRB2-Expressing Transgenic Rice Cultivation on Soil Microbial Community – Soo-In Sohn – Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Water microbiome

Marine protist associations and environmental impacts across trophic levels in the twilight zone and below – VP Edgcomb – Current Opinion in Microbiology

The Arsenite Oxidation Potential of Native Microbial Communities from Arsenic-Rich Freshwaters – Stefano Fazi – Microbial Ecology

Probiotics

Review: Probiotic approach to prevent antibiotic resistance – Arthur C. Ouwehand – Annals of Medicine

Infection microbiology

Metataxonomic and Metagenomic Approaches vs. Culture-Based Techniques for Clinical Pathology – Sarah K. Hilton – Frontiers in Microbiology

More microbiology
A Generalized Spatial Measure for Resilience of Microbial Systems – Ryan S. Renslow – Frontiers in Microbiology

Community assembly and coexistence in communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi – Kriszta Vályi – The ISME Journal

Microbes in the news

Exploding bacteria could help in our battle against superbugs: Aussie researchers have discovered that some bacteria explode to share useful resources with others, causing the whole group to become nastier. – Signe Dean – SBS

Phylo.io: interactive viewing and comparison of large phylogenetic trees on the web – Oscar Robinson – Molecular Biology and Evolution

April 19, 2016

A review about breastmilk with a great name, skin microbiome in different populations, a mouse model for Sjögren’s, the office microbiome, Guam reef sponges, the Alaska tundra ecosystem, and taxonomic classification. Note that I will be traveling internationally in the next couple of days due to (another) tragic family situation, so posting will be irregular. But I will try my best!

Pregnancy and birth

Review: Breastfed at Tiffany’s – Thierry Hennet – Trends in Biochemical Sciences

Human skin microbiome

Body Site Is a More Determinant Factor than Human Population Diversity in the Healthy Skin Microbiome – Guillermo I. Perez Perez – PLOS ONE

Pathogenic bacteria profile and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of ear infection at Bahir Dar Regional Health Research Laboratory Center, Ethiopia – Derese Hailu – SpringerPlus

Human oral microbiome (also see Animal models, below)

Comparison of the Oral Microbiome of Siblings Using Next-generation Sequencing: a Pilot Study – Hyo-Seol Lee – Oral Diseases

Human gastric microbiome

Characterisation of the gastrointestinal mucosa-associated microbiota: a novel technique to prevent cross-contamination during endoscopic procedures – E. R. Shanahan – Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Human gut microbiome

Conference Abstract: Walnut Consumption Influences the Human Gut Microbiome – Heather M Guetterman – The FASEB Journal

Conference Abstract: Anemia and Iron Status are Predictors of Gut Microbiome Composition and Metabolites in Infants and Children in Rural Kenya – Daniela Paganini – The FASEB Journal

Recurrent Clostridium difficile infection associates with distinct bile acid and microbiome profiles – J. R. Allegretti – Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Effects of sardine-enriched diet on metabolic control, inflammation and gut microbiota in drug-naïve patients with type 2 diabetes: a pilot randomized trial – Mariona Balfegó – Lipids in Health and Disease

Review: From gut dysbiosis to altered brain function and mental illness: mechanisms and pathways – G B Rogers – Molecular Psychiatry

Review: Reshaping the gut microbiota: Impact of low calorie sweeteners and the link to insulin resistance? – Jodi E. Nettleton – Physiology & Behavior

Book chapter, some plagiarism: Impact of Probiotics and Gut Microbiota on Host Behavior – Sarabjit Singh Kanwar – Microbes in Food and Health

Animal models of microbiome research

Mouse model: Altered Mucosal Microbiome Diversity and Disease Severity in Sjögren Syndrome – Cintia S. de Paiva – Scientific Reports

Systemic Characterization of an Obese Phenotype in the Zucker Rat Model Defining Metabolic Axes of Energy Metabolism and Host-Microbial Interactions – Jutarop Phetcharaburanin – Journal of Proteome Research

Metagenomic analysis of antibiotic-induced changes in gut microbiota in a pregnant rat model – Imran Khan – Frontiers in Pharmacology

Inflammasome signaling affects anxiety- and depressive-like behavior and gut microbiome composition – M-L Wong – Molecular Psychiatry

Animal microbiome

The reproductive tracts of two malaria vectors are populated by a core microbiome and by gender- and swarm-enriched microbial biomarkers – Nicola Segata – Scientific Reports

In four shallow and mesophotic tropical reef sponges from Guam the microbial community largely depends on host identity – Georg Steinert – PeerJ

Microbiome analysis and detection of pathogenic bacteria of Penaeus monodon from Jakarta Bay and Bali – Vincensius S.P. Oetama – Marine Pollution Bulletin

Diversity of endosymbiont bacteria associated with a non-filarial nematode group – Stela S. Lazarova – Nematology

Master thesis: Effects of Roundup (glyphosate) on gut microorganisms of farm animals – Charlotte Lynggaard Katholm – Aarhus University

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Functional composition of plant communities determines the spatial and temporal stability of soil microbial properties in a long-term plant diversity experiment – Tanja Strecker – Oikos

Bacterial communities of the cotton aphid Aphis gossypii associated with Bt cotton in northern China – Yao Zhao – Scientific Reports

Soil microbial community composition and respiration along an experimental precipitation gradient in a semiarid steppe – Cancan Zhao – Scientific Reports

Bioaerosol Deposition to Food Crops near Manure Application: Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment – Michael A. Jahne – Journal of Environmental Quality

Effects of biofumigation using Brassica juncea and Raphanus sativus in comparison to disinfection using Basamid on apple plant growth and soil microbial communities at three field sites with replant disease – Bunlong Yim – Plant and Soil

Bacterial and eukaryal diversity in soils forming from acid mine drainage precipitates under reclaimed vegetation and biological crusts – Claudia Rojas – Applied Soil Ecology

Assessment of Bacterial Communities and Predictive Functional Profiling in Soils Subjected to Short-Term Fumigation-Incubation – Lin Chen – Microbial Ecology

Archaeal communities in the sediments of different mangrove stands at Dongzhaigang, China – Wei Li – Journal of Soils and Sediments

Metagenomics reveals pervasive bacterial populations and reduced community diversity across the Alaska tundra ecosystem – Eric R. Johnston – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water microbiome

Bacterioplankton biogeography in the Atlantic Ocean: a case study of the distance-decay relationship – Mathias Milici – Frontiers in Microbiology

Proteomic Stable Isotope Probing Reveals Biosynthesis Dynamics of Slow Growing Methane Based Microbial Communities – Jeffrey Marlow – Frontiers in Microbiology

Metagenomic analysis of sediments under seaports influence in the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean – Tallita Cruz Lopes Tavares – Science of The Total Environment

Dissolution Tests and Microbial Community Analysis Using the Bottom Sediment before and after a Heavy Storm – Ikuo Tsushima – Journal of Water and Environment Technology

Carbohydrate production by microbial mats communities in tidal flat from Bahía Blanca Estuary (Argentina) – E. M. Fernández – Environmental Earth Sciences

Built environment microbiome

Geography and Location Are the Primary Drivers of Office Microbiome Composition – John Chase – mSystems

Waste and pollution microbiology

Population Dynamics of Bulking and Foaming Bacteria in a Full-scale Wastewater Treatment Plant over Five Years – Xiao-Tao Jiang – Scientific Reports

Quantification of microbial load in diesel storage tanks using culture- and qPCR-based approaches – Pedro M. Martin-Sanchez – International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation

Bacterial communities in oil contaminated soils: Biogeography and co-occurrence patterns – Shuo Jiao – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Methanogen Population of an Oil Production Skimmer Pit and the Effects of Environmental Factors and Substrate Availability on Methanogenesis and Corrosion Rates – Okoro Chuma Conlette – Microbial Ecology

Phages and viruses

Parasite diversity drives rapid host dynamics and evolution of resistance in a bacteria-phage system – Alex Betts – Evolution

Research highlight: More of the world’s a phage – Naomi Attar – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Fast and sensitive taxonomic classification for metagenomics with Kaiju – Peter Menzel – Nature Communications

META-pipe – Pipeline Annotation, Analysis and Visualization of Marine Metagenomic Sequence Data – Espen Mikal Robertsen – ArXiv

Fast and sensitive mapping of nanopore sequencing reads with GraphMap – Ivan Sović – Nature Communications

Single-Cell (Meta-)Genomics of a Dimorphic Candidatus Thiomargarita nelsonii Reveals Genomic Plasticity – Beverly E. Flood – Frontiers in Microbiology

Editorial: A tale of two tardigrades – Thomas A. Richards – PNAS

Review: A guide through a family of phylogenetic dissimilarity measures among sites – Sandrine Pavoine – Oikos

Review: Compositional analysis: a valid approach to analyze microbiome high throughput sequencing data – Gregory B Gloor – Canadian Journal of Microbiology

More microbiology

Accessing Nature’s diversity through metabolic engineering and synthetic biology – Jason R. King – F1000 Research

Utilization and control of ecological interactions in polymicrobial infections and community-based microbial cell factories – Vinoth Wigneswaran – F1000 Research

Microbes in the news

Your Invisible Neighbors: Each City Has Unique Microbes – Katherine Du – NPR

Can the bacteria on your skin reveal where you are from? Floors, walls and people in different cities have distinct microbial ‘signatures’ – Abigail Beall – Daily Mail

6 surprising facts about sugar-laden, virus-fighting breast milk – Megan Thielking – STAT News

Gut microbiota development driven by specific enzyme in breast milk – Yvette Brazier – Medical News Today

Mothers’ milk and the infant gut microbiota: An ancient symbiosis – Science Daily

Microbiome-Brain Research to Get $2.8M Boost from NIDA, NCCIH – Genome Web

Earth Day: New insights into coral health hidden in reefs’ microbiomes – National Science Foundation

Downwind safety on the farm. Manure application research aims to improve food safety – American Society of Agronomy

Heartburn Meds Alter the Gut. Acid blockers reduce the diversity of bacteria in the intestines—and that could lead to trouble – Melinda Wenner Moyer – Scientific American

Bacteria that ‘breathes’ iron: Microbes that might change our search for life in space – Dawn Papple – Inquisitr

Microbes and art
This artist uses bacteria as paint: Paint by Microbes – Steph Yin – PopSci

Science, publishing, and career

From #realtimechem to #whywedoresearch: Who are the Tweeting scientists? – Andrew Marsh – Piirus

Tips for Using Social Media to Promote Your Research – Emma Hedington – NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes

About Joseph MercolaKnown Quack Forced to Refund Customers for Lying About Effects of Tanning Beds – Bryan Menegus – Gizmodo

Bik’s Picks

Meet the woman who makes fake fingers for Japan’s reformed gangsters – Justin McCurry – The Guardian

April 18, 2016

Tongue coating and halitosis, mucosa and Crohn’s, biography in American forests diazotrophs, and microbes on parchment documents.

Events

Submit your microbial artwork and win the ISMEJ cover competition! – The ISME Journal

Human oral microbiome

Tongue Coating and the Salivary Microbial Communities Vary in Children with Halitosis – Wen Re – Scientific Reports

Human respiratory microbiome

Clinical impact of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus on bacterial pneumonia: cultivation and 16S ribosomal RNA gene analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid – Toshinori Kawanami – BMC Infectious Diseases

Human gut microbiome

Mucosa-attached bacterial community in Crohn’s Disease coheres with the Clinical Disease Activity Index – Holger Schäffler – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Animal microbiome

Impact of gut microbiota on the fly’s germ line – Michael Elgart – Nature Communications

Caribbean corals house shared and host-specific microbial symbionts over time and space – Nathaniel D. Chu – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Biogeographic Patterns of Soil Diazotrophic Communities across Six Forests in the North America – Qichao Tu – Molecular Ecology

Unique Organic Matter and Microbial Properties in the Rhizosphere of a Wetland Soil – Daniel I. Kaplan – Environ. Sci. Technol.

Water microbiology

Characterization of microbial associations with methanotrophic archaea and sulfate-reducing bacteria through statistical comparison of nested Magneto-FISH enrichments – Elizabeth Trembath-Reichert – PeerJ

Air microbiology

Assessment of microbial communities in PM1 and PM10 of Urumqi during winter – Huange Gou – Environmental Pollution

Waste and pollution microbiology

Geochemical and temporal influences on the enrichment of acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacterial communities – Yizhi Sheng – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

ReviewInsights into microbial diversity in wastewater treatment systems: How far have we come? – Isabel Ferrera – Biotechnology Advances

Built environment microbiology

Evaluation of a Parchment Document, the 13th Century Incorporation Charter for the City of Krakow, Poland, for Microbial Hazards – Tomasz Lech – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Extraction of Aerosol-Deposited Yersinia pestis from Indoor Surfaces To Determine Bacterial Environmental Decay – Ian M. Gut- Applied and Environmental Microbiology

More microbiology

Mechanisms of Bacterial (Serratia marcescens) Attachment to, Migration along, and Killing of Fungal Hyphae – Tal Hover – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Principles for designing synthetic microbial communities – Nathan I Johns – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Microbes and art

Bacteria Rule Everything Around Me – Geoff Manaugh – BLDG blog

‘Financial Growth’ reveals just how much coins and money can communicate, transfer and exchange – Heidi Hinder

Microbes in the news

In Dutch, with quotes from me: Ineens zit je wel en wee in je darm – Sander Voormolen – NRC

The Endurance of Microbiology: An Interview with Mike Jetten, Mark Martin, Ute Römling, and Victor Torres – Trends in Microbiology

‘We have never been this close’: The campaign to eradicate polio takes a giant step forward – Helen Branswell – STAT News

Antarctica research published – Mike Henson – Thrash Lab

Q&A with Councilor Eva Harris on battle against Zika – American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Creating a biobank of the Flagstaff community: Me and my microbiota – Tom Carpenter – AZ Daily Sun

The Human Body’s Complicated Relationship With Fungi – Bret Stetka – WCQS

Queens University student discovers a virus strain – News Observer

Researchers chew over the differences in mouth bacteria in horses – HorseTalk

Newly discovered microbe keeps teeth healthy: Bacteria may offer a new way to prevent cavities – Society for Science

Next job for the microbiome: Tagging criminals – Andrew Porterfield – Genetic Literacy Project

Great Barrier Reef: the scale of bleaching has the most sober scientists worried – James Woodford – The Guardian

Viruses Find Love In A Boiling Place – Inside Science

UB establishes Center for Microbiome Research – University at Buffalo

Cow’s milk has vital prebiotic for a healthy baby’s microbiome – New Scientist

Mainstreaming the Microbiome – Susan K Finston – Biotech blog

Study: Jet Hand Dryers Blast Bacteria Around Bathrooms with Terrifying Force – Ed Jones – Modern Readers

April 17, 2016

General microbiome

Review: The effects of antibiotics on the microbiome throughout development and alternative approaches for therapeutic modulation – Amy Langdon – Genome Medicine

Human oral microbiome

The predictive value of microbiological findings on teeth, internal and external implant portions in clinical decision making – Luigi Canullo – Clinical Oral Implants Research

Human respiratory microbiome

Airway Microbiota in Severe Asthma and Relationship to Asthma Severity and Phenotypes – Qingling Zhang – PLOS ONE

Effects of a honeybee lactic acid bacterial microbiome on human nasal symptoms, commensals, and biomarkers – Anders Mårtensson – International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology

Human gut microbiome

Consistent Prebiotic Effect on Gut Microbiota With Altered FODMAP Intake in Patients with Crohn’s Disease: A Randomised, Controlled Cross-Over Trial of Well-Defined Diets – Emma P Halmos – Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology

Review: Role of the microbiome in non-gastrointestinal cancers – Meirav Pevsner-Fischer – World Journal of Clinical Oncology

Animal models

Thymol and Carvacrol Affect Hybrid Tilapia through the Combination of Direct Stimulation and an Intestinal Microbiota-Mediated Effect: Insights from a Germ-Free Zebrafish Model – Chao Ra – The Journal of Nutrition

Animal microbiome

Microbial diversity in the digestive tract of two different breeds of sheep – J.-L. Douglas – Journal of Applied Microbiology

The Microbiome of the Uropygial Secretion in Hoopoes Is Shaped Along the Nesting Phase – Ángela Martínez-García – Microbial Ecology

The microbiome associated with equine periodontitis and oral health – Rebekah Kennedy – Veterinary Research

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Diversity and Composition of the Leaf Mycobiome of Beech (Fagus sylvatica) Are Affected by Local Habitat Conditions and Leaf Biochemistry – Martin Unterseher – PLOS ONE

Unearthing microbial diversity of Taxus rhizosphere via MiSeq high-throughput amplicon sequencing and isolate characterization – Da Cheng Hao – Scientific Reports

High Diversity Revealed in Leaf-Associated Protists (Rhizaria: Cercozoa) of Brassicaceae – Sebastian Ploch – Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology

Temporal and spatial assessment of microbial communities in commercial silages from bunker silos– J. Kraut-Cohen – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Aquatic fungi: targeting the forgotten in microbial ecology – Hans-Peter Grossart – Current Opinion in MIcrobiology

Mineralogy and Microbial Diversity of the Microbialites in the Hypersaline Storr’s Lake, the Bahamas – Varun G. Paul – Astrobiology

Microbial–meiofaunal interrelationships in coastal sediments of the Red Sea – Hamed A. El-Serehy – Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences

Waste and pollution microbiology

Biological Activity of Autochthonic Bacterial Community in Oil-Contaminated Soil – Agnieszka Wolińska – Water Air Soil Pollution

Bioinformatics

Visualization of Metabolic Interaction Networks in Microbial Communities Using VisANT 5.0 – Brian R. Granger – PLOS Computational Biology

More microbiology

Antimicrobial activity of extracts from macroalgae Ulva lactuca against clinically important Staphylococci is impacted by lunar phase of macroalgae harvest – A.M. Deveau – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Harnessing the Power of Defensive Microbes: Evolutionary Implications in Nature and Disease Control – Suzanne A. Ford – PLOS Pathogens

Microbes in the news

The Wood Wide Web. A new study shows that trees of different species can exchange large amounts of carbon via the fungal internet that connects their roots. – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

Antibiotics may have lasting impact on the immune system of children – MedicalXpress

Drugs for your gut bugs are on the horizon – Elizabeth Preston – STAT News

A Gut Feeling. See profilee Hans Clevers discuss his work with stem cells and cancer in the small intestine – The Scientist

Qiime2 will revolutionize microbiome bioinformatics – Greg Caporaso – American Gut

Bik’s Picks

Pepper-sprayed students outraged as UC Davis tried to scrub incident from web – Anita Chabria – The Guardian

April 13, 2016

Thematic issue on effect of antibiotics on microbiomes, limited effect of probiotics on stool proteomics, culex mosquito development, ocean acidification, and new technique to determine microbial growth.

General microbiome

Thematic Issue: the effects of anthropogenic use of antibiotics on the microbiomes in various ecosystems and the implications for human health. Guest edited by Prof. Kornelia Smalla, the articles included in this issue are freely available to read til 11th May 2016. Environmental Dimension of Antibiotic Resistance – FEMS Microbiology Ecology
Review: Network-based metabolic analysis and microbial community modeling – Cesar Cardona – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Review: The importance of the microbiome in epidemiologic research – Blake M. Hanson – Annals of Epidemiology

Editorial: Microbiome: Eating for trillions – Derrick M. Chu – Nature

Pregnancy and birth

Preview: Another Reason to Thank Mom: Gestational Effects of Microbiota Metabolites – Seth Rakoff-Nahoum – Cell Host & Microbe

Review: The interplay of host immunity and environment on risk for bacterial vaginosis and associated reproductive health outcomes – Kerry Murphy – The Journal of Infectious Diseases

Human respiratory microbiome

Enrichment of the lung microbiome with oral taxa is associated with lung inflammation of a Th17 phenotype – Leopoldo N. Segal – Nature Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Faecal Metaproteomic Analysis Reveals a Personalized and Stable Functional Microbiome and Limited Effects of a Probiotic Intervention in Adults – Carolin A. Kolmeder – PLOS ONE

Review: The gut microbiota and metabolic disease: current understanding and future perspectives – T. Arora – Journal of Internal Medicine

Animal models

A Host-Produced Autoinducer-2 Mimic Activates Bacterial Quorum Sensing – Anisa S. Ismail – Cell Host & Microbe

Depletion of Butyrate-Producing Clostridia from the Gut Microbiota Drives an Aerobic Luminal Expansion of Salmonella – Fabian Rivera-Chávez – Cell Host & Microbe

Lipocalin 2 Protects from Inflammation and Tumorigenesis Associated with Gut Microbiota Alterations – Alexander R. Moschen – Cell Host & Microbe

Animal microbiome

Culex pipiens Development Is Greatly Influenced by Native Bacteria and Exogenous Yeast – Leonardo M. Díaz-Nieto – PLOS ONE

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Convergence of soil microbial properties after plant colonization of an experimental plant diversity gradient – Katja Steinauer – BMC Ecology

Bacterial community associated to the pine wilt disease insect vectors Monochamus galloprovincialis and Monochamus alternatus – Marta Alves – Scientific Reports

Relationship between presence of the desert shrub Haloxylon ammodendron and microbial communities in two soils with contrasting textures – Yanfeng Cao – Applied Soil Ecology

Network analysis reveals functional redundancy and keystone taxa amongst bacterial and fungal communities during organic matter decomposition in an arable soil – Samiran Banerjee – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Belowground response to drought in a tropical forest soil. I. Changes in microbial functional potential and metabolism – Nick Bouskill – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Vibrio spp. within the Sydney Harbour Estuary – Nachshon Siboni – Frontiers in Microbiology

Assimilation of microbial and plant carbon by active prokaryotic and fungal populations in glacial forefields – Thomas Rime – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Implications of Ocean Acidification for Marine Microorganisms from the Free-Living to the Host-Associated – Paul A. O’Brien – Frontiers in Marine Science

Waste and pollution microbiology

Shifts in microbial community structure and diversity in a MBR combined with worm reactors treating synthetic wastewater – Jia Liu – Journal of Environmental Sciences

Biomineralization of atrazine and analysis of 16S rRNA and catabolic genes of atrazine degraders in a former pesticide mixing site and a machinery washing area – James F. Douglass – Journal of Soils and Sediments

The effect of seasonality upon the development of lotic biofilms and microbial biostabilisation – Holger Schmidt – Freshwater Biology

Review: The importance of sewer biofilms – Henriette Jensen – Water

Food microbiology and functional foods

Lactobacillus plantarum TWK10 Supplementation Improves Exercise Performance and Increases Muscle Mass in Mice – Yi-Ming Chen – MDPI Nutrients

Investigation of the activity of the microorganisms in a Reblochon-style cheese by metatranscriptomic analysis – Christophe Monnet – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Prebiotics as a modulator of gut microbiota in paediatric obesity – A. C. Nicolucci – Pediatric Obesity

Techniques

Stable isotope probing with 18O-water to investigate microbial growth and death in environmental samples – Egbert Schwartz – Current Opinion in Biotechnology

Review: A priori Considerations When Conducting High-Throughput Amplicon-Based Sequence Analysis – Aditi Sengupta – Agricultural & Environmental Letters

Microbial ecology

Lack of functional redundancy in the relationship between microbial diversity and ecosystem functioning – Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo

Influence of dormancy on microbial competition under intermittent substrate supply: Insights from model simulations – Konstantin Stolpovsky – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

More microbiology

Metabolic Requirements of Escherichia coli in Intracellular Bacterial Communities during Urinary Tract Infection Pathogenesis – Matt S. Conover – mBio

Biostatistics

Reinventing Biostatistics Education for Basic Scientists – Tracey L. Weissgerber – PLOS Biology

Microbes in the news

MSU professor Gemma Reguera making tiny innovations with a big impact – Erin F. Wasinger – Lansing State Journal

SCSU prof Elizabeth Lewis Roberts discovers fungus, bacteria help grass (really) – Anna Bisaro – New Haven Register

Probiotics for Livestock – Reducing Antibiotic Reliance – Alex Alexiev – MicroBEnet

Taking Cues From Human Nutrition To Reduce Antibiotic Use In Livestock – Amy Mayer – NPR

Why bacteria can’t get any bigger—or smaller – Elizabeth Pennisi – Science

Digestion of lignin in the gut – Science Daily

“Truly exciting”: Probiotic may increase muscle mass, energy & performance – Stephen Daniells – Nutraingredients

Breakthrough at Binghamton furthers development of bacteria-powered energy – The Engineer

Vibrio: Aggressive infectious bacteria species found in Sydney Harbour – Daisy Dumas – Sydney Morning Herald

Science, publishing, and career

Do interventions to reduce misconduct actually work? Maybe not, says new report – Alison McCook – Retraction Watch

$250 million, 300 scientists and 40 labs: Sean Parker’s revolutionary project to ‘solve’ cancer – Ariana Eunjung Cha – Washington Post

Science fairs are as flawed as my solar-powered hot dog cooker – Carl Zimmer – STATnews

The dark side of Guardian comments: part of a series on the rising global phenomenon of online harassment – the Guardian

How one lab challenged a grant rejection and won €5 million – Ewen Callaway – Nature

April 12, 2016, part 1

Too many alerts to go through after taking one day off, so here is part one. An updated tree of life, acute appendicitis, rhizosphere of a living fossil plant, Antarctic surface snow, and effects of Superstorm Sandy on creek water.

Jobs and events

Senior Scientist with significant track record in microbiome research – The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, South Mimms, UK

General microbiome

A new view of the tree of life – Laura A. Hug – Nature Microbiology

Pregnancy and birth

The Gestational Vaginal Microbiome and Spontaneous Preterm Birth among Nulliparous African American Women – Deborah B. Nelson – American Journal of Perinatology

Early colonization of functional groups of microbes in the infant gut – Van T. Pham – Environmental Microbiology

The gut resistome is highly dynamic during the first months of life – Christian JH von Wintersdorff – Future Medicine

Human skin microbiome

Review: Skin Biomes – N. Fyhrquist – Current Allergy and Asthma Reports

Human respiratory microbiome

Review: Next Generation Sequencing and the Microbiome of Chronic Rhinosinusitis – A Primer for Clinicians and Review of Current Research, Its Limitations, and Future Directions – Jake Jervis Bardy – Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol

Human oral microbiome

The salivary microbiome for differentiating individuals: proof of principle – Sarah L. Leake – Microbes and Infection

Concordance of HOMIM and HOMINGS technologies in the microbiome analysis of clinical samples – Jean-Luc C. Mougeot – Journal of Oral Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

There are no Enterotypes: Interpreting Prevotella and Bacteroides as biomarkers of diet and lifestyle – Anastassia Gorvitovskaia – Microbiome

Experiment with n=1: Understanding the Impact of Omega-3 Rich Diet on the Gut Microbiota – Blanca S. Noriega – Case Reports in Medicine

First Occurrence of Severe Extraintestinal Manifestations of Crohn’s Disease Following Faecal Microbiota Transplantation – Niels Teich – Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis

Acute appendicitis in children is associated with a local expansion of Fusobacteria – Matthew B. Rogers – Clinical Infectious Diseases

Hypothesis: Gut Microbiota Diversity and Human Diseases: Should We Reintroduce Key Predators in Our Ecosystem? – Alexis Mosca – Frontiers in Microbiology

Not endorsing, because highly controversial and not well founded: Bread and Other Edible Agents of Mental Disease – Paola Bressan and Peter Kramer – Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Review: The human gut microbiome in health: establishment and resilience of microbiota over a lifetime – Kacy Greenhalgh – Environmental Microbiology

Review: Cytotoxicity of Nanoparticles Contained in Food on Intestinal Cells and the Gut Microbiota – Esther E. Fröhlich – MDPI International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Review: The Role of the Gut Microbiota in Childhood Obesity – Pihl Andreas Friis – Childhood Obesity

Animal models

Gnotobiotic Rodents: An In Vivo Model for the Study of Microbe–Microbe Interactions – Rebeca Martín – Frontiers in Microbiology

Depletion of Cultivatable Gut Microbiota by Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Pretreatment Worsens Outcome After Murine Stroke – Katarzyna Winek – Stroke

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Common mycorrhizal networks and their effect on the bargaining power of the fungal partner in the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis – Heike Bückinga – Communicative & Integrative Biology

Rhizosphere Microbiomes of European + Seagrasses Are Selected by the Plant, But Are Not Species Specific – Catarina Cúcio – Frontiers in Microbiology

Specific Microbial Communities Associate with the Rhizosphere of Welwitschia mirabilis, a Living Fossil – Angel Valverde – PLOS ONE

Impact of alien pines on local arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities – evidence from two continents – Antonio Gazol – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Differences in stability of seed-associated microbial assemblages in response to invasion by phytopathogenic microorganisms – Samir Rezki – PeerJ

Using Ancient Traits to Convert Soil Health into Crop Yield: Impact of Selection on Maize Root and Rhizosphere Function – Jennifer E. Schmidt – Frontiers in Plant Science

Partitioning of Functional and Taxonomic Diversity in Surface-Associated Microbial Communities – Alexandra J. Roth-Schulze – Environmental Microbiology

Temporal dynamics of sediment bacterial communities in monospecific stands of Juncus maritimus and Spartina maritima – Daniel F R Cleary – Plant Biology

Thorough high-throughput sequencing analyses unravels huge diversities of soil parasitic protists – Stefan Geisen – Environmental Microbiology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of Archaeal Communities in Two Freshwater Lakes at Different Trophic Status – Yuyin Yang – Frontiers in Microbiology

Metagenomic Analysis of Bacterial Communities of Antarctic Surface Snow – Anna Lopatina – Frontiers in Microbiology

Partitioning of Functional and Taxonomic Diversity in Surface-Associated Microbial Communities – Alexandra J. Roth-Schulze – Environmental Microbiology

Impact of an intense water column mixing (0-1500m) on prokaryotic diversity and activities during an open-ocean convection event in the NW Mediterranean Sea – T. Severin – Environmental Microbiology

Aquatic bacterial community is restructured by hydric dynamics associated with Superstorm Sandy – Nikea Ulrich – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Metagenomic analysis of lacustrine viral diversity along a latitudinal transect of the Antarctic Peninsula – Daniel Aguirre de Cárcer – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Response of bacterial communities from California coastal waters to alginate particles and an alginolytic Alteromonas macleodii strain – Maximilian Mitulla – Environmental Microbiology

Waste and pollution microbiology

Partitioning of Viruses in Wastewater Systems and Potential for Aerosolization – Mari Titcombe Lee – Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Seasonality of antibiotic prescriptions for outpatients and resistance genes in sewers and wastewater treatment plant outflow – Serena Caucci – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Spatial and temporal variability of bacterial communities within a combined sewer system – Henriette Stokbro Jensen – MicrobiologyOpen

Genomic insights into members of the candidate phylum Hyd24-12 common in mesophilic anaerobic digesters – Rasmus Hansen Kirkegaard – The ISME Journal

Bioinformatics

Not endorsing: Motif-Based Text Mining of Microbial Metagenome Redundancy Profiling Data for Disease Classification – Yin Wang – BioMed Research International

More microbiology

Host-Derived Sialic Acids Are an Important Nutrient Source Required for Optimal Bacterial Fitness In Vivo – Nathan D. McDonald – mBio

Review: Network-based metabolic analysis and microbial community modeling – Cesar Cardona – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Review: DNA-sensing inflammasomes: regulation of bacterial host defense and the gut microbiota – Si Ming Man – Pathogens and Disease

Microbes in the news

Most of the Tree of Life is a Complete Mystery. We know certain branches exist, but we have never seen the organisms that perch there – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

Wealth of unsuspected new microbes expands tree of life – Science Daily

Can more fiber restore microbiome diversity? – Science Daily

Science, publishing, and career

Research Funding: the Case for a Modified Lottery – Ferric C. Fang and Arturo Casadevall – mBio