May 7, 2016

Drosophila male-killing spiroplasma, chitin in potting soil, temperature constraints for complex life, a book on microbial diversity, and monitoring sewer health.

General microbiome

Review: Design, analysis and application of synthetic microbial consortia – Xiaoqiang Jia – Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology

Review: Metabolic network modeling of microbial interactions in natural and engineered environmental systems – Octavio Perez-Garcia – Frontiers in Microbiology

OpinionMirror, mirror on the wall: which microbiomes will help heal them all? – Renuka R. Nayak – BMC Medicine

Hypothesis: Do microbiotas warm their hosts? – Eugene Rosenberg – Gut Microbes

Human respiratory microbiome

Microbiome diversity in the sputum of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis – P. Krishna – European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases

Human gut microbiome

Literature review: The gut microbiota: a major player in the toxicity of environmental pollutants? – Sandrine P Claus – NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes

Impact of Hypocaloric Hyperproteic Diet on Gut Microbiota in Overweight or Obese Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Pilot Study – Zoltan Pataky – Digestive Diseases and Sciences

n=1: Six-week Diet Correction for Body Weight Reduction and Its Subsequent Changes of Gut Microbiota: A Case Report – Bumjo Oh – Clinical Nutrition Research

Conference abstract: Associations Between Physical Activity and the Intestinal Microbiome of College Freshmen – Corrie M Whisner – The FASEB Journal

Animal experiments

Male-Killing Spiroplasma Alters Behavior of the Dosage Compensation Complex during Drosophila melanogaster Embryogenesis – Becky Cheng – Current Biology

Experimental Evolution on a Wild Mammal Species Results in Modifications of Gut Microbial Communities – Kevin D. Kohl – Frontiers in Microbiology

Conference abstract: Soy positively impacts cecal microbiota of ovariectomized rats selectively bred for low aerobic capacity – Tzu-Wen Liu – the FASEB Journal

Animal microbiome

Midgut Transcriptome of the Cockroach Periplaneta americana and Its Microbiota: Digestion, Detoxification and Oxidative Stress Response – Jianhua Zhang – PLOS ONE

Plants, roots, and soil microbiome

Chitin Mixed in Potting Soil Alters Lettuce Growth, the Survival of Zoonotic Bacteria on the Leaves and Associated Rhizosphere Microbiology – Jane Debode – Frontiers in Microbiology

Litter microbial and soil faunal communities stimulated in the wake of a volcanic eruption in a semiarid woodland in Patagonia, Argentina – Paula Berenstecher – Functional Ecology

Richness and bioactivity of culturable soil fungi from the Fildes Peninsula, Antarctica – Zhuang Ding – Extremophiles

Effect of 35 years inorganic fertilizer and manure amendment on structure of bacterial and archaeal communities in black soil of northeast China – Jianli Ding – Applied Soil Ecology

Conference abstract: Multi-omics of the Soil Microbiome – Janet K Jansson – The FASEB Journal

Review: Life cycle specialization of filamentous pathogens — colonization and reproduction in plant tissues – Janine Haueisen – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Review: Interspecific hybridization impacts host range and pathogenicity of filamentous microbes – Jasper RL Depotter – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Water and extremophile microbiome

From climate models to planetary habitability: temperature constraints for complex life – Laura Silva – arXiv preprint

Macroecological drivers of archaea and bacteria in benthic deep-sea ecosystems – Roberto Danovaro – Science Advances

Snowmelt induced hydrologic perturbations drive dynamic microbiological and geochemical behaviors across a shallow riparian aquifer – Robert Danczak – Frontiers in Earth Science

External controls on the distribution, fabrics and mineralization of modern microbial mats in a coastal hypersaline lagoon, Cayo Coco (Cuba) – Anthony Bouton

Richness and bioactivity of culturable soil fungi from the Fildes Peninsula, Antarctica – Zhuang Ding – Extremophiles

Single-Cell Genome and Group-Specific dsrAB Sequencing Implicate Marine Members of the Class Dehalococcoidia (Phylum Chloroflexi) in Sulfur Cycling – Kenneth Wasmund – mBio

Book: Their World: A Diversity of Microbial Environments – Editors: Christon J. Hurst – Springer

Review: Marine microorganisms as a promising and sustainable source of bioactive molecules – G. Romano – Marine Environmental Research

Waste and pollution microbiology

Hydrogeochemistry and coal-associated bacterial populations from a methanogenic coal bed – Elliott P. Barnharta – International Journal of Coal Geology

Review: Does bioleaching represent a biotechnological strategy for remediation of contaminated sediments? – Viviana Fonti – Science of The Total Environment

Review: Microbial sequencing methods for monitoring of anaerobic treatment of antibiotics to optimize performance and prevent system failure – Sevcan Aydin – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Viruses and phages

Editorial overview: The megaviromes – Didier Raoult – Current Opinion in Microbiology

More microbiology

Stochastic Assembly of Bacteria in Microwell Arrays Reveals the Importance of Confinement in Community Development – Ryan H. Hansen – PLOS ONE

RubisCO of a nucleoside pathway known from Archaea is found in diverse uncultivated phyla in bacteria – Kelly C Wrighton – The ISME Journal

Research Highlight: A time to gather chromosomes together – Naomi Attar – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Conference abstract: Metabolic Exchange In Microbial Communities – Andrei Osterman – The FASEB Journal

Microbes in the news

Pipe Dreams: Tapping into the Health Information in Our Sewers – Carrie Arnold – Environmental Health Perspectives

Deep sea microbes may be key to oceans’ climate change feedback – Howard Lee – The Guardian

Exploiting Male Killing Bacteria Could Control Insect Pest Species in the Future – SciCasts

Fifty people warned about possible exposure to drug-resistant bacteria at University of Alberta Hospital – Keith Gerein

May 4, 2016

Note: If you enjoy this blog, I would very much appreciate a comment here below. Without your support, I might not be able to continue MicrobiomeDigest in its current form and frequency. So please, show your love by leaving a sign of support at the end of this blog. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! – Elies

Culturing the unculturables, a review on social bee microbiotas, the needle mycobiome, and an improved phage search tool.

Jobs and events

Faculty Position – Phage Biology and Microbiome Research, McMaster University, Ontario – Science Careers

Postdoctoral Fellow in Mucosal Immunology and Host-Microbiome Interactions
Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Weill Cornell Medicine – New York City, United States of America

General microbiome

Review: Microbial contributions to chronic inflammation and metabolic disease – Shanahan, Fergus – Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care

Review: The microbial-mammalian metabolic axis: a critical symbiotic relationship – Chilloux, Julien – Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care

Human gut microbiome

Culturing of ‘unculturable’ human microbiota reveals novel taxa and extensive sporulation – Hilary P. Browne – Nature

(Also oral samples) The role of the gastrointestinal microbiome in infectious complications during induction chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia – Jessica R. Galloway-Peña – Cancer

Ecological Effect of Solithromycin on the Normal Human Oropharyngeal and Intestinal Microbiota – Mamun-Ur Rashid – Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy

Towards a functional hypothesis relating anti-islet cell autoimmunity to the dietary impact on microbial communities and butyrate production – David Endesfelder – Microbiome

Clostridium difficile Infection in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease – Nancy Fu – Current Infectious Disease Reports

Review: Interplay between diet, gut microbiota, epigenetic events, and colorectal cancer – Scott J. Bultman – Molecular Nutrition & Food Research

Animal microbiome

Cecal microbiota of Tibetan Chickens from five geographic regions were determined by 16S rRNA sequencing – Xueyan Zhou – Microbiology Open

Variability of Bacterial Communities in the Moth Heliothis virescens Indicates Transient Association with the Host – Heike Staudacher – PLOS ONE

Review: Gut microbial communities of social bees – Waldan K. Kwong and Nancy A. Moran – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Mineral Type and Solution Chemistry Affect the Structure and Composition of Actively Growing Bacterial Communities as Revealed by Bromodeoxyuridine Immunocapture and 16S rRNA Pyrosequencing – L. C. Kelly – Microbial Ecology

Habitat conditions and phenological tree traits overrule the influence of tree genotype in the needle mycobiome–Picea glauca system at an arctic treeline ecotone – Pascal Eusemann – New Phytologist

Microbial Metagenomics Reveals Climate-Relevant Subsurface Biogeochemical Processes
Philip E. Long – Trends in Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome

Twenty-Three Species of Hypobarophilic Bacteria Recovered from Diverse Ecosystems Exhibit Growth under Simulated Martian Conditions at 0.7 kPa – Andrew C. Schuerger – Astrobiology

Bioinformatics

Marker genes that are less conserved in their sequences are useful for predicting genome-wide similarity levels between closely related prokaryotic strains – Yemin Lan – Microbiome

Phages and viruses

Inferring phage-bacteria infection networks from time series data – Luis Jover – bioRxiv preprint

PHASTER: a better, faster version of the PHAST phage search tool – David Arndt – Nucleic Acids Research

Techniques

Digital Droplet Multiple Displacement Amplification (ddMDA) for Whole Genome Sequencing of Limited DNA Samples – Minsoung Rhee – PLOS ONE

Microbial Ecology

A conceptual framework for invasion in microbial communities – Marta Kinnunen – The ISME Journal

Microbes in the news

Most Gut Microbes Can Be Cultured. Contrary to the popular thought that many species are “unculturable,” the majority of bacteria known to populate the human gut can be grown in the lab, scientists show – Jyoti Madhusoodanan – The Scientist

Capturing the vast diversity of bacteria in our bodies – Megan Thielking – STAT News

A bitter pill. Josiah Zayner’s gut was making his life hell — so he embarked on an extreme DIY fecal transplant – Arielle Duhaime-Ross – The Verge

Article with video: Your mouth is full of bacteria blooming. And it’s beautiful – Hyacinth Empinado – STAT news

Explore this interactive map of the Gowanus Canal’s slightly scary microbiology – Jason Sayer – Architects Newspaper

The Friendly Viruses, and how they can help with the looming antimicrobial resistance crisis – Peter Speck and Anthony Smithyman – OUP blog

How the Gut Microbiome May be Key in Post-Surgery Organ Failure after Heart Surgery in Children – University of Arizona

Bugs as drugs: Harnessing novel gut bacteria for human health – Medical Xpress

Bacteria carrying bug threatens wine industry – John Bartell – ABC

Autonomous Super Mario-Themed Sewer Robots Live-Stream Neighborhood Microbiome Data – The answer to our health is in our excrement – Nickolaus Hines – Inverse

Bay Area Scientists Join Forces To Help Contain Zika Virus – CBS San Francisco

Breast milk hormones found to impact bacterial development in infants’ guts
Intestinal microbiome of children born to obese mothers significantly different from those born to mothers of healthy weight, CU Anschutz researchers find – EurekAlert

Science, publishing, and career

Dealing with retractions – Paul van der Vet – BioMed Central blog

Propagation of errors in citation networks: a study involving the entire citation network of a widely cited paper published in, and later retracted from, the journal Nature – Paul E. van der Vet and Harm Nijveen – Research Integrity and Peer Review

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 29, 2016

After Science’s Microbiome Issue yesterday, today’s digest features Genome Biology’s special Translational Microbiome issue. Papers on detecting colon cancer, Clostridium difficile infection, high-fat diets in mice. Also check out papers on H2 metabolism in the colon, no effects of temperature rise on soil microbiome of wet tropical forests, and ultra-basic springs.

Jobs and events

Nice speaker line-up: May 16-18, Michigan Meeting on Microbial Communities: a deep dive into the world of microbes – University of Michigan

Job opening in our lab: Life Science Research Professional  – Stanford

Pregnancy and birth

Gestational age, mode of birth and breastmilk feeding all influence acute early childhood gastroenteritis: a record-linkage cohort study – Jason P. Bentley – BMC Pediatrics

Human gut microbiome

Special issue Genome Medicine: Translating the microbiome: health and disease, Guest Editor: Curtis Huttenhower

Editorial: A roadmap to translating the microbiome – Rabia Begum – Genome Medicine

Detecting colon cancer using microbiota:  Microbiota-based model improves the sensitivity of fecal immunochemical test for detecting colonic lesions – Nielson T. Baxter – Genome Medicine

Dynamics of the fecal microbiome in patients with recurrent and nonrecurrent Clostridium difficile infection – Anna Maria Seekatz – Genome Medicine

Use of Shotgun Metagenome Sequencing to Detect Fecal Colonization with Multi-Drug Resistant Bacteria in Children – Heidi Andersen – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Pretreatment gut microbiome predicts chemotherapy-related bloodstream infection – Emmanuel Montassier – Genome Medicine

Impact of Helminth Infection on the Clinical and Microbiological Presentation of Chagas Diseases in Chronically Infected Patients – Fernando Salvador – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Malaria, helminths and malnutrition: a cross-sectional survey of school children in the South-Tongu district of Ghana – Patrick Ferdinand Ayeh-Kumi – BMC Research Notes

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

Review: Mechanistic and Technical Challenges in Studying the Human Microbiome and Cancer Epidemiology – Mukesh Verma – Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment

Animal models
Effects of Isoflavone-Enriched Feed on the Rumen Microbiota in Dairy Cows – Jitka Kasparovska – PLOS ONE

Deep-fried oil consumption in rats impairs glycerolipid metabolism, gut histology and microbiota structure – Zhongkai Zhou – Lipids in Health and Disease

Dietary supplementation of Rosmarinus officinalis L. leaves in sheep affects the abundance of rumen methanogens and other microbial populations – Gabriella Cobellis – Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology

Microorganisms in the rumen and reticulum of buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) fed two different feeding systems – Raul Franzolin – BMC Research Notes

Antibiotic perturbation of the murine gut microbiome enhances the adiposity, insulin resistance, and liver disease associated with high-fat diet – Douglas Mahana – Genome Medicine

A fish, not the bird: Combined effects of dietary mannan- and fructo-oligosaccharide on growth indices, body composition, intestinal bacterial flora and digestive enzymes activity of regal peacock (Aulonocara stuartgranti) – S. S. Mirzapour-Rezaee – Aquaculture Nutrition

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

The composition, localization and function of low-temperature adapted microbial communities involved in methanogenic degradations of cellulose and chitin from Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau wetland soils – Yumei Dai – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Effect of different levels of nitrogen on rhizosphere bacterial community structure in intensive monoculture of greenhouse lettuce – Jian-Gang Li – Scientific Reports

Pichia kudriavzevii as a representative yeast of North Patagonian winemaking terroir – Silvana M. del Mónaco – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Increases in mean annual temperature do not alter soil bacterial community structure in tropical montane wet forests – Paul C. Selmants – Ecosphere

Water and extremophile microbiome

A role for fungi as parasites in the black box of marine trophic interactions – Thomas A. Richards – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Exploring the metabolic potential of microbial communities in ultra-basic, reducing springs at The Cedars, CA, USA: Experimental evidence of microbial methanogenesis and heterotrophic acetogenesis – Lukas Kohl – Journal of Geophysical Research

Viruses and phages

Minireview: Virus-host interplay in high salt environments – Nina S. Atanasova – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Inferring Intra-Community Microbial Interaction Patterns from Metagenomic Datasets Using Associative Rule Mining Techniques – Disha Tandon – PLOS ONE

Metabolomics

H2 metabolism is widespread and diverse among human colonic microbes – Patricia G. Wolf – Gut Microbes

Localizing metabolic synthesis in microbial cultures with kinetic mass spectrometry imaging (kMSI) – Katherine Louie – bioRxiv

Viruses and phages

The virome: a missing component of biological interaction networks in health and disease – Scott A. Handley – Genome Medicine

Microbial ecology

Commentary: Bacteriophages or bacteriovores – that is the question: variations on the theme of eating Stenotrophomonas maltophilia – Harald Brüssow – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Microbes in the news

Lots of press coverage for the Science and Genome Medicine special issues today!

Scientists think they’ve found the secret to better poop transplants – Rachel Feltman – The Washington Post

Why Are Your Gut Microbes Different From Mine? To find out, scientists collected poop from thousands of people—but they ended up with more questions than answers – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

Food you eat and medicines you take can alter your gut bacteria in both good and bad ways – Emma Tiller – NH Voice

Special microbiome issue – Science Codex

Gut Microbiome Makeup Influenced by Medication Use, Other Factors – Genome Web

In Dutch: Zijn koffie, rode wijn en chocola nou wel of niet goed voor je? – Sander Voormolen – NRC

Title fail: World’s first microbiome study reveals links between lifestyle and gut flora – EurekAlert

Lifestyle has a strong impact on intestinal bacteria – Medical Xpress

The “Friendly” Bacteria In Your Gut Isn’t As Set At Birth As We Thought – Tom Chivers – BuzzFeed

Gut bacteria may predict risk of life-threatening infections following chemotherapy – Science Daily

What Can Happen When You’re Way Too Clean – Alice Park – Time

10 Bizarre (and Wonderful) Facts About Microbes:truly amazing facts about the human microbiome – Dawn Field – TopTenz

Vancouver couple develops slime-free water dishes for dogs – Eric MacKenzie – Vancouver 24h

Podcast: Microbe Talk, April 2016, Can parasitic worms treat inflammatory diseases?

Some superbugs literally explode when they die, making them even more deadly
Ticking time bomb – Jacinta Bowler – Science Alert

Science, publishing, and career

Unconditional data sharing, plus peer review transparency, is key to research reproducibility – Leonid Schneider – The Winnower

Featuring our paper: Seeing double: Duplicated images plague research papers – Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus – STAT News

Paper linking fecal transplants to obesity in rats retracted for faked data – Dalmeet Singh Chawla – Retraction Watch

April 28, 2016

A special issue of Science with 2 papers on lifestyle factors that determine composition of the stool microbiome in large human cohorts, variation in microbiome LPS immunogenicity contributes to autoimmunity, SEM analysis of cave speleothem microbial communities, and saliva bacteria in Chicha (Ecuadorian beer).

Jobs and Events

Early Career Microbiome Meal, during European Respiratory Society Meeting 2016 London, September 2016

Caporaso Lab is hiring a software engineer to work on QIIME and scikit-bio – Greg Caporaso – MicroBEnet

General microbiome

A special Science Issue called The Microbiota At WorkScreen Shot 2016-04-28 at 12.42PM, Apr 28 1.jpg

IntroductionManipulating the Microbiota – Caroline Ash, Kristen Mueller  – Science

ReviewCross-species comparisons of host genetic associations with the microbiome – Julia K. Goodrich – Science

ReviewHow colonization by microbiota in early life shapes the immune system – Thomas Gensollen – Science

ReviewAntibiotic use and its consequences for the normal microbiome – Martin J. Blaser – Science

Review: The healthy human microbiome – Jason Lloyd-Price – Genome Medicine

Pregnancy and birth

Infant formula with galacto-oligosaccharides (OM55N) stimulates the growth of indigenous bifidobacteria in healthy term infants – T. Matsuki – Beneficial Microbes

Human oral microbiome

Comparison of Boiling and Robotics Automation Method in DNA Extraction for Metagenomic Sequencing of Human Oral Microbes – Junya Yamagishi – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory microbiome

[PDF] The impact of different methods of DNA extraction on microbial community measures of BALF samples based on metagenomic data – Yan Wen – Am J Transl Res

Human reproductive tract microbiome

[PDF] Barcoded sequencing reveals diverse intrauterine microbiomes in patients suffering with endometrial polyps – Rui-Li Fang – Am J Transl Res

Opinion: Cervicovaginal Microbiomes–Threats and Possibilities – Gregor Reid – Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism

Review: Foodomics as part of the host-microbiota-exposome interplay – Lorenza Putignani – Journal of Proteomics

Human gut microbiome

Population-level analysis of gut microbiome variation – Gwen Falony – Science

Population-based metagenomics analysis reveals markers for gut microbiome composition and diversity – Alexandra Zhernakova – Science

Durable coexistence of donor and recipient strains after fecal microbiota transplantation – Simone S. Li – Science

Review: Resurrecting the intestinal microbiota to combat antibiotic-resistant pathogens – Eric G. Pamer – Science

Associations between dietary flavonoid intake and gut microbiota in a group of adults with cystic fibrosis (CF) – L. Li – Journal of Nutrition & Intermediary Metabolism

Variation in Microbiome LPS Immunogenicity Contributes to Autoimmunity in Humans – Tommi Vatanen – Cell

Gut Bacteria Metabolism Impacts Immune Recovery in HIV-infected Individuals – Sergio Serrano-Villar – EBioMedicine

Serologic microbial associated markers can predict Crohn’s disease behaviour years before disease diagnosis – R. S. Choung – Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Impact of age and sex on the composition and abundance of the intestinal microbiota in individuals with and without enteric infections – Pallavi Singh – Annals of Epidemiology

Review: Human gut microbiota and healthy aging: Recent developments and future prospective – Manish Kumar – Nutrition an Healthy Aging

Animal and other models

Soluble and Insoluble Fiber Differentially Impact Canine Fecal Microbiome and Circulating Metabolome – Matthew Irick Jackson – The FASEB Journal

Germ-free and antibiotic-treated mice are highly susceptible to epithelial injury in DSS colitis – Cristina Hernández-Chirlaque – Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis

High intensity exercise training increases the diversity and metabolic capacity of the mouse distal gut microbiota during diet-induced obesity – Emmanuel Denou – American Journal of Physiology

Induction of Subacute Ruminal Acidosis Affects the Ruminal Microbiome and Epithelium – Joshua C. Mccann – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Oral microbial biofilm models and their application to the testing of anticariogenic agents – Christina P.C. Sim – Journal of Dentistry

Animal microbiome

Patterns of bacteria-host associations suggest different ecological strategies between two reef building cold-water coral species – Anne-Leila Meistertzheim – Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Characterizing and handling different kinds of AM fungal spores in the rhizosphere – Xueguang Sun – World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Illumina-based analysis of the rhizosphere microbial communities associated with healthy and wilted Lanzhou lily (Lilium davidii var. unicolor) plants grown in the field – Qianhan Shang – World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Microbial community structures and metabolic profiles response differently to physiochemical properties between three landfill cover soils – Xi-En Long – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

The effects of host age and spatial location on bacterial community composition in the English Oak tree (Quercus robur) – S. Meaden – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Universal indicators for oil and gas prospecting based on bacterial communities shaped by light-hydrocarbon microseepage in China – Chunping Deng – Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Performance of 16s rRNA primer pairs in the study of rhizosphere and endosphere bacterial microbiomes in metabarcoding studies – Bram Beckers – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water and extremophiles

The unexpected extremophile: Tolerance to fluctuating salinity in the green alga Picochlorum – Fatima Foflonker – Algal Research

Microbial communities in a range of carbon dioxide fluxes from a natural volcanic vent in Campo de Calatrava, Spain – Irena Fernández-Montiel – International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

On the use of high-throughput sequencing for the study of cyanobacterial diversity in Antarctic aquatic mats – Igor Stelmach Pessi – Journal of Phycology

Quorum sensing plays a complex role in regulating the enzyme hydrolysis activity of microbes associated with sinking particles in the ocean – Andreas Krupke – Frontier in Marine Science

Succession of bacterial community structure during the early stage of biofilm development in the Antarctic marine environment – Yung Mi Lee – Korean Journal of MIcrobiology

Using scanning electron microscopy to study microbial communities in speleothem samples collected from Iron Curtain Cave – Cohord Mason – The Journal of Experimental Microbiology & Immunology

Large differences in potential denitrification and sediment microbial communities across the Laurentian great lakes – Gaston E. Small – Biogeochemistry

Built environment microbiome

Ecological succession of the microbial communities of an air conditioning cooling coil in the tropics – Enzo Acerbi – Indoor Air

Web Alert: Microbiology in archaeology: An annotated selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to the topics in environmental microbiology – Lawrence P. Wackett – Environmental Microbiology

Food microbiology

Bacteria associated with human saliva are major microbial components of Ecuadorian indigenous beers (chicha) – Ana L. Freire – PeerJ

A method to isolate bacterial communities and characterize ecosystems from food products: Validation and utilization in as a reproducible chicken meat model – Amélie Rouger – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

BaitFisher: A Software Package for Multispecies Target DNA Enrichment Probe Design – Christoph Mayer – Molecular Biology and Evolution

Microbial ecology

The Evolution of Quorum Sensing as a Mechanism to Infer Kinship – Jonas Schluter – PLOS Computational Biology

Co-existence facilitates interspecific biofilm formation in complex microbial communities – Jonas S Madsen – Environmental Microbiology

Viruses and phages

Molecular evolution of epizootic hemorrhagic disease viruses in North America based on historical isolates using motif fingerprints – W. C. Wilson – Virus Genes

Techniques

[Video Protocol] Efficient Nucleic Acid Extraction and 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing for Bacterial Community Characterization – Melis N. Anahtar – Journal of Visualized Experiments

Comparison of Boiling and Robotics Automation Method in DNA Extraction for Metagenomic Sequencing of Human Oral Microbes – Junya Yamagishi – PLOS ONE

The impact of different methods of DNA extraction on microbial community measures of BALF samples based on metagenomic data – Yan Wen – Am J Transl Res

Microbes in the news

Your gut bacteria are more than what you eat – Elizabeth Pennisi – Science

With quotes from me! New research confirms thriving gut bacteria is linked to a healthier body – Russell Brandom – The Verge

Want more good bugs in your gut? Try yogurt. And coffee – Patrick Skerrett – STAT News

This Bacteria Strain Offers a Curious Mix of Hope and Danger. The Elizabethkingia strain could cure malaria, but it’s also sickened dozens in Wisconsin – Lisa Margonelli – Slate

Bacteria beneficial to plants have spread across California – UC Riverside study shows spread of Bradyrhizobium has important implications for biofertilizers – EurekAlert

The Benefits of Slathering Your Newborn Baby with Vaginal Bacteria – Rebecca Schiller – Vice Broadly

A Timely Gut Check. At the American Museum of Natural History, meet your microbiome – Ralph Gardner – The Wall Street Journal

A Comprehensive Survey of Pre-Clinical Microbiology Curricula Among United States Medical Schools – Dora Melber – Clinical Infectious Diseases

Mayo Clinic Ventures Firm Explores Commercialization Of Gut Microbe Treatment – Don Jacobson – Twin City Business

Microbes and art

Quilting with soil: soil microorganisms had “painted” their efforts on the cloth in an unexpected variety of colors. – Martha Pings – Soils

Science, publishing, and career

Is most published research really false? – Jeffrey T Leek, Leah R Jager – bioRxiv

Who’s downloading pirated papers? Everyone. In rich and poor countries, researchers turn to the Sci-Hub website – John Bohannon – Science

The frustrated science student behind Sci-Hub – John Bohannon – Science

Plagiarism: A worm poking holes into the quality of our academic work – Christine Osae – The New Times

Bik’s Picks
Doctor ready to perform first human head transplant – Ross Kenneth Urken – News Week

April 23, 2016

Pint of Science, oral microbiome dynamics, rheumatoid arthritis, mineral turnover in the rhizosphere, and the subzero microbiome.

Events

Pint of Science San Francisco Bay Area (also in other cities all over the world): 23-25 May 2016, combining beer and science

Pregnancy and birth

Microbiome and Fetus: A Relationship for Life – Janet Teodori – Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health

The Tree(s) of Life: The Human Placenta and My Journey to Learn More about It – Carolyn B. Coyne – PLOS Pathogens

Human oral microbiome

Ultra-deep and quantitative saliva proteome reveals dynamics of the oral microbiome – Niklas Grassl – Genome Biology

Human vaginal microbiome

Effects of low dose estrogen therapy on the vaginal microbiomes of women with atrophic vaginitis – Jian Shen – Scientific Reports

Human gut microbiome

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

Bifidobacteria Abundance-Featured Gut Microbiota Compositional Change in Patients with Behcet’s Disease – Jun Shimizu – PLOS ONE

An expansion of rare lineage intestinal microbes characterizes rheumatoid arthritis – Jun Chen – Genome Medicine

Microbial Culturomics to Map Halophilic Bacterium in Human Gut: Genome Sequence and Description of Oceanobacillus jeddahense sp. Nov. – Khelaifia Saber – OMICS

Review: Bugging inflammation: role of the gut microbiota – Sj Shen – Clinical & Translational Immunology

Review: Modulating Composition and Metabolic Activity of the Gut Microbiota in IBD Patients – Mario Matijašić – MDPI Int J Mol Sci

Animal models

Effect of Dietary Carboxymethyllysine on glucose and insulin sensitivity, cecal fatty acids and the plasma metabolome in mice fed the Total Western Diet – Robert Edwin Ward – The FASEB Journal

Animal microbiome

The Microbiome of Animals: Implications for Conservation Biology – Simon Bahrndorff – International Journal of Genomics

Review: Herbivore dung as food for dung beetles: elementary coprology for entomologists – Peter Holter – Ecological Entomology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Plant–Microbiota Interactions as a Driver of the Mineral Turnover in the Rhizosphere – R. Alegria Terrazas – Advances in Applied Microbiology

Dynamics of endophytic bacteria in plant in vitro culture: quantification of three bacterial strains in Prunus avium in different plant organs and in vitro culture phases – Mona Quambusch – Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)

Evaluating the lingering effect of livestock grazing on functional potentials of microbial communities in Tibetan grassland soils – Mengmeng Wang – Plant and Soil

Nitrogen fertilization affects bacteria utilizing plant-derived carbon in the rhizosphere of beech seedlings – Silvia Gschwendtner – Plant and Soil

Temporal dynamic of parasite-mediated linkages between the forest canopy and soil processes and the microbial community – Ana Mellado – New Phytologist

Rhizosphere priming effect on soil organic carbon decomposition under plant species differing in soil acidification and root exudation – Xiaojuan Wang – New Phytologist

Water and extremophile microbiome

Viral metabolic reprogramming in marine ecosystems – Bonnie L Hurwitz – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Review: The subzero microbiome: Microbial activity in frozen and thawing soils – Mrinalini P. Nikrad – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Gene expression profiling of microbial activities and interactions in sediments under haloclines of E. Mediterranean deep hypersaline anoxic basins – Virginia P Edgcomb – The ISME Journal

Waste and pollution microbiology

Effect of thermal pretreatment on the biogas production and microbial communities balance during anaerobic digestion of urban and industrial waste activated sludge – Hajer Ennouri – Bioresource Technology

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

Microbial communities from different subsystems in biological heap leaching system play different roles in iron and sulfur metabolisms – Yunhua Xiao – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Community Structure in Methanogenic Enrichments Provides Insight into Syntrophic Interactions in Hydrocarbon-Impacted Environments – S. Jane Fowler – Frontiers in Microbiology

Food microbiology

The Potential of the Incorporation of Essential Oils and Their Individual Constituents to Improve Microbial Safety in Juices: A Review – Evandro Leite de Souza – Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

The Metagenomic Pizza: a simple recipe to introduce bioinformatics to the layman – Marie-Claude Blatter – EMBnet

MOCAT2: a metagenomic assembly, annotation and profiling framework – Jens Roat Kultima – Bioinformatics

Temporal microbiome road-maps guided by perturbations – Beatriz García-Jiménez – bioRxiv

Fundamental Limits of Pooled-DNA Sequencing – A. Najafi – ArXiv

A perspective on 16S rRNA operational taxonomic unit clustering using sequence similarity – Nam-Phuong Nguyen – NPJ Biofilms

Microbial Ecology

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

Viruses and phages

Giant viruses at the core of microscopic wars with global impacts – Adrien Villai – Current Opinion in Virology

Environmental surveillance of viruses by tangential flow filtration and metagenomic reconstruction – V Furtak – Eurosurveillance

Metabolomics

Review: Microbial metabolism of dietary components to bioactive metabolites: opportunities for new therapeutic interventions – Linda S. Zhang – Genome Medicine

Microbes in the news

Your office is a veritable petri dish of bacteria – Sarah Kaplan – The Washington Post

We’re home to trillions of cells that aren’t ours and they’re keeping us alive – Katherine Ellen Foley – Quartz

These oral bacteria are linked to an increased chance of getting pancreatic cancer – Laurie McGinley – The Washington Post

April 22, 2016

General microbiome

Nutrigenomics, the Microbiome, and Gene-Environment Interactions: New Directions in Cardiovascular Disease Research, Prevention, and Treatment
A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association – Jane F. Ferguson – Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics

Human skin and eye microbiome

Commentary: Details Matter: Designing Skin Microbiome Studies – Heidi H. Kong – Journal of Investigative Dermatology

Defining the normal “core microbiome” of conjunctival microbial communities – Yusen Huang – Clinical Microbiology and Infection

Supplement with abstracts for the American Academy of Dermatology 74th Annual Meeting – Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology

Supplement with abstracts for the Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID 2016) Annual Meeting – Journal of Investigative Dermatology

Human gut microbiome

Strain-level dissection of the contribution of the gut microbiome to human metabolic disease – Chenhong Zhang – Genome Medicine

Review: Microbiome alterations in HIV infection a review – Brett Williams – Cellular Microbiology

Review? Does Gut Microbiota Affect Endothelial Functions in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus? – American Journal of Kidney Diseases

Commentary: The return of microbes – Didier Raoult – Clinical Microbiology and Infection

Review: Use your antibiotics wisely. Consequences to the intestinal microbiome – Jorge Cervantes – FEMS Microbiology Letters

Review: The Microbiome, Timing, and Barrier Function in the Context of Allergic Disease – Duane R. Wesemann – Immunity

Animal and in vitro models
Cigarette Smoke Attenuates the Nasal Host Response to Streptococcus pneumoniae and Predisposes to Invasive Pneumococcal Disease in Mice – Pamela Shen – Infection and Immunity

Susceptibility to Ticks and Lyme Disease Spirochetes Is Not Affected in Mice Coinfected with Nematodes – Denny Maaz – Infection and Immunity

Adherence of probiotic bacteria to human colon epithelial cells and inhibitory effect against enteric pathogens – In vitro study – Nowak Adriana – International Journal of Dairy Technology

Microbiota-driven transcriptional changes in prefrontal cortex override genetic differences in social behavior – Mar Gacias – eLIFE

Gut Microbiota Drive Autoimmune Arthritis by Promoting Differentiation and Migration of Peyer’s Patch T Follicular Helper Cells – Fei Teng – Immunity

Preview: Viral Safeguard: The Enteric Virome Protects against Gut Inflammation – Stephanie M. Karst – Immunity

Animal microbiome

Fecal metagenomics for the simultaneous assessment of diet, parasites, and population genetics of an understudied primate – Amrita Srivathsan – Frontiers in Zoology

Comparative analysis of midgut bacterial communities in three aedine mosquito species from dengue-endemic and non-endemic areas of Rajasthan, India – S. S. Charan – Medical and Veterinary Entomology

Minireview: The Sponge Hologenome – Nicole S. Webster – mBio

Water and extremophile microbiome

Response of Antarctic cryoconite microbial communities to light – Elizabeth A. Bagshaw – Microbiology Ecology

Built environment microbiology
The Built Environment Is a Microbial Wasteland – Sean M. Gibbons – mSystems

Food microbiology

Assessment of the microbial diversity during an industrial-scale malting process by a polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis – Ruilong Li – Journal of the Institute of Brewing (gotta love that name!)

Phages, viruses, and CRISPRs

The diversity-generating benefits of a prokaryotic adaptive immune system – Stineke van Houte – Nature

Microbes in the news
Your city’s microbiome is unique – Christina Procopiou – Newsweek

Human beings – and our offices – are crawling with microbes – Joanna Verran – The Conversation

About Jonathan EisenThis microbiologist loves bugs, hates hype – and wants you to send him your cat’s poop – Rob Waters – STATnews

Close-up of a dust bunny – Holly Ganz – MicroBE.net

Looking Back, Looking Forward and Phage Hunters: A Q&A with the Student Commencement Speaker – Emily Hellewell – Brigham Young University

Do gut microbes shape our evolution? Researcher proposes that a host’s microbiota can steer its evolution in new directions – Science Daily

Pfizer, Roche Embrace The Microbiome, Leading $43M Bet On Second Genome – Luke Timmerman – Forbes

You’re Home to Trillions of Microbes That Affect Everything From Digestion to Depression – Sydney Lupkin – Vice

Pancreatic Cancer Risk Tied to Specific Mouth Bacteria – Infection Control Today

Science, publishing, and career
Due process in the Twitter age – Marcia McNutt – Science

Peer review: Troubled from the start – Alex Csiszar – Nature

Dirty room-mates make lab mice more useful. Housing lab mice with pet-shop mice gives them more human-like immune systems – Sara Reardon – Nature

UC Davis Storer Lecture series – since 1963 87% of speakers are male – Jonathan Eisen – The Tree of LIfe

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 12, 2016, the late one

Events

Standards for Microbiome Measurements Workshop – August 9-10, NIST, Gaithersburg, Md

General microbiome

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

Moving microbiota research towards establishing causal associations that represent viable targets for effective public health interventions – Volker Mai – Annals of Epidemiology

Evolution of Koch’s postulates: towards a twenty-first century understanding of microbial infection – Guido Antonelli – Clinical Microbiology and Infection

Thematic Issue: Environmental Dimension of Antibiotic Resistance – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Human oral microbiome

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S104727971630076XThe Effects of Family, Dentition and Dental Caries on the Salivary Microbiome – Betsy Foxman – Annals of Epidemiology

Red fluorescent biofilm: the thick, the old, and the cariogenic – Catherine M.C. Volgenant – Journal of Oral Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

DNA from fecal immunochemical test can replace stool for microbiota-based colorectal cancer screening – Nielson T Baxter – BioRxiv Preprint

Changes in Korean Adult Females’ Intestinal Microbiota Resulting from Kimchi Intake – Kim JY – Omics Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences

Review: The Fiber Gap and the Disappearing Gut Microbiome: Implications for Human Nutrition – Edward C. Deehan – Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism

Animal model microbiome

Gut microbiome remodeling induces depressive-like behaviors through a pathway mediated by the host’s metabolism – P Zheng – Molecular Psychiatry

Temperate phages enhance pathogen fitness in chronic lung infection – Emily V Davies – The ISME Journal

Bacteraemia before during and after tooth extraction in horses in the absence of antimicrobial administration – I. Kern – Equine Veterinary Journal

Animal microbiome

Population and individual level dynamics of intestinal microbiota of a small primate – Tuomas Aivelo – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

The nasopharyngeal microbiota in feedlot cattle and its role in respiratory health – Edouard Timsit – Animal Frontiers

Review: Gut microbiome and omics: a new definition to ruminant production and health – Nilusha Malmuthuge – Animal Frontiers

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Structural and functional differentiation of the root-associated bacterial microbiomes of perennial ryegrass – Lin Chen – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Assessing microbial activities in metal contaminated agricultural volcanic soils – An integrative approach – C. Parelho – Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

Review: The role of locally adapted mycorrhizas and rhizobacteria in plant-soil feedback systems – Daniel Revillini – Functional Ecology

Water microbiome

Metagenomic analysis of nitrogen and methane cycling in the Arabian Sea oxygen minimum zone – Claudia Lüke – PeerJ

Recurring patterns in bacterioplankton dynamics during coastal spring algae blooms – Hanno Teeling

Transporting Ocean Viromes: Invasion of the Aquatic Biosphere – Yiseul Kim – PLOS ONE

Seasonal changes in microbial community composition in river water studied using 454-pyrosequencing – Marija Kaevska – SpringerPlus

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

Substantial Variability of Multiple Microbial Communities Collected at Similar Acidic Mine Water Outlets – Lukáš Falteisek – Microbial Ecology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Chapter: Improving Bloom Filter Performance on Sequence Data Using kk-mer Bloom Filters – David Pellow – Research in Computational Molecular Biology

Microbial ecology

A Game Theoretical Approach to Microbial Coexistence – Monica Abrudan – Advances in Dynamic and Evolutionary Games

The ecologist’s field guide to sequence-based identification of biodiversity
Simon Creer – Methods in Ecology and Evolution

Microbes in the news

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

Mind the fibre gap: The case of the vanishing gut microbiome – Will Chu – NutraIngredients

uBiome Opens Voting to all Citizen Scientists to Select $100k Microbiome Research Grant Winner – uBiome

Here’s the mounting evidence against using antibacterial soaps; Few pros, but cons include upped risk of infection, microbiome changes, drug resistance – Beth Mole – Ars Technica

Six-step hand-washing technique most effective for reducing bacteria in hospitals – Glasgow Chamber of Commerce

Hacking Gut Bacteria Could Be The Future Of Medicine. MIT biologists are reprogramming gut bacteria as “live therapeutics.” – Carolyn Gregoire – Huffington Post

Feeding Bacteria to Livestock Could Cut Antibiotic Use – Amy Mayer – Iowa Public Radio

Drug-resistant bacteria found scattered in soil – V. Nilesh – Deccan Chronicle

Sweet Siren call of surface lures bacteria to their death – Anthony King – Chemistry World

New Tree of Life Beautifully Illustrates the Enormous World of Bacteria – Kate Horowitz – Mental Floss

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