October 20, 2015

Cohabitation of helminths, bacteria, and host in the gut, diurnal sampling bias in plankton biodiversity, contaminant influence on groundwater microbiome, volatile affairs, and new tools for metagenomics.

Events

Postdoc and grad student Summit — preceding the EMBO Symposium on Aquatic Microeukaryotes: Abstract deadline October 22 – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBEnet

Human oral microbiome

Periodontal clinical and microbiological characteristics in healthy versus generalized aggressive periodontitis families – Mabelle de F. Monteiro – Journal of Clinical Periodontology

Masters Thesis: Caries and the Oral Microbiome of a Native American Population – Michael Tuan – Ohio State University

Human gut microbiome

Review: Cohabitation in the Intestine: Interactions among Helminth Parasites, Bacterial Microbiota, and Host Immunity – Lisa A. Reynolds – The Journal of Immunology

Review: Influences of diet and the gut microbiome on epigenetic modulation in cancer and other diseases – Bidisha Paul – Clinical Epigenetics

Review: Intestinal Microbiota Metabolism and Atherosclerosis – Tian-Xing Liu – Chinese Medical Journal

Animal models

Colonic Lesions, Cytokine Profiles, and Gut Microbiota in Plasminogen-Deficient Mice – Bill Vestergaard – Comparative Medicine

Plant, root, and soil microbiomes

Cyanobacterial composition and spatial distribution based on pyrosequencing data in the Gurbantunggut Desert, Northwestern China – Bingchang Zhang – Journal of Basic Microbiology

Disease in apple orchards: Different bacterial communities in heat and gamma irradiation treated replant disease soils revealed by 16S rRNA gene analysis – contribution to improved aboveground apple plant growth? – Bunlong Yim – Frontiers in Microbiology

A fragrant neighborhood: Volatile mediated bacterial interactions in soil – Kristin Schulz-Bohm – Frontiers in Microbiology

Responses of soil microeukaryotic communities to short-term fumigation-incubation revealed by MiSeq amplicon sequencing – Lin Chen – Frontiers in Microbiology

Epidemic Spread of Symbiotic and Non-Symbiotic Bradyrhizobium Genotypes Across California – A. C. Hollowell – Plant Microbe Interactions

Water microbiome

Influences of diurnal sampling bias on fixed-point monitoring of plankton biodiversity determined using a massively parallel sequencing-based technique – Satoshi Nagai – Gene

Microbial metagenomes from three aquifers in the Fennoscandian shield terrestrial deep biosphere reveal metabolic partitioning among populations – Xiaofen Wu – The ISME Journal

Viral impact on prokaryotic and microalgal activities in the microphytobenthic biofilm of an intertidal mudflat (French Atlantic coast) – Hélène Montanié – Frontiers in Microbiology

Comparative metagenomics reveals impact of contaminants on groundwater microbiomes – Christopher L. Hemme – Frontiers in Microbiology

Particle-association lifestyle is a phylogenetically conserved trait in bathypelagic prokaryotes – Guillem Salazar – Molecular Ecology

Effects of Seasonal Thermal Stratification on the Functional Diversity and Composition of the Microbial Community in a Drinking Water Reservoir – Xiao Yang – Water

Extremophile microbiology

Review: Extremely Thermophilic Microorganisms as Metabolic Engineering Platforms for Production of Fuels and Industrial Chemicals – Benjamin M. Zeldes – Frontiers in Microbiology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Snowball: Strain aware gene assembly of Metagenomes – I. Gregor – ArXiv

PEPR: Pipelines for Evaluating Prokaryotic References – Nathan D. Olson – PeerJ preprint

cual­id: globally unique, correctable, and human­friendly sample identifiers for
comparative ­omics studies – John H Chase – PeerJ preprint

Why we need more algal metagenomes – Linda E. Graham – Journal of Phycology

Phages and viruses

Subdiffusive motion of bacteriophage in mucosal surfaces increases the frequency of bacterial encounters – Jeremy J. Barr – PNAS

Microbial Ecology

Interspecies interactions are an integral determinant of microbial community dynamics
Fatma A. A. Aziz – Frontiers in Microbiology

Differentiating between niche and neutral assembly in metacommunities using null models of β-diversity – Caroline M. Tucker – Oikos

Review: Role of the Environment in the Transmission of Antimicrobial Resistance to Humans: A Review – Patricia M. C. Huijbers – Environmental Science & Technology

More microbiology

Self-Protected Nitrate Reducing Culture for Intrinsic Repair of Concrete Cracks
Yusuf C. Ersan – Frontiers in Microbiology

Metabolomics

Review: Volatile affairs in microbial interactions – Ruth Schmidt – The ISME Journal

Microbes in the news

Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago : Probiotic bacteria may aid against anxiety and memory problems – Ian Sample – The Guardian

ID Week: How Babies’ Gut Bacteria May Help Find Treatments for C. Diff – Rachael Rettner – Live Science

Video: Speaking of Chemistry: What is the Gut Microbiome? Matt Davenport – American Chemical Society

Study reveals a key role your gut bacteria play in body’s self-defense – David Callahan – Medical Xpress

Gut Microbiome Insights; Obesity and Digestive Health Risks; Delivery Options and Predictors of Failure for Fecal Microbiota Transplantation; among Featured Topics Presented at the American College of Gastroenterology’s 80th Annual Meeting – PR NewsWire

MS conference, Barcelona: Q&A With Helen Tremlett From the University of British Columbia: Gut Microbiome And Its Role In Multiple Sclerosis -HCP Live

Virginia Tech scientists reveal more about how body copes with common gut bacterium – Augusta Free Press

High Starch Diets’ Effects on Stress Response in Horses – Casie Bazay – The Horse

These Bacteria Could Live in Europa’s Ocean – Irene Klotz – Discovery

Local news: Dozens Sick With Shigella Bacteria After Eating At San Jose Restaurant – CBS Local

The Phage is a Lonely Hunter: New research reveals that bacteriophages use slow, staccato movements to hunt bacteria on cell surfaces – Michael Price – SDSU

Creating Healthier Microbiomes, from Conception to Childhood: A Clinical Conversation with Geeta Maker-Clark, MD, and Robert Rountree, MD -Alternative and Complementary Therapies

Microbes and art

Very cool: A Microbiologist Recreated ‘Starry Night’ With Bacteria In A Petri Dish And it’s not too shabby – Priscilla Frank – Huffington Post

Bik’s Picks

Poo turns naked mole rats into better babysitters – Oestrogen in queen mole rat’s faeces drives subordinates to care for her pups – Sara Reardon – Nature News
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October 17, 2015

Fungal infection in brains of Alzheimer patients (already generating a lot of discussion on Twitter), solving a bloody mess in leeches, crosstalk in sewage cleaning plant roots, stromatolite microbiomes, halophilic viruses, and a new tool called Schmutzi.

General human microbiome

Different Brain Regions are Infected with Fungi in Alzheimer’s Disease – Diana Pisa – Scientific Reports

Human (and dog) oral microbiome

Microbiological Analysis of Anaerobic Bacteria Isolated from Periodontal
Pockets in Cases of Periodontal Disease in Dogs and Humans – Magdalena Gołyńska – Dentistry

Human gut microbiome

Review: Changes seen in gut bacteria content and distribution with obesity: causation or association? – David S. H. Bell – Postgraduate Medicine

Review: Obesity, Diet and the Gut Microbiota – Anthony R. Bird – Current Nutrition Reports

Animal models

Divergent responses of viral and bacterial communities in the gut microbiome to dietary disturbances in mice – Adina Howe – The ISME Journal

Bacterial community response to changes in a tri-trophic cascade during a whole-lake fish manipulation – Jatta Saarenheimo – Ecology

Animal microbiome

Solving a bloody mess: B-vitamin independent metabolic convergence among gammaproteobacterial obligate endosymbionts from blood-feeding arthropods and the leech Haementeria officinalis – Alejandro Manzano-Marín – Genome Biology and Evolution

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Beneficial Bacteria Isolated from Grapevine Inner Tissues Shape Arabidopsis thaliana Roots – Enrico Baldan – PLOS ONE

Relating belowground microbial composition to the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional trait distributions of trees in a tropical forest – Albert Barberán – Ecology Letters

Revealing crosstalk of plant and fungi in the symbiotic roots of sewage-cleaning Eichhornia crassipes using direct de novo metatranscriptomic analysis – Bin Luo – Scientific Reports

Impacts of root symbiotic associations on interspecific variation in sugar exudation rates and rhizosphere microbial communities: a comparison among four plant families – Atushi Okubo – Plant and Soil

Nitrogen fertilization directly affects soil bacterial diversity and indirectly affects bacterial community composition – Jun Zeng – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Influence of Microbial Composition on the Carbon Storage capacity of the Mangrove soil at the land-ocean boundary in the Sundarban Mangrove Ecosystem, India – Subhajit Das – Geomicrobiology Journal

Extremophile microbiome

Analysis of metagenomic data reveals common features of halophilic viral communities across continents – S. Roux – Environmental Microbiology

Characterization of the stromatolite microbiome from Little Darby Island, The Bahamas using predictive and whole shotgun metagenomic analysis – Giorgio Casaburi – Environmental Microbiology

Metagenomic analysis provides insights into functional capacity in a hyperarid desert soil niche community – Surendra Vikram – Environmental Microbiology

Plants impact structure and function of bacterial communities in Arctic soils – Manoj Kumar – Plant and Soil

Novel and Unexpected Microbial Diversity in Acid Mine Drainage in Svalbard (78° N), Revealed by Culture-Independent Approaches – Antonio García-Moyano – Microorganisms

Waste treatment microbiology

Assessment of human virus removal during municipal wastewater treatment in Edmonton, Canada – Yuanyuan Qiu – Journal of Applied Microbiology

The change of microbial community from chlorinated solvent-contaminated groundwater after biostimulation using the metagenome analysis – Chih-Ming Kao – Journal of Hazardous Materials

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Pathway Tools version 19.0 update: software for pathway/genome informatics and systems biology – Peter D. Karp – Briefings in Bioinformatics

Jflow: a workflow management system for web applications – Jérôme Mariette – Bioinformatics

Schmutzi: estimation of contamination and endogenous mitochondrial consensus calling for ancient DNA – Gabriel Renaud – Genome Biology

Microbes in the news

Inside the Grim World of the Phytoplasmas ‘Zombie’ Plant Bacteria – Michael Byrne – Motherboard

The Future of Dieting Is Personalized Algorithms Based on Your Gut Bacteria – Melissa Dahl – Huffington Post

From migraine to microbiome, 20 companies to watch at big BIO investor event – Ron Leuty – San Francisco Business Times

Microbial considerations in rosacea treatment: Greater understanding of that demodex mites play may uncover new therapeutic options – Lisette Hilton – Dermatology Times

Science, publishing, and career
Men set their own cites high: Gender and self-citation across fields and over time – Molly M. King
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October 14, 2015

Gut microbes and the brain, transgenic goats, Salmonella infection of pigs, viral infection in honey bees, and a catalogue of microbial culture media.

Human gut microbiome

Feature: The tantalizing links between gut microbes and the brain – Peter Andrey Smith – Nature

Animal models

Changes in the Porcine Intestinal Microbiome in Response to Infection with Salmonella enterica and Lawsonia intracellularis – Klaudyna A. Borewicz – PLOS ONE

The Effects of GH Transgenic Goats on the Microflora of the Intestine, Feces and Surrounding Soil – Zekun Bao – PLOS ONE

Research highlight: Culinary traditions—revealing the effect of travel and diet on gut microbiota and motility – Gillian Patman – Nature Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Animal microbiome

No apparent correlation between honey bee forager gut microbiota and honey production – Melissa A. Horton – PeerJ

Four Categories of Viral Infection Describe the Health Status of Honey Bee Colonies – Esmaeil Amiri – PLOS ONE

Variable genetic architectures produce virtually identical molecules in bacterial symbionts of fungus-growing ants – Clarissa S. Sit – PNAS

More microbes

Harnessing the landscape of microbial culture media to predict new organism–media pairings – Matthew A. Oberhardt – Nature Communications

Single-Cell Analysis of RNA Virus Infection Identifies Multiple Genetically Diverse Viral Genomes within Single Infectious Units – Marine Combe – Cell Host & Microbe

Microbes in the news

What does your gut microbiome look like? – Katherine Harmon Courage – Popular Science

Microbiome May Predict Colon Cancer Tumor Mutational Status – Neil Osterweil – Medscape

“Studying sanitation is not always the sexiest topic” Stanford study on the effects of toilet facilities on child health in rural Africa – Stanford News

NDSU researcher, students study how bacteria adapts to survive – North Dakota State University

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October 13, 2015

Tongue coating microbiota, fecal microbiota in Tibetan and Chinese Han, the gut mycobiome in obesity, and the Hoopoe’s uropygial gland.

Pregnancy and birth

Review: Neonatal Gut Microbiota and Human Milk Glycans Cooperate to Attenuate Infection and Inflammation – David S Newburg – Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology

Research highlight: Early life dysbiosis increases asthma risk – Naomi Attar – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Review: Gut Microbiome and the Development of Food Allergy and Allergic Disease – Benjamin T. Prince – Pediatric Clinics of North America

Human oral microbiome

Variations of Tongue Coating Microbiota in Patients with Gastric Cancer – Jie Hu – BioMed Research International

Review: Microbial Nucleic Acid Sensing in Oral and Systemic Diseases – K.E. Crump – Journal of Dental Research

Human respiratory microbiome

Review: The microbiome at the pulmonary alveolar niche and its role in Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection – Alexander J. Adami – Tuberculosis

Human gut microbiome

Comparative analyses of fecal microbiota in Tibetan and Chinese Han living at low or high altitude by barcoded 454 pyrosequencing – Long Li & Xin Zhao – Scientific Reports

Obesity changes the human gut mycobiome – M. Mar Rodríguez – Scientific Reports

Review: Understanding Luminal Microorganisms and Their Potential Effectiveness in Treating Intestinal Inflammation – Ince, M. Nedim – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Review: Brain-gut-microbiota axis in Parkinson’s disease – Agata Mulak, Bruno Bonaz – World Journal of Gastroenterology

Research Highlight: In transit – Denise Waldron – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Review: Gut microbiota and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease [PDF]-  Paraskevas Gkolfakis – Hepatobiliary Pancreat Dis Int

Animal microbiome

The Hoopoe’s Uropygial Gland Hosts a Bacterial Community Influenced by the Living Conditions of the Bird – Sonia M. Rodríguez-Ruano – PLOS ONE

Assessment of a 16S rRNA amplicon Illumina sequencing procedure for studying the microbiome of a symbiont-rich aphid genus – E. Jousselin – Molecular Ecology Resources

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Molecular Analysis of Methanogen Richness in Landfill and Marshland Targeting 16S rDNA Sequences – Shailendra Yadav – Archaea

Waste treatment microbiology

The Relationship between Microbial Community Evenness and Function in Slow Sand Filters – Sarah-Jane Haig – mBio

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Microbial metabolic networks in a complex electrogenic biofilm recovered from a stimulus-induced metatranscriptomics approach – Shun’ichi Ishii – Scientific Reports

Exact approaches for scaffolding – Mathias Welle – BMC Bioinformatics

Comprehensive Meta-analysis of Ontology Annotated 16S rRNA Profiles Identifies Beta Diversity Clusters of Environmental Bacterial Communities – Andreas Henschel – PLOS Computational Biology

Viruses and phages

A classification system for virophages and satellite viruses – Mart Krupovic – Virology Division News

Microbial Ecology

Research Highlight: Single-locus changes perturb community structure – Denise Waldron – Nature Review Genetics
Single gene locus changes perturb complex microbial communities as much as apex predator loss – Deirdre McClean – Nature Communications

Microbes in the news

New intro biology lab tests for germs on campus – Sydney Schaedel – The Daily Pennsylvanian

A Whale of a Tale: Gut microbiome of right whales and other baleen species shares characteristics with those of both cows and meat-eating predators – Bioscience Technology

Science and art

Artist Jennifer Angus Covers the Smithsonian’s Walls With Bugs – Lauren Palmer – ArtNet

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October 12, 2015

A nice and short digest today. Happy Columbus Day!

Human gut microbiome

Relationship Between Microbiota of the Colonic Mucosa vs Feces and Symptoms, Colonic Transit, and Methane Production in Female Patients With Chronic Constipation – Gopanandan Parthasarathy – Gastroenterology

Ecology of bacteria in the human gastrointestinal tract—identification of keystone and foundation taxa – Pål Trosvik and Eric Jacques de Muinck – Microbiome

Review: The Gut Microbiota as a Therapeutic Target in IBD and Metabolic Disease: A Role for the Bile Acid Receptors FXR and TGR5 – Annemarie Baars – Microorganisms

Review: Microbiota in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Pathogenesis and Therapy
Is It All About Diet? – Daniela Elena Serban – Nutrition in Clinical Practice

Review: Role of the Gut Microbiome in Obesity and Diabetes Mellitus – Gillian M. Barlow – Nutrition in Clinical Practice

Animal models

Functional analysis of the relationship between intestinal microbiota and the expression of hepatic genes and pathways during the course of liver regeneration – Hui-Xin Liu – Journal of Hepatology

Metagenomics and Bioinformatics

SUPER-FOCUS: A tool for agile functional analysis of shotgun metagenomic data – Genivaldo Gueiros Z. Silva – Bioinformatics

Viruses and phages

Research Highlight: Phages’ box of tricks for CRISPR – Naomi Attar – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Microbes and art

Microbial masterpieces! Scientists ‘paint’ detailed works of art by growing bacteria from human skin and even faeces in petri dishes – Victoria Woollaston – Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3269542/Microbial-masterpieces-Scientists-paint-detailed-works-art-growing-bacteria-petri-dishes.html

Microbes in the news

University of New Haven professor’s research focuses on ‘horrible’ Lyme disease – Mark Zaretsky – New Haven Register

Repeat from earlier podcast: The Bacterial Cloud We All Carry Could Be As Unique As A Fingerprint – Rob Stein – NPR

Antibiotics ban: California first state to outlaw routine use of bacteria-fighting drugs in livestock – Jessica Calefati – Mercury News

Desperate Families in Delhi as Dengue Overwhelms Hospitals – Nida Najar – New York Times

Novel mathematical method may help reduce development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria – News Medical

Bacteria Hysteria

Concerned about germs on shopping trolley handles? Cleaning gadget beats bacteria – Hannah Bouckley – BT

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October 7, 2015

Human oral microbiome

The Microbiome in Populations with a Low and High Prevalence of Caries – I. Johansson – Journal of Dental Research

Human gut microbiome

Use of the second-generation antipsychotic, risperidone, and secondary weight gain are associated with an altered gut microbiota in children – S. M. Bahr – Translational Psychiatry

Geriatric respondents and non-respondents to probiotic intervention can be differentiated by inherent gut microbiome composition – Suja Senan – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Intestinal microbiota and the innate immune system – a crosstalk in Crohn’s disease pathogenesis – Lea-Maxie Haag – Frontiers in Immunology

Review: The human gut virome: a multifaceted majority – Lesley A. Ogilvie – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Microbiota and host immune responses: a love-hate relationship –
Sarah Tomkovich – Immunology

Conference report: Gut microbiota and brain function: An evolving field in neuroscience – Jane A. Foster – International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology

Animal microbiome

French invasive Asian tiger mosquito populations harbor reduced bacterial microbiota and genetic diversity compared to Vietnamese autochthonous relatives – G. Minard – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Deterministic processes vary during community assembly for ecologically dissimilar taxa – Jeff R. Powell – Nature Communications

A meta-analysis approach for assessing the diversity and specificity of belowground root and microbial volatiles – Denis Schenkel – Frontiers in Plant Science

Mining the phytomicrobiome to understand how bacterial coinoculations enhance plant growth – Maskit Maymon – Frontiers in Plant Science

Water microbiome

Contribution of cyanobacterial alkane production to the ocean hydrocarbon cycle
David J. Lea-Smith – PNAS

Review: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) for assessment of microbial water quality: current progress, challenges, and future opportunities – BoonFei Tan – Frontiers in Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome

Metagenomic analysis reveals that modern microbialites and polar microbial mats have similar taxonomic and functional potential – Richard Allen White III – Frontiers in Microbiology

Built environment microbiology

Typo in title, some plagiarized text, and poor English but still including here: Metagenomic Human Repiratory Air in a Hospital Environment – Yi Yu Lai – PLOS ONE

Food microbiology

Lactic acid bacterium and yeast microbiotas of sixteen French traditional sourdoughs – Emilie Lhomme – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Waste microbiology

Assessment of Bacterial Community Assembly Patterns and Processes in Pig Manure Slurry – Priyanka Kumari – PLOS ONE

Phages and viruses

Mammalian Host-Versus-Phage immune response determines phage fate in vivo – Katarzyna Hodyra-Stefaniak – Scientific Reports

Microbial Ecology

Review: Microbiomes: unifying animal and plant systems through the lens of community ecology theory – Natalie Christian – Frontiers in Microbiology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Host-Associated Metagenomics: A Guide to Generating Infectious RNA Viromes
Sarah Temmam – PLOS ONE

Microbes in the news

“revolutionary poop platform”: Biomiic’s Platform Will Give People Microbiome Data From Crap: How Joseph Moon, Koji Yasuda and Soohong Kim are changing genomics Harvard iLab – Bostinno

Get To Know Your Poop Bacteria With This New iPhone App – Stephanie M. Lee – BuzzFeed

Could This Tough Bacteria Survive on Mars? – Irene Klot – Discovery

Bacteria in the world’s oceans produce millions of tonnes of hydrocarbons each year – Phys.org

Archaea: A headline on the front page of the New York Times for November 3, 1977, read “Scientists Discover a Way of Life That Predates Higher Organisms”. – Laura Eme, W. Ford Doolittle – Current Biology

The science of retweets – Science Daily
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October 4, 2015

Pregnancy and birth

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

Transplantation and infection microbiology

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

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

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

Human gut microbiome

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

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

Animal models

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

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

Animal microbiome

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

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

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

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

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

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

Waste microbiology

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

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

Extremophiles

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

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

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

Bioinformatics, mathematical models, metagenomics

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

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

Metabolomics, Proteomics

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

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

Phages and viruses

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

Functional foods

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

Microbes in the news

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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October 1, 2015

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

Events

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

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

General microbiome

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

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

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

Pregnancy and birth

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

Human skin microbiome

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

Human gut microbiome

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

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

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

Animal models and bioreactors

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

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

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

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

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

Animal Microbiome

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

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

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

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

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

Water microbiome

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

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

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

Waste and composting microbiology

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

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

Metagenomics

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

Metabolic networks

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

Microbes in the news

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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September 30, 2015

Gut virome in infants, metabolome of Mediterranean diet, zebrafish gut assembly, antibiotic use and psoriasis risk, Roseobacter proteomics, and MetaPhlAn2.

Pregnancy and birth

The gut virome and bacterial microbiome—the early years – Katrina Ray – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Early life dynamics of the human gut virome and bacterial microbiome in infants
Efrem S Lim – Nature Medicine

Human oral microbiome

Functional biomarkers for chronic periodontitis and insights into the roles of Prevotella nigrescens and Fusobacterium nucleatum; a metatranscriptome analysis – Szymon P Szafrański – NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes

Urease and Dental Plaque Microbial Profiles in Children – Evangelia Morou-Bermudez – PLOS ONE

High prevalence of colonization of oral cavity by respiratory pathogens in frail older patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia – O. Ortega – Neurogastroenterology & Motility

Periodontal-disease-associated biofilm: A reservoir for pathogens of medical importance – Ana Paula Vieira Colombo – Microbial Pathogenesis

Human gut microbiome

High-level adherence to a Mediterranean diet beneficially impacts the gut microbiota and associated metabolome – Francesca De Fillippis – Gut

Review: Clinical and Pathophysiological Consequences of Alterations in the Microbiome in Cirrhosis – Jane Macnaughtan – American Journal of Gastroenterology

Animal models

Ontogenetic Differences in Dietary Fat Influence Microbiota Assembly in the Zebrafish Gut – Sandi Wong – mBio

Antibiotics in neonatal life increase murine susceptibility to experimental psoriasis
Peter Zanvit – Nature Communications

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Plant diversity shapes microbe-rhizosphere effects on P mobilisation from organic matter in soil – Nina Hacker – Ecology Letters

Oily waste containing natural radionuclides: does it cause stimulation or inhibition of soil bacterial community? – Polina Galitskaya – Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science

Plant diversity shapes microbe-rhizosphere effects on P mobilisation from organic matter in soil – Nina Hacker – Ecology Letters

Water microbiome

Proteomics of the Roseobacter clade, a window to the marine microbiology landscape – Joseph A. Christie-Oleza – Proteomics

Extremophile microbiome

Perspective: The discovery of Antarctic RNA viruses: a new game changer – Ricardo Cavicchioli – Molecular Ecology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

MetaPhlAn2 for enhanced metagenomic taxonomic profiling – Duy Tin Truong – Nature Methods

Metabolomics, proteomics

An automated Genomes-to-Natural Products platform (GNP) for the discovery of modular natural products – Chad W. Johnston – Nature Communications

Proteomics of the Roseobacter clade, a window to the marine microbiology landscape – Joseph A. Christie-Oleza – Proteomics

CRISPRs

Multiple mechanisms for CRISPR–Cas inhibition by anti-CRISPR proteins – Joseph Bondy-Denomy – Nature

Review: CRISPR-Cas immunity in prokaryotes – Luciano A. Marraffini – Nature

Microbes in the news

Study Links Skin Microbiome to Infections – Skin Inc

Ancient ‘Superman’ microbe’s ability to withstand damage to its DNA could be key to unlocking cancer cure, Chinese scientists say – Stephen Chen – South China Morning Post

Another Frontier in Microbiome Research: Preterm Birth – Julie A. Jacob – JAMA

Science, publishing, and career

A taxonomy of authorship roles – Credit Casrai

Bik’s Picks

What if everyone lived to 100? – Georgina Peters – London Business School Review

Gene-Edited “Micropigs” to Be Sold as Pets: The institute in Shenzhen, China, that creates the pigs quoted an initial price tag of $1,600 – David Cyranoski – Scientific American / Nature

1500-Year-Old Mosaic Map Found – Rossella Lorenzi – Discovery

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September 22, 2015

Effect of hookworm infection on microbiome of celiac subjects, neutrophil ageing, altering the bone niche, and a personal microbial cloud.

Pregnancy and birth

Influence of a combination of probiotics on bacterial infections in very low birthweight newborns – Zlatka Kanic – Wiener klinische Wochenschrift

Microbiome of death

High-throughput nucleotide sequence analysis of diverse bacterial communities in leachates of decomposing pig carcasses – Seung Hak Yang – Genetics and Molecular Biology

Human respiratory tract microbiome

Investigation of bacterial repopulation after sinus surgery and perioperative antibiotics – Leah J. Hauser – International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology

Human oral microbiome

Comparison of Subgingival and Peri-implant Microbiome in Chronic Periodontitis – Zhang, Qian – Chinese Journal of Dental Research

The novel association between red complex of oral microbe and body mass index in healthy Japanese: a population based cross-sectional study – Kanae Matsushita – Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition

Human gut microbiome

The relationship between faecal-associated and mucosal-associated microbiota in irritable bowel syndrome patients and healthy subjects – I. Rangel – Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Experimental hookworm infection and escalating gluten challenges are associated with increased microbial richness in celiac subjects – Paul Giacomin – Scientific Reports

Effect of administering a multi-species probiotic mixture on the changes in fecal microbiota and symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial – Hyuk Yoon – Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition

Review: Improving healthspan via changes in gut microbiota and fermentation – Michael J. Keenan – AGE

Review: Gastric Microbiota – Gianluca Ianiro – Helicobacter

Thesis: High-resolution analysis of the human intestinal microbiota stability landscape – Tineka Blake – Aalto University

Animal models

An integrated metabonomics and microbiology analysis of host-microbiota metabolic interactions in rats with Coptis chinensis-induced diarrhea – Yemeng Li – RCS Advances

Microbiota from Obese Mice Regulate Hematopoietic Stem Cell Differentiation by Altering the Bone Niche – Yubin Luo – Cell Metabolism

The levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system is associated with delayed endocervical clearance of Chlamydia trachomatis without alterations in vaginal microbiota – E.R. Liechty – Pathogens and Disease

Goldfish: Correlations of Gut Microbial Community Shift with Hepatic Damages and Growth Inhibition of Carassius auratus Induced by Pentachlorophenol Exposure – Haifeng Kan – Environmental Science & Technology

Neutrophil ageing is regulated by the microbiome – Dachuan Zhang – Nature

Animal microbiome

Diversity analysis of diazotrophs associated with corals from Xisha and Sanya, South China Sea – Qingsong Yang – Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management

Characterization of the Skin Microbiota in Italian Stream Frogs (Rana italica) Infected and Uninfected by a Cutaneous Parasitic Disease – Ermanno Federici – Microbes and Environments

Microbial diversity and activity in the Nematostella vectensis holobiont: insights from 16S rRNA gene sequencing, isolate genomes, and a pilot-scale survey of gene expression
Jia Y. Har – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Endophytic bacterial communities associated with two explant sources of Eucalyptus benthamii Maiden & Cambage – Natalia Pimentel Esposito-Polesi – World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Endospores, prokaryotes, and microbial indicators in arable soils from three long-term experiments – Paulina Tamez-Hidalgo – Biology and Fertility of Soils

Namib Desert dune/interdune transects exhibit habitat-specific edaphic bacterial communities – Sandra Ronca – Frontiers in Microbiology

Responses of aromatic-degrading microbial communities to elevated nitrate in sediments
Meiying Xu – Environmental Science & Technology

Climate change and physical disturbance cause similar community shifts in biological soil crusts – Scott Ferrenberg – PNAS

Water / Extremophile microbiome

Patchy-distributed ciliate (Protozoa) diversity of eight polar communities as determined by 454 amplicon pyrosequencing – Jae-Ho Jung – Animal Cells and Systems

Protist communities in a marine oxygen minimum zone off Costa Rica by 454 pyrosequencing – H. Jing – Biogeosciences Discussions

Built environment microbiome

Humans differ in their personal microbial cloud – James F. Meadow – PeerJ

Waste microbiology

Relationship between bacterial diversity and environmental parameters during composting of different raw materials – Xueqin Wang – Bioresource Technology

The sociality of bioremediation: Hijacking the social lives of microbial populations to clean up heavy metal contamination – Siobhan O’Brien, Angus Buckling – EMBO Reports

Culturing oil sands microbes as mixed species communities enhances ex situ model naphthenic acid degradation – Marc A. Demeter – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbial Ecology

Predicting microbial traits with phylogenies – Marta Goberna and Miguel Verdú – The ISME Journal

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Metagenomic reconstructions of bacterial CRISPR loci constrain population histories – Christine L Sun – The ISME Journal

CCLasso: correlation inference for compositional data through Lasso – Huaying Fang – Bioinformatics

Computational methodology for predicting the landscape of the human–microbial interactome region level influence – Edgar D. Coelho – Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

Techniques

Targeted single molecule mutation detection with massively parallel sequencing – Mark T. Gregory – Nucleic Acids Research

Micelle PCR reduces chimera formation in 16S rRNA profiling of complex microbial DNA mixtures – Stefan A. Boers – Scientific Reports

Virome Capture Sequencing Enables Sensitive Viral Diagnosis and Comprehensive Virome Analysis – Thomas Briese – mBio

Microbes in the news

Wherever You Go, Your Personal Cloud Of Microbes Follows – Rob Stein – NPR

Former CEO knew about contamination, wrote “Just ship it”: 28 years for salmonella: Peanut exec gets groundbreaking sentence – Moni Basu – CNN

UGA microbiology researchers identify potential mechanism for neurodegenerative diseases – News Medical

Researchers find novel signature in the brains of children with cerebral malaria – EurekAlert

Science, publishing, and career

About annoying invitations to write papers in questionable journals and strategies how to handle those: You are invited to submit… – David Moher and Anubhav Srivastava – BMC Medicine

Bik’s Picks

8 trillion microbeads pollute U.S. aquatic habitats daily – Jareen Imam – CNN

Science Says This Is the Sound Giraffes Make – Alexandra Sifferlin – Time

I Am the Walrus: What 35,000 Walruses Tell Us About Our Future in Warming World – Miyoko Sakashita – Huffington Post

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