June 30, 2015

Metabolomics and gut colonization of gnotobiotic mice, metabolomics of mice treated with antibiotics, inter-individual and temporal variation in human oral microbiotas, and several papers on microbes in agricultural-use soil.

Events

Free Cell Press webinar on Microbiome, Antibiotics and Human Disease: July 28th – Cell Press

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Book chapter: The Effect of Diet and Probiotics on the Human Gut Microbiome – Lorenzo Morelli – Metabolic Syndrome and Complications of Pregnancy

Human oral microbiome

Inter-Individual Differences in the Oral Bacteriome Are Greater than Intra-Day Fluctuations in Individuals – Yukuto Sato – PLOS ONE

Oral microflora of supragingival and subgingival biofilms in Algerian healthy adults – Sara Ziouani – African Journal of Microbiology Research

Human respiratory microbiome

Airway bacteria and respiratory symptoms are common in ambulatory HIV-positive UK adults – Camus Nimmo – European Respiratory Journal

Oral application of lactic acid bacteria following treatment with antibiotics inhibits allergic airway inflammation – Qiuxiang Zhang – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Human vaginal microbiome

Soluble Immune Mediators and Vaginal Bacteria Impact Innate Genital Mucosal Antimicrobial Activity in Young Women – Rebecca Pellett Madan – American Journal of Reproductive Immunology

Human gut microbiome

Fetal programming of overweight through the microbiome: boys are disproportionately affected – A. L. Kozyrskyj – Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

Impact of fluoroquinolones on human microbiota. Focus on the emergence of antibiotic resistance – Victoire de Lastours – Future Microbiology

Animal models

Metabolome progression during early gut microbial colonization of gnotobiotic mice – Angela Marcobal – Scientific Reports

Metabolic and metagenomic outcomes from early-life pulsed antibiotic treatment – Yael R. Nobel – Nature Communications

Altered Interactions between the Gut Microbiome and Colonic Mucosa Precede Polyposis in APCMin/+ Mice – Joshua S. Son – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

Review: The use of probiotics in aquaculture – Ngo Van Hai – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Thesis: Roles of the symbiotic microbial communities associated with sponge hosts in the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles – Russell T Hill – University of Maryland

Master Thesis: Arsenic Exposure Alters the Microbiome of Larval Zebrafish: A Metagenomic Analysis – Dylan A. Dahan – Bard Digital Commons

Discovery of a novel circular DNA virus in the Forbes sea star, Asterias forbesi – Elizabeth Fahsbender – Archives of Virology

Sexual transmission of beneficial microbes – Chad C. Smith – Trends in Ecology & Evolution

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Rhizosphere bacteria and fungi associated with plant growth in soils of three replanted apple orchards – Ingrid H. Franke-Whittle – Plant and Soil

Microbial population dynamics in response to Pectobacterium atrosepticum infection in potato tubers – Viia Kõiv – Scientific Reports

Maternal effects on tree phenotypes: considering the microbiome – Maria Vivas – Trends in Plant Science

Bacterial population and biodegradation potential in chronically crude oil-contaminated marine sediments are strongly linked to temperature – Rafael Bargiela – Scientific Reports

Soil Microbial Communities are Shaped by Plant-Driven Changes in Resource Availability During Secondary Succession – Lauren C. Cline – Ecology

Warmer temperature accelerates methane emissions from the Zoige wetland on the Tibetan Plateau without changing methanogenic community composition – Mengmeng Cui – Scientific Reports

Water microbiome

Constitutive presence of antibiotic resistance genes within the bacterial community of a large subalpine lake – Andrea Di Cesare – Molecular Ecology

Draft Genome Sequences of Leviviridae RNA Phages EC and MB Recovered from San Francisco Wastewater – Alexander L. Greninger – Genome Announcements

Seasonal Dynamics of Marine Microbial Community in the South Sea of Korea – Sung-Suk Suh – PLOS ONE

Built environment / water treatment microbiology

Comparative metagenomics reveals microbial community differentiation in a biological heap leaching system – Qi Hu – Research in Microbiology

Impact of disinfection on drinking water biofilm bacterial community – Zilong Mi – Journal of Environmental Sciences

Intensive care unit environmental surfaces are contaminated by multidrug-resistant bacteria in biofilms: combined results of conventional culture, pyrosequencing, scanning electron microscopy, and confocal laser microscopy – H. Hu – The Journal of Hospital Infection

A review of melanized (black) fungal contamination in pharmaceutical products – incidence, drug recall and control measures – Rajendran Vijayakumar – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

BioMaS: a modular pipeline for Bioinformatic analysis of Metagenomic AmpliconS – Bruno Fosso – BMC Bioinformatics

Challenges and opportunities in understanding microbial communities with metagenome assembly (accompanied by IPython Notebook tutorial) – Adina Howe – Frontiers in Microbiology

Metabolomics

Human Urinary Composition Controls Antibacterial Activity of Siderocalin – Robin R. Shields-Cutler – The Journal of Biological Chemistry

Human Urine Decreases Function and Expression of Type 1 Pili in Uropathogenic Escherichia coli – Sarah E. Greene – mBio

New techniques

To Celebrate Marriage Equality, Illumina to Release “BiSeq” Genome Sequencer – The Allium

More microbiology

More than the sum of its parts – Julia Fahrenkamp-Uppenbrink – Science

Ecological communities by design – James K. Fredrickson – Science

The bacterial pangenome as a new tool for analyzing pathogenic bacteria – Laetitia Rouli – New Microbes and New Infections

Microbes in the news

Antibiotics and the Gut Microbiome: Antibiotics given to infant mice may have long-term effects on the animals’ metabolism and gut microbiota – Anna Azvolinsky – The Scientist

Study: Breast milk helps babies develop immunity-boosting gut bacteria – Deena Shanker – Quartz

Your Diet May Be Causing Your Urinary Tract Infections – Mandy Oaklander – Time

uBiome and OpenBiome Partner for Microbiome Study in FMT Patients – Study will provide new insights on mechanics of fecal microbiota transplantation in C. difficile patients – uBiome

Passive Aggressive: Drosophila microbiota influence behavior – Julie Wolf – mBioSphere

Soil water, microbes influence carbon in world’s coldest desert, study finds – Phys.org

Invisible You: Art and Microbiology at the Eden Project – Microbe Post

Science, publishing, and career

The Myth of the Academic Lottery – Kelly J. Baker – Chronicle Vitae

Bik’s Picks

I saw this last night and it was so pretty: Venus and Jupiter to Put on ‘Best Backyard Sky Show of 2015’ – Alyssa Newcomb – ABC News

Say hello to the centipede from hell – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

California governor signs strict law requiring vaccinations for most kids – Liz Szabo – USA Today

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June 29, 2015

Gut microbiome of children with Schistosoma infections, what happens to the hooves after a cow dies, and microbiomes at extremely dry or hot places.

General microbiome

Only one health, and so many omics – Nives Pećina-Šlaus – Cancer Cell International

Interchange of entire communities: microbial community coalescence – Matthias C. Rillig – Trends in Ecology and Evolution

A Vision for Investigating the Microbiology of Health and Disease – W. Ian Lipkin – The Journal of Infectious Diseases

Collateral sensitivity of antibiotic-resistant microbes – Csaba Pál – Trends in Microbiology

Personalized medicine going precise: from genomics to microbiomics – Sanjay K. Shukla – Trends in Molecular Medicine

Review: Secrets from the microbiome: molecular biology meets microbiology meets histopathology….meets clinical biochemistry – Caroline Young – Annals of Clinical Biochemistry

Human respiratory microbiome

Editorial: Infectious asthma triggers: time to revise the hygiene hypothesis? – Wilmore C. Webley – Trends in Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Differences in the Faecal Microbiome in Schistosoma haematobium Infected Children vs. Uninfected Children – Gemma Louise Kay – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Glycan complexity dictates microbial resource allocation in the large intestine – Artur Rogowski – Nature Communications

Review: Intestinal Microbiota, Lipids, and the Pathogenesis of Intestinal Failure–Associated Liver Disease – Way Seah Lee – The Journal of Pediatrics

Review: Influence of gut bacteria on development and progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease – Ali Abdul-Hai – World Journal of Hepatology

Animal microbiome

Cockroaches: Aerobic Bacterial Community of American Cockroach Periplaneta americana,a Step toward Finding Suitable Paratransgenesis Candidates – Sanaz Akbari – Journal of Arthropod-Borne Diseases

Hooves from dead cows: Compost biodegradation of recalcitrant hoof keratin by bacteria and fungi – T. Reuter – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Fish: Modulation of the intestinal microbiota and morphology of tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus , following the application of a multi-species probiotic – B . T. Standen – Applied

Jellyfish: Changing company: Composition of bacterial communities associated with
Aurelia aurita changes with compartment, life stage and population – Nancy Weiland-Bräuer – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Ants: Bacterial community composition and diversity in an ancestral ant fungus symbiosis – Katrin Kellner – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Review: A new view of the fish gut microbiome: Advances from next-generation sequencing – Mahdi Ghanbari

Plant microbiome

Host–microbe interactions as a driver of acclimation to salinity gradients in brown algal cultures – Simon M Dittami – The ISME Journal

The olive knot disease as a model to study the role of interspecies bacterial communities in plant disease – Roberto Buonaurio – Frontiers in Plant Science

Review: Biotic Interactions in the Rhizosphere: A Diverse Cooperative Enterprise for Plant Productivity – Clelia De-la-Peña – Plant Physiology

Editorial on plants as alternative hosts for human and animal pathogens – Nicola J. Holden – Frontiers in Microbiology

Soil microbiome

Responses of bacterial communities to simulated climate changes in alpine meadow soil of
Qinghai-Tibet plateau – Junpeng Rui – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Evaluation of bacterial communities by bacteriome analysis targeting 16S rRNA genes and quantitative analysis of ammonia monooxygenase gene in different types of compost – Rika Kitamura – Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering

Soil conditions and land use intensification effects on soil microbial communities across a range of European field sites – Bruce C. Thomson – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Impact of urine and the application of the nitrification inhibitor DCD on microbial communities in dairy-grazed pasture soils – Sergio E. Morales – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Water microbiome

Metagenomic assessment of viral diversity in Lake Matoaka, a temperate, eutrophic freshwater lake in southeastern Virginia, USA – Jasmin C. Green – Aquatic Microbial Ecology

A comparison of bacterial community structure in seawater pond with shrimp, crab, and shellfish cultures and in non-cultured pond in Ganyu, Eastern China – LianTai Li – Annals of Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome

Phylogenetic Profiling and Diversity of Bacterial Communities in the Death Valley, an Extreme Habitat in the Atacama Desert – Francine Piubeli – Indian Journal of Microbiology

Review: Uncultivated thermophiles: current status and spotlight on ‘Aigarchaeota’ – Brian P Hedlund – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Food microbiology

Evaluation and identification of poly-microbial biofilms on natural green Gordal table olives – Antonio Benítez-Cabello – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Proteomic and high-throughput analysis of protein expression and microbial diversity of microbes from 30- and 300-year pit muds of Chinese Luzhou-flavor liquor – Qi Zheng – Food Research International

Bacterial communities during the process of high-temperature Daqu production of roasted sesame-like flavour liquor – Yao Su – Journal of the Institute of Brewing

Bioreactor microbiology

Sulfate Reducing Bacteria and Mycobacteria Dominate the Biofilm Communities in a Chloraminated Drinking Water Distribution System – Christa Kimloi Gomez-Smith – Environmental Science & Technology

The Microbiota and Abundance of the Class 1 Integron-Integrase Gene in Tropical Sewage Treatment Plant Influent and Activated Sludge – Magna C. Paiva – PLOS ONE

Metabolic networks

Metabolic pathway activity estimation from RNA-Seq data – Yvette Temate-Tiagueu – ISBRA abstracts

Microbes in the news

Volunteers Needed for Human Microbiota Study: prebiotic effects of certain rice bran components @UArkansas

In Defense of Fiber: How Changing Your Diet Changes Your Gut Bacteria – Mandy Oaklander – Time

Undergraduate is first author on study of Lake Matoaka’s metagenome – Joseph McClain – WM.edu

DNA Genotek Inc. announces recipients of gut microbiome grant program – Steamfeed

Indigo-Clean Is New Light Designed For Hospitals That Kills Bacteria – James Maynard – TechTimes

The ‘frightening’ rise of flesh-eating bacteria: Mystery, pain and amputations – Peter Holley – Washington Post

Fatty and sugary foods linked to lower cognitive functions: Mouse data – Nathan Gray – Food Navigator

Investors Think This Company’s Gut Bacteria Are Worth $1.9 Billion – John Tozzi – Bloomberg

What’s new in gastroenterology? Insights from BMC Medicine at #DDW2015 – Alessandro Recchioni- BioMedCentral

Science, publishing, and career

From trainee to tenure-track: ten tips – Tuuli Lappalainen – Genome Biology

What would be a suitable value for the absolute minimum proportion of female speakers at genomics/bioinformatics conferences? – Keith Bradnam? – ACGT blog

Bik’s Picks

Make it count! ‘Leap second’: Why June 30 will have one extra second – Deborah Netburn – LA Times

SpaceX Rocket Explosion Destroys Students’ Science Experiment – Alyssa Newcomb – ABC News

Rats Dream About the Places They Want to Explore – Kiona Smith-Strickland – Discover Magazine
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June 26, 2015

Antibiotic resistance genes in stool from 3 twin pairs, oasis microbiome helps date palms cope with drought, and mother’s littlest helpers.

General microbiome

Triclosan and prescription antibiotic exposures and enterolactone production in adults – Margaret A. Adgent – Environmental Research

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Gut resistome development in healthy twin pairs in the first year of life – Aimee M. Moore – Microbiome

Center Variation in Intestinal Microbiota Prior to Late-Onset Sepsis in Preterm Infants – Diana H. Taft – PLOS ONE

Editorial: Mother’s littlest helpers – Katie Hinde – Science

Human skin microbiome

Identification of the skin virome in a boy with widespread human papillomavirus-2-positive warts that completely regressed after administration of tetravalent human papillomavirus vaccine – M.M. Landini – British Journal of Dermatology

Use of 16S rRNA sequencing and quantitative PCR to correlate venous leg ulcer bacterial bioburden dynamics with wound expansion, antibiotic therapy, and healing – Daniel D. Sprockett – Wound Repair and Regeneration

Human gut microbiome

Editorial: Go with your gut: microbiota meet microglia – Kira Irving Mosher – Nature Neuroscience

Review: Metabolism of Chinese Materia Medica in Gut Microbiota and Its Biological Effects – Yan Wang – Chinese Herbal Medicines

Animal models of microbiome research

The role of beneficial bacteria wall elasticity in regulating innate immune response – Viktoria V. Мokrozub – The EPMA Journal

Exposure to soil, house dust and decaying plants increases gut microbial diversity and decreases serum immunoglobulin E levels in BALB/c mice – Dongrui Zhou – Environmental Microbiology

Animal microbiome

The gill microbiota of invasive and indigenous Spondylus oysters from the Mediterranean Sea and northern Red Sea – Yahala Rina Roterman – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Exercising influence: distinct biotic interactions shape root microbiomes – Sarah Stuart Sloan, Sarah L Lebeis – Current Opinion in Plant Biology

Oasis Desert Farming Selects Environment-Specific Date Palm Root Endophytic Communities and Cultivable Bacteria that Promote Resistance to Drought – Hanene Cherif – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Comprehensive sampling of an isolated dune system demonstrates clear patterns in soil fungal communities across a successional gradient – Alice Roy-Bolduc – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Metagenomic analyses reveal no differences in genes involved in cellulose degradation under different tillage treatments – Maria de Vries – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Water microbiome

Viral activities and life-cycles in deep subseafloor sediment – Tim Engelhardt – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Waterborne Viruses: A Barrier to Safe Drinking Water – Aimee M. Gall – PLOS Pathogens

Bacterial biogeography in the coastal waters of northern Zhejiang, East China Sea is highly controlled by spatially structured environmental gradients – Kai Wang – Environmental Microbiology

Distribution patterns of bacterioplankton in the oligotrophic south-eastern Mediterranean Sea – Sabine Keuter – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Mathematical Model of Dynamic Behavior of Microbial Desalination Cells for Simultaneous Wastewater Treatment and Water Desalination – Qingyun Ping – Environmental Science & Technology

Extremophile microbiome

Review: The changing form of Antarctic biodiversity – Steven L. Chown – Nature

Painting microbiome

Amid the possible causes of a very famous foxing: molecular and microscopic insight into Leonardo da Vinci’s self-portrait – Guadalupe Piñar – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Food microbiology

Empirical Model based on Weibull Distribution describing the Destruction Kinetics of Natural Microbiota in Pineapple (Ananas comosus L.) Puree during High-Pressure Processing – Snehasis Chakraborty – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Metabolic networks

Metabolic network modeling of microbial communities – Matthew B. Biggs – Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Systems Biology and Medicine

Microbes in the news

Metropolitan Metagenomics: Mapping the Urban Genome – Catherine Potenski – BioMedCentral Blog

The Problem With David Perlmutter, the Grain Brain Doctor – Alan Levinovitz – NY Magazine

Oregon State University researcher Kathy Magnusson probes the rodent gut – Diane Dietz – Register Guard

Breast Milk Studies May Lead to Better Probiotics, Baby Formula – Tia Ghose – Live Science

Volunteers sweat for science at NC Museum of Natural Sciences – Rose Rimler – News Observer

Fermented Foods Including Yogurt And Sauerkraut May Help Calm Social Anxiety – John McQuaid – Forbes

You May Be on a Paleo Diet, but Is Your Microbiome? How a meat–centric diet can starve your gut bacteria – Erica Sonnenburg – Psychology Today

Team Effort – XKCD comics

Raise a glass to the Black Death: The ravages of the plague led directly to the creation of the pub, historian claims – Hannah Furness – The Telegraph

Should you eat your baby’s placenta? – Laura Sanders – Science News

Science, publishing, and career

Self-correction in science at work: protecting the integrity of science – Bruce Alberts – Science

Introducing “Research Matters” – Grant McFadden – PLOS Pathogens

Practical policies can combat gender inequality – Douglas Hilton – Nature

Bik’s Picks

Crossbreeding Could Help Coral Survive Warming Waters – Sindya N. Bhanoo – New York Times

Home-brewed heroin is near after scientists nail down poppy morphine gene – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

New rapid diagnostic test detects Ebola virus in minutes – IBN Live

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June 24, 2015

Chinese mushroom might help with weight loss (in mice), asthma and the microbiome (also in mice), metabolic networks in the gut, and benefits of resistant starch. Plus: Taylor Swift won’t be doing anymore reviewing for Nature.

Human oral microbiome

Alterations of Bacteroides sp., Neisseria sp., Actinomyces sp., and Streptococcus sp. populations in the oropharyngeal microbiome are associated with liver cirrhosis and pneumonia – Haifeng Lu – BMC Infectious Diseases

Intra-Genomic Heterogeneity in 16S rRNA Genes in Strictly Anaerobic Clinical Isolates from Periodontal Abscesses – Jiazhen Chen – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Akkermansia muciniphila and improved metabolic health during a dietary intervention in obesity: relationship with gut microbiome richness and ecology – Maria Carlota Dao – Gut

Animal models

Ganoderma lucidum reduces obesity in mice by modulating the composition of the gut microbiota – Chih-Jung Chang – Nature Communications

Evidence that asthma is a developmental origin disease influenced by maternal diet and bacterial metabolites – Alison N. Thorburn – Nature Communications

Characterization of the bacterial gut microbiota of piglets suffering from new neonatal porcine diarrhoea – Marie Louise Hermann-Bank – BMC Veterinary Research

Animal microbiome

Allometry of animal–microbe interactions and global census of animal-associated microbes – Thomas L. Kieft, Karen A. Simmons – Proceedings B

Introduction of Non-Native Pollinators Can Lead to Trans-Continental Movement of Bee-Associated Fungi – Shannon M. Hedtke – PLOS ONE

Effect of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate on growth, enzyme activity and intestinal microbial community of Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis (Milne-Edwards) juveniles – Liying Sui – Aquaculture Research

Small stonefly predators affect microbenthic and meiobenthic communities in stream leaf packs – Nabil Majdi – Freshwater Biology

Plant, root and soil microbiome

Hologenome theory supported by co-occurrence networks of species-specific bacterial communities in siphonous algae (Caulerpa) – T. Aires – FEMS Microbial Ecology

Land Use History Shifts In Situ Fungal and Bacterial Successions following Wheat Straw Input into the Soil – Vincent Tardy – PLOS ONE

Water microbiome

Inefficient microbial production of refractory dissolved organic matter in the ocean – Helena Osterholz – Nature Communications

The Link between Microbial Diversity and Nitrogen Cycling in Marine Sediments Is Modulated by Macrofaunal Bioturbation – Maryam Yazdani Foshtomi – PLOS ONE

Functional foods

Review: Preparation, health benefits and applications of resistant starch—a review – Bilal Ahmad Ashwar – Starch – Stärke

Metabolic networks and metabolomics

Inference of Network Dynamics and Metabolic Interactions in the Gut Microbiome – Steven N. Steinway – PLOS Computational Biology

A genome-wide systems analysis reveals strong link between colorectal cancer and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a gut microbial metabolite of dietary meat and fat – Rong Xu – BMC Genomics

Application of a hierarchical enzyme classification method reveals the role of gut microbiome in human metabolism – Akram Mohammed – BMC Genomics

Comparative integrated omics: identification of key functionalities in microbial community-wide metabolic networks – Hugo Roume – NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes

Use of the Analysis of the Volatile Faecal Metabolome in Screening for Colorectal Cancer – Claire A Batty – PLOS ONE

Microbes in the news

IndieGoGo project: A Probiotic Life: Microbiome Documentary

New colon cancer culprit found in gut microbiome – EurekAlert

Mushroom used in Chinese medicine ‘slows weight gain’ – James Gallagher – BBC News

Announcing the uBiome Studies Portal “We’re aiming to launch one new study every week.” – uBiome

What is the role of the gut microbiome in developing Parkinson’s disease? – EurekAlert

Microbiology and art

Artists Reveal the Bacterial Beauty of the Human Microbiome – Shaunacy Ferro – Mental Floss

Science, publishing, and career

A day in the life of a malaria researcher – Lin Lee – BioMedCentral Blogs

Towards an unbiased view of science: Authors at Nature Communications now have the option to choose double-blind peer review – Nature Communications

Satire: Taylor Swift Announces She Will No Longer Review For Nature – The Allium

Bik’s Picks

A Middle Triassic stem-turtle and the evolution of the turtle body plan – Rainer R. Schoch & Hans-Dieter Sues – Nature

Scientists Finally Decide Which Bit of This Weird Animal is the Head – Ed Yong – National Geographic

America’s Next Top Chef is a Supercomputer From IBM – Liz Stinson – Wired
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June 22, 2015

How do human gut microbiomes change after death, microbiome of Gulf of Mexico 1 year after Deepwater Horizon, and mining microbial dark matter.

Human gut microbiome

Estimating Time Since Death from Postmortem Human Gut Microbial Communities – Kathleen A. Hauther – Journal of Forensic Sciences

16S rRNA gene-based profiling of the human infant gut microbiota is strongly influenced by sample processing and PCR primer choice – Alan W. Walker – Microbiome Journal

Review: Peripheral aetiopathogenic drivers and mediators of Parkinson’s disease and co-morbidities: role of gastrointestinal microbiota – Sylvia M. Dobbs – Journal of NeuroVirology

Animal models

The effects of xylo-oligosaccharides on performance and microbiota in broiler chickens – De Maesschalck C – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

A comparison of faecal microbial populations of South African Windsnyer-type indigenous pigs (SAWIP) and Large White x Landrace (LW x LR) crosses fed diets containing ensiled maize cobs – Arnold T. Kanengoni – FEMS Microbiology Letters

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Illumina-based analysis the microbial diversity associated with Thalassia hemprichii in Xincun Bay, South China Sea – Yu-Feng Jiang – Ecotoxicology

Methanotrophic and methanogenic communities in Swiss alpine fens dominated by Carex rostrata and Eriophorum angustifolium – Simrita Cheema – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Antibacterial effect of the Trichoderma viride fungi on soil microbiome during PAH’s biodegradation – Zuzanna Szczepaniak – International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation

Water microbiome

Microbial community composition, functions and activities in the Gulf of Mexico, one
year after the Deepwater Horizon accident – Etienne Yergeau – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Metagenomics and Bioinformatics

Compact graphical representation of phylogenetic data and metadata with GraPhlAn – Francesco Asnicar – PeerJ

Techniques

Design and application of a synthetic DNA standard for real-time PCR analysis of microbial communities in a biogas digester – T. May – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Optimizing a PCR protocol for cpn60-based microbiome profiling of samples variously contaminated with host genomic DNA – Lisa A Johnson – BMC Research Notes

Microbes in the news

Mining the microbial dark matter: Microbiologists are finding new ways to explore the vast universe of unknown microbes in the hunt for antibiotics – Corie Lok – Nature

Legumes control infection of nodules by both symbiotic and endophytic bacteria – Aarhus University

Correlation does not mean causation: Yogurt’s Probiotics Can Help Boost Your Socialization Skills – Daily Times Gazette

Teenager killed by plague in rural northern Colorado – Daniel Wallis – Reuters

Recent Built Environment Microbiology papers, June 21 edition – Elisabeth M Bik – MicroBE.net

Science, publishing, and career

Cold E-mails and Hot Coffee: Take action on your career – Albert Chen et al. – Science

Reset your brain: A bit of self-reflection can propel scientists into a career beyond the lab – Christopher Taylor – Nature

Enough talk. There are ways we can help women in science now – Athene Donald – The Guardian

Bik’s Picks

Neanderthal hybrid suggests modern humans bred with them much later than thought – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

What Pope Francis and scientists have in common when they look at the natural world – Chris Mooney – Washington Post

Musicians don’t just hear in tune, they also see in tune – Science Daily
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June 20, 2015

Catching up after spending all day in the lab on Friday, and all day working on figures and text today…. Here’s your weekend digest, with the microbiome of sport schools, phasing of Illumina sequencing, and happy endings for preterm infants.

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Preterm infant gut colonization in the Neonatal ICU and Complete Restoration two years later – Laura Moles – Clinical Microbiology and Infection

Clostridium butyricum strains and dysbiosis linked to necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm neonates – Nadim Cassir – Clinical Infectious Diseases

Human respiratory microbiome

The microbiome of the human lower airways: a next generation sequencing perspective – Velma T. E. Aho – World Allergy Organization Journal

Human skin microbiome

Poster: Noma disease: 10 years of research in the quest of a microbial etiology – P François – Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control

Human oral microbiome

Oral Mucositis in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Patients: Evaluation of Microbiological and Hematological Factors – Regina Maria Holanda de Mendonça – Pediatric Hematology-Oncology

Human gut microbiome

Composition and temporal stability of the gut microbiota in older persons – Ian B Jeffery – The ISME Journal

The Host Genotype and Environment Affect Strain Types of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum Inhabiting the Intestinal Tracts of Twins – Min Zhang – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

The Influence of the Gut Microbiome on Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome and Gastrointestinal Disease – Parth J Pareck – Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology

Editorial: About the gut microbiome as a pharmacological target in atherosclerosis – Julia.J. Witjes – European Journal of Pharmacology

Editorial: Diabetes, More on Merde, the Microbiome, and the Dung Beetle – Richard I. Shader – Clinical Therapeutics

Review: Effect of Dietary Resistant Starch on Prevention and Treatment of Obesity-related Diseases and Its Possible Mechanisms – Lei Zhang – Biomedical and Environmental Sciences

Animal models

In pigs: Influence of genotype and feeding strategy on pig performance, plasma concentrations of micro nutrients, immune responses and fecal microbiota composition of growing-finishing pigs in a forage-based system – A.G. Kongsted – Livestock Science

In rats: Prenatal Stress-Induced Alterations in Major Physiological Systems Correlate with Gut Microbiota Composition in Adulthood – Anna V. Golubeva – Psychoneuroendocrinology

In mice: The genetic architecture of NAFLD among inbred strains of mice – Simon T Hui – eLIFE

Animal microbiome

Cows: Ruminal Bacterial Community Composition in Dairy Cows Is Dynamic over the Course of Two Lactations and Correlates with Feed Efficiency – Kelsea A. Jewell – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Thesis: The earthworm microbiome – Daniel Antony Pass – Cardiff University

Thesis: Gut microbiota of migratory passerines at stopover – William Lewis – University of Southern Mississippi

Plant microbiome

PERN: an EU–Russia initiative for rhizosphere microbial resources – Stéphane Declerck – Trends in Biotechnology

Review: Biological control in the microbiome era: challenges and opportunities – Haissam Jijakli – Biological Control

Plant root and soil microbiome

Impact of plant domestication on rhizosphere microbiome assembly and functions
Juan E. Pérez-Jaramillo – Plant Molecular Biology

16S rRNA-based bacterial community structure is a sensitive indicator of soil respiration activity – Rongxiao Che – Journal of Soils and Sediments

Built environment microbiome

Athletic equipment microbiota are shaped by interactions with human skin – Mariah Wood – Microbiome

Food microbiology

Bacteriophages Isolated from Chicken Meat and the Horizontal Transfer of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes – Amira Shousha – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbiological diversity associated with the spontaneous wet method of coffee fermentation – Suzana Reis Evangelista – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Chemical and microbiological characteristics of traditional homemade fresh goat cheeses from Northern Morocco – Ouiam El Galiou – Small Ruminant Research

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Microbial bioinformatics for food safety and production – Wynand Alkema – Briefings in Bioinformatics

Niche distribution and influence of environmental parameters in marine microbial communities: a systematic review – Felipe H. Coutinho – Peer J

Ultra-large alignments using phylogeny-aware profiles – Nam-phuong D Nguyen – Genome Biology

Techiques

Phasing amplicon sequencing on Illumina Miseq for robust environmental microbial community analysis – Liyou Wu – BMC Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Medicine’s next frontier: The microbiome – Meg Tirrell – CNBC

Microbes could be key for better yields, stronger plants – Michigan State University – AG Professional

Berkeley balcony collapse: A failure at the intersection of building science and microbiology – Brent Stephens – Microbe.net

Science, publishing, and career

Gender Differences in Physicians’ Financial Ties to Industry: A Study of National Disclosure Data – Susannah L. Rose – PLOS ONE

“If you think it’s rude to ask to look at your co-authors’ data, you’re not doing science” – C. K. Gunsalus and Drummond Rennie – Retraction Watch

Bik’s Picks

An Ant With the Right Coat for 158-Degree Weather – Sindya N. Bhanoo – New York Times

8 million mummified animals, mostly dogs, in catacombs at Egypt site – Greg Botelho – CNN

Blind Americans can now ‘see’ with a device that uses their tongues – Michelle Cortez – Mashable

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June 16, 2015

Human oral microbiome

The cultivable microbiota of primary and secondary infected root canals, their susceptibility to antibiotics and association with the signs and symptoms of infection – M. E. Łysakowska – International Endodontic Journal

DGGE: Profiling of Oral and Nasal Microbiome in Children With Cleft Palate – Min Zhang – The Cleft Palate–Craniofacial Journal

Human gut microbiome

Stool consistency is strongly associated with gut microbiota richness and composition, enterotypes and bacterial growth rates – Doris Vandeputte – Gut

Bacterial Composition of the Human Upper Gastrointestinal Tract Microbiome Is Dynamic and Associated with Genomic Instability in a Barrett’s Esophagus Cohort – Alevtina Gall – PLOS ONE

Alterations in Intestinal Microbiota Correlate with Susceptibility to Type 1 Diabetes – Aimon K. Alkanani – Diabetes

Specific gut microbiota features and metabolic markers in postmenopausal women with obesity – LK Brahe – Nutrition & Diabetes

Inter- and intra-individual variations in seasonal and daily stabilities of the human gut microbiota in Japanese – Takayoshi Hisada – Archives of Microbiology

Editorial: Gut bacteria feed a healthy brain – Denise Waldron – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Review: The gut microbiota of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: current methods and their interpretation – Niels van Best – Hepatology International

Review: Can we change our microbiome to prevent colorectal cancer development? – Roberta M. Manzat-Saplacan – Acta Oncologica

Human genital microbiome

Penile Microbiota and Female Partner Bacterial Vaginosis in Rakai, Uganda – Cindy M. Liu – mBio

Models of microbiome

In pigs: Neonatal environment exerts a sustained influence on the development of the intestinal microbiota and metabolic phenotype – Claire A Merrifield – ISME Journal

In goats: Postnatal bacterial succession and functional establishment of hindgut in supplemental feeding and grazing goats – J. Z. Jiao – Journal of Animal Science

In termites: Multiple analyses of microbial communities applied to the gut of the wood-feeding termite Reticulitermes flavipes fed on artificial diets – Cédric Tarayre – Symbiosis

Animal microbiome

Sponges: Pyrosequencing revealed shifts of prokaryotic communities between healthy and disease-like tissues of the Red Sea sponge Crella cyathophora – Zhao-Ming Gao – PeerJ

Sponges: Microbial diversity and putative diazotrophy in high and low microbial abundance Mediterranean sponges – Marta Ribes – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Plant root and soil microbiome

Tree genotype mediates covariance among communities from microbes to lichens and arthropods – Louis J. Lamit – Journal of Ecology

Assessment of microbial communities in mung bean (Vigna radiata) rhizosphere upon exposure to phytotoxic levels of Copper – Murali Sharaff – Journal of Basic Microbiology

Analyzing the antagonistic potential of the lichen microbiome against pathogens by bridging metagenomic with culture studies – Tomislav Cernava – Frontiers in Microbiology

Response of rhizosphere microbial community structure and diversity to heavy metal co-pollution in arable soil – Linjing Deng – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Soil Microbial Functions After Forest Fires Affected by the Compost Quality – René Guénon – Land Degradation & Development

Vertical Distribution of Soil Denitrifying Communities in a Wet Sclerophyll Forest under Long-Term Repeated Burning – Xian Liu – Microbial Ecology

Metagenome Sequencing Reveals Rhodococcus Dominance in Farpuk Cave, Mizoram, India, an Eastern Himalayan Biodiversity Hot Spot Region – Surajit De Mandal – Genome Announcements

The stability of textile azo dyes in soil and their impact on microbial phospholipid fatty acid profiles – Muhammad Imran – Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

Endophyte community composition is associated with dieback occurrence in an invasive tree – Tracey V. Steinrucken – Plant and Soil

Multi-Analytical Approach Reveals Potential Microbial Indicators in Soil for Sugarcane Model Systems – Acacio Aparecido Navarrete – PLOS ONE

Resilience of soil microbial and nematode communities after biofumigant treatment with defatted seed meals – S. Mocali – Industrial Crops and Products

Effect of cassava mill effluent on biological activity of soil microbial community – Etinosa O. Igbinosa – Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

Editorial: An interkingdom partnership – Naomi Attar – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Review: Synergisms between microbial pathogens in plant disease complexes: a growing trend – Jay Ram Lamichhane – Frontiers in Plant Science

Review: Plant Virus Metagenomics: Advances in Virus Discovery – Marilyn J. Roossinck – Phytopathology

Water microbiome

Microbial ecology in a future climate: effects of temperature and moisture on microbial communities of two boreal fens – Krista Peltoniemi – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

A Multi Size-Level Assessment of Benthic Marine Communities in a Coastal Environment: Are They Different Sides of the Same Coin? – Claudia Vannini – PLOS ONE

Manganese-Cycling Microbial Communities Inside Deep-Sea Manganese Nodules – Marco Blöthe – Environmental Science & Technology

Editorial: Deep sequencing of the global oceans – Cláudio Nunes-Alves – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome

Microbial diversity of hypersaline environments: a metagenomic approach – Antonio Ventosa – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Application of a Bayesian nonparametric model to derive toxicity estimates based on the response of Antarctic microbial communities to fuel-contaminated soil – Julyan Arbel – Ecology and Evolution

Bioreactor microbiome

Evaluation of surfactants on waste activated sludge fermentation by pyrosequencing analysis – Aijuan Zhou – Bioresource Technology

Impact of the contemporary environment on denitrifying bacterial communities – Sarah K. Hathaway – Ecological Engineering

Food microbiology

Review: Wine microbiome, a dynamic world of microbial interactions – Youzhong Liu

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Unusual biology across a group comprising more than 15% of domain Bacteria – Christopher T. Brown – Nature

Complete Genome Sequence of the Bacterium Aalborg_AAW-1, Representing a Novel Family within the Candidate Phylum SR1 – Morten Simonsen Dueholm – Genome Announcements

BUSCO: assessing genome assembly and annotation completeness with single-copy orthologs – Felipe A. Simão – Bioinformatics

Educating Future Nursing Scientists: Recommendations for Integrating Omics Content in PhD Programs – Yvette P. Conley – Nursing Outlook

Minireview: Combining metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and viromics to explore novel microbial interactions: Towards a systems-level understanding of human microbiomes – Bikel Shirley – Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

Metabolomics and Proteomics

In dogs: Consumption of Cooked Navy Bean Powders Modulate the Canine Fecal and Urine Metabolome – M. Forster – Current Metabolomics

Needles in the Blue Sea: Sub-Species Specificity in Targeted Protein Biomarker Analyses Within the Vast Oceanic Microbial Metaproteome – Mak A. Saito – Proteomics

New aminopeptidase from “microbial dark matter” archaeon – Karolina Michalska – The FASEB Journal

Review: Recent Advances in Metabolomics – E. Smith – Current Metabolomics

Microbial Ecology

Transplantability of a circadian clock to a noncircadian organism – Anna H. Chen – Science Advances

Review: Black Queen evolution: the role of leakiness in structuring microbial communities – J. Jeffrey Morris – Trends in Genetics

Techniques

Preferential Amplification of Pathogenic Sequences – Fang Ge – Scientific Reports

Phasing of single DNA molecules by massively parallel barcoding – Erik Borgström – Nature Communications

Minor revision to V4 region SSU rRNA 806R gene primer greatly increases detection of
SAR11 bacterioplankton – Amy Apprill – Aquatic Microbial Ecology

Microbes in the news

Newfound groups of bacteria are mixing up the tree of life – Robert Sanders – UC Berkeley

Report: Santa Cruz’s river bacteria comes from birds, not people – Samantha Clark – San Jose Mercury News

Shark Tank Product Improves Oral Health, Measuring Levels Of Bacteria That Cause Bad Breath – Samantha Olson – Medical Daily

Manatee County, not the animal: Bacteria Could Clean Manatee Water Supply – Associated Press

Bacteria Could Help Clean Groundwater Contaminated by Uranium Ore Processing, Rutgers Study Finds – Rutgers Today

BacteriaHysteria

How much bacteria is on money in your pocket? – Click2Houston

WHO: 200 disease-causing bacteria may be found in the kitchen – ABC/CBN news

Science, publishing, and career

Science forum: RIPOSTE: a framework for improving the design and analysis of laboratory-based research – Nicholas GD Masca – eLIFE

Dancers in the Dark: Scientific Careers According to a Gender-Blind Model of Promotion
Ana M. González Ramos – Interdisciplinary Science Reviews

Incidence of Data Duplications in a Randomly Selected Pool of Life Science Publications – Morten P. Oksvold – Science and Engineering Ethics

Five things I learned when my research went viral – Heidi Appel – The Conversation

Bik’s Picks

Foie Gras: The goose genome sequence leads to insights into the evolution of waterfowl and susceptibility to fatty liver – Lizhi Lu – Genome Biology

An estimate of the number of tropical tree species – JW Ferry Slik – PNAS

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June 12, 2015

Effects of drinking donkey milk, archaea and fungi on humans,  microbiomes of olives, spoilt wine, cold deserts, indoor air, strawberry soil, and more.

General microbiome

Review: Combining metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and viromics to explore novel microbial interactions: Towards a systems-level understanding of human microbiomes – Bikel Shirley – Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

Review: Mycobiota: Micro-Eukaryotes Inhabiting Our Body as Commensals or
Opportunistic Pathogens – Lisa Rizzetto – Fungal Genomics & Biology

Review: Archaea in and on the Human Body: Health Implications and Future Directions – Mor N. Lurie-Weinberger, Uri Gophna – PLOS Pathogens

Human skin microbiome

Antimicrobial Efficacy of Preservatives used in Skin Care Products on Skin Micro Biota – Chintha Lalitha – International Journal of Science and Research

Review: Beneficial and deleterious bacterial–host interactions in chronic wound pathophysiology – C. Watters – Chronic Wound Care Management and Research

Human gut microbiome

Influence of Proton-Pump Inhibitors on the Luminal Microbiota in the Gastrointestinal Tract – Ayumi Tsuda – Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology

Microbiome models

A host-microbiome interaction mediates the opposing effects of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids on metabolic endotoxemia – Kanakaraju Kaliannan – Scientific Reports

In rats: Human, donkey and cow milk differently affects energy efficiency and inflammatory state by modulating mitochondrial function and gut microbiota – Giovanna Trinchese – The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry

Fish: A multiple endpoint analysis of the effects of chronic exposure to sediment contaminated with Deepwater Horizon oil on juvenile Southern flounder and their associated microbiomes – Nancy J. Brown-Peterson – Aquatic Toxicology

Hops β-acids and zinc bacitracin affect the performance and intestinal microbiota of broilers challenged with Eimeria acervulina and Eimeria tenella – C. Bortoluzzi – Animal Feed Science and Technology

Staphylococcus aureus nasal isolates: The effects of spatial structure, frequency dependence and resistance evolution on the dynamics of toxin-mediated microbial invasions – Ben Libberton – Evolutionary Applications

Animal microbiome

Biodiversity of the Symbiotic Bacteria Associated with Toxic Marine Dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense – Xiaoling Zhang – Journal of Biosciences and Medicines

Plant microbiome

Wild trees in the Amazon basin harbor a great diversity of beneficial endosymbiotic fungi: is this evidence of protective mutualism? – Romina Gazis – Fungal Ecology

A Legume Genetic Framework Controls Infection of Nodules by Symbiotic and Endophytic Bacteria – Rafal Zgadzaj – PLOS Genetics

Diversity and spatial distribution of endophytes community composition in noni (Morinda citrifolia L.) – Liu Yang – Journal of Hill Agriculture

Comparisons of microbial abundance and community among different plant species in constructed wetlands in summer – Jian Zhang – Ecological Engineering

Soil (and plant root) microbiome

Impact of cover crop in pre-plant of apple orchards: relationship between crop health, root inhabiting fungi and rhizospheric bacteria – Luisa M. Manici – Journal of Plant Science

Amplicon-based metagenomics identified candidate organisms in soils that caused yield decline in strawberry – Xiangming Xu – Horticulture Research

Positively Frequency-Dependent Interference Competition Maintains Diversity and Pervades a Natural Population of Cooperative Microbes – Olaya Rendueles – Current Biology

A predictive model for microbial counts on beaches where intertidal sand is the primary source – Zhixuan Feng – Marine Pollution Bulletin

Reintroduction of locally extinct vertebrates impacts arid soil fungal communities – Laurence J. Clarke – Molecular Ecology

A simple experimental set-up to disentangle the effects of altered temperature and moisture regimes on soil organisms – Eveline J. Krab – Methods in Ecology and Evolution

Water microbiome

Identifying homogeneity of multivariate dispersions among biofilm-dwelling microbial communities in colonization surveys for marine bioassessment – Guangjian Xu – Ecological Indicators

Bacterial diversity along a 2600 km river continuum – Domenico Savio – Environmental Microbiology

Minireview: Microbial players involved in the decline of filamentous and colonial cyanobacterial blooms with a focus on fungal parasitism – Mélanie Gerphagnon – Environmental Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome

Bacterial diversity of Drass, cold desert in Western Himalaya, and its comparison with Antarctic and Arctic – Puja Gupta – Archives of Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Indoor air bacterial communities in Hong Kong households assemble independently of occupant skin microbiomes – David Wilkins – Environmental Microbiology

Food microbiology

Potential spoilage yeasts in winery environments: Characterization and proteomic analysis of Trigonopsis cantarellii – Cauré Portugal – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Microbiota and Metabolome of Un-started and Started Greek-type Fermentation of Bella di Cerignola Table Olives – Maria De Angelis – Food Microbiology

Functional foods

Probiotic BIFICO cocktail ameliorates Helicobacter pylori induced gastritis – Hong-Jing Yu – World Journal of Gastroenterology

Review: Prebiotics, gut microbiota and metabolic risks: Unveiling the relationship – Adeela Yasmin – Journal of Functional Foods

Review: Current evidence on the use of probiotics in liver diseases – Norberto C. Chávez-Tapia – Journal of Functional Foods

Metagenomics 

Review: Methylotrophs in natural habitats: current insights through metagenomics – Ludmila Chistoserdova – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Metabolomics

Editorial: Microbial metabolite triggers antimicrobial defense – Sky W. Brubaker, Denise M. Monack – Science

Microbes in the news

Soil microbial community variation correlates most strongly with plant species identity – AOB blog

Pew Names 22 Top Scientists as Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences: topics range from microbiome, to mosquito’s preferences – Pew Trusts
andMicrobiology professor becomes UC Merced’s first Pew scholar: Clarissa Nobile receives award for biofilm research – UC Merced

2015 ISCB Overton Prize Awarded to Curtis Huttenhower – Christiana N. Fogg, Diane E. Kovats – PLOS Computational Biology

“Genes in Space” Student Finalists Announced: Tarun Srinivasan, of Houston, TX, plans to examine effects on the gut microbiome of spending time on the ISS – Ricki Lewis – PLOS Blogs

Method reveals what bacteria sense in their surroundings – Leila Gray – UW Health Sciences NewsBeat

“ticks had a microbiome rich in pathogens, including Bartonella”: Ticks’ Migration Linked to Changes in Disease Prevalence – Jacquelyn Gray – HCP Live

Like “kopi luwak” coffee, just bigger: Elephant poop coffee, Thailand’s new delicacy – Doug Powell – BarfBlog

New Tool To Monitor Harmful Bacteria: Scientists offer more accurate health risk prediction model to better inform beach closure decisions – Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science

#EULAR2015: First gut microbiota alterations described in systemic sclerosis patients – Karen Blum – PM360online

Some good information here about bacteria in our gutSix myths about digestion that just won’t die – ITClips

How does Swiss cheese gets its holes?: by carbon-dioxide-burping microbe Propionibacterium freudenreichii – Nicola Twilly – New Yorker

Product candidate to target specific elimination of Streptococcus mutans may alter oral microbiome to provide long-lasting benefits – Dentistry iQ

Fungus among us, but what kind? Typing error spawns retraction for mushroom paper – Retraction Watch

Science, publishing, and career

Business decisions: stories about the entrepreneurial learning curve – Jeffrey Mervis – Science

Bik’s Picks

Polar bear caught eating dolphins and freezing the leftovers – Penny Sarchet – New Scientist

There’s A Link Between Cat Ownership And Schizophrenia – Leigh Weingus – Huffington Post

“Advice to interns: work hard and make your mark.” New planet discovered by 15-year-old intern – Monica Sarkar – CNN

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June 11, 2015

Exciting edition today, with microbiomes from scorpions, kombucha, Korean infants, and a Yosemite lake.

Pregnancy and birth

Comparison of the gut microbiota profile in breast-fed and formula-fed Korean infants using pyrosequencing – Sang A Lee – Nutrition Research and Practice

Human skin microbiome

Review: Effects of Fermented Dairy Products on Skin: A Systematic Review – Alexandra R. Vaughn – The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine

Human gut microbiome

The Fecal Microbiome in Pediatric Patients With Short Bowel Syndrome – Zev H. Davidovics – Journal of Parental & Enteral Nutrition

Review: Association of the Intestinal Microbiota and Obesity – Andrea A. López-Cepero, Cristina Palacios – Puerto Rico Health Sciences Journal

Microbiome models

Alteration of the rat cecal microbiome during colonization with the helminth Hymenolepis diminuta – Erin A McKenney – Gut Microbes

Bacterial sensing underlies artificial sweetener-induced growth of gut Lactobacillus
Kristian Daly – Environmental Microbiology

Ecobiotherapy Rich in Firmicutes Decreases Susceptibility to Colitis in a Humanized Gnotobiotic Mouse Model – Jane M. Natividad – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Animal microbiome

Species-specific diversity of novel bacterial lineages and differential abundance of predicted pathways for toxic compound degradation in scorpion gut microbiota
Luis M. Bolaños – Environmental Microbiology

Water microbiome

Changing composition of microbial communities indicates seepage fluid difference of the Thuwal Seeps in the Red Sea – Bo Yang – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Microbial diversity and community structure along a lake elevation gradient in Yosemite National Park, California, USA – Curtis J. Hayden – Environmental Microbiology

Food microbiology

Metabarcoding of the kombucha microbial community grown in different microenvironments – Oleg N Reva – AMB Express

More microbiology

I thought this was a very attractive paperSingle-cell genomics of uncultivated deep-branching magnetotactic bacteria reveals a conserved set of magnetosome genes – Sebastian Kolinko – Environmental Microbiology

Review: Small but Mighty: Cell Size and Bacteria – Petra Anne Levin and Esther R. Angert – Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology

Preview: Bacteria Moving into Focus of Human Cancer – Francesco Boccellato, Thomas F. Meyer – Cell Host & Microbe

Microbes in the news

Microbe-mediated adaptation to a novel diet: Symbiotic bacteria enabled bugs to feed on plant seeds and promoted species diversity – Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology

Bespoke diets based on gut microbes could help beat disease and obesity – Ian Sample – The Guardian

Engineers create origami paper-based bacteria-powered battery – Nanowerk

Journal club: Response to May 29, 2015 Journal Club: “Modulation of Post-Antibiotic Bacterial Community Reassembly and Host Response by Candida Albicans” – Human Microbiome Journal Club

Alberta researchers hot on the trail of deadly bacteria: detection time of E. coli in meat cut in half – Alexis Kienlen – Alberta Farmer

Sauerkraut Could Be The Secret To Curing Social Anxiety – Carolyn Gregoire – Huffington Post

Microbiomes might differ between mice: Reproducibility: Use mouse biobanks or lose them – Kent Lloyd – Nature

ESCMID introduces two new study groups to create networks for forensic and veterinary microbiology – News Medical

Science, publishing, and career

Nobel Laureate Resigns Post After Comments on Female Scientists – Dan Bilefsky – New York Times

Funny article, in response to Tim Hunt’s comments: Female scientists post ‘distractingly sexy’ photos – BBC News

African academics challenge homophobic laws – Scientific report demolishes assertions used to back criminalization of homosexuality – Linda Nordling – Nature

Workforce: The joys of research in retirement – Klaus Wittmaack – Nature

Bik’s Picks

Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia: low-coverage genomes from 101 ancient humans from across Eurasia – Morten E. Allentoft – Nature

#CureBatten: Celebrities rally for sisters battling rare brain disease – Chris Serico – Today

Three cheers for Samantha Cristoforetti, smasher of space records – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

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June 10, 2015

Another load of microbiome reviews, historical responses of microbes to mercury in soil layers, and different pictures of microbial diversity using culture or molecular techniques.

Microbiome of pregnancy and health

Review: Lungs, Microbes and the Developing Neonate – Warner B.B., Hamvas A. – Neonatology

Review: Placentophagy: therapeutic miracle or myth? – Cynthia W. Coyle – Archives of Women’s Mental Health

Review: Preterm delivery and intimacy during pregnancy: interaction between oral, vaginal and intestinal microbiomes – Herrera Morban DA – Medwave

Human gut microbiome

Review: Monitoring host responses to the gut microbiota – Joshua S Lichtman, Justin L Sonnenburg and Joshua E Elias – The ISME Journal

ReviewIntestinal Fucose as a Mediator of Host–Microbe Symbiosis – Joseph M. Pickard and Alexander V. Chervonsky – The Journal of Immunology

Review: Novel players in coeliac disease pathogenesis: role of the gut microbiota – Elena F. Verdu – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Review: Gut Microbiome-Brain Communications Regulate Host Physiology and Behavior – Sun Hye Lee and Claire B. de La Serre – Journal of Nutritional Health & Food Science

Review: Biliary Mucosal Barrier and Microbiome – Verdier J – Viszeralmedizin

ReviewFrom Next-Generation Sequencing to Systematic Modeling of the Gut Microbiome – Boyang Ji and Jens Nielsen – Frontiers in Microbiology

Animal and other models of microbiome research

Bioimage analysis of Shigella infection reveals targeting of colonic crypts – Ellen T. Arena – PNAS

Animal microbiome

Filamentous fungi isolated from the fur microbiota of callitrichids kept in captivity in Brazil – de Freitas RA – J Zoo Wildl Med

Plant root and soil microbiome

Microbial response to simulated global change is phylogenetically conserved and linked with functional potential – Anthony S Amend – The ISME Journal

Microbial and biochemical basis of a Fusarium wilt-suppressive soil – Jae-Yul Cha – The ISME Journal

Microbial DNA records historical delivery of anthropogenic mercury – Alexandre J Poulain – The ISME Journal

Riverbed methanotrophy sustained by high carbon conversion efficiency – Mark Trimmer – The ISME Journal

Culture-Dependent and -Independent Methods Capture Different Microbial Community Fractions in Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Soils – Franck O. P. Stefani – PLOS ONE

Crop monoculture rather than agriculture reduces the spatial turnover of soil bacterial communities at a regional scale – Eva L. M. Figuerola – Environmental Microbiology

Bacteria and fungi associated with isoprene consumption in soil – Christopher M. Gray – Elementa-Science of the Anthropocene

Microbial rRNA:rRNA gene ratios may be unexpectedly low due to extracellular DNA preservation in soils – Glade Dlott – Journal of Microbiological Methods

Differences in microbial community composition between injection and production water samples of water flooding petroleum reservoirs – P. K. Gao – Biogeosciences

Commentary: Scrambled and not-so-tiny genomes of fungal endosymbionts – Chih-Horng Kuo – PNAS

Water microbiome

Sampling the Sea Surface Microlayer – Michael Cunliffe, Oliver Wurl – Springer Protocols
Built environment microbiome

Book chapter: Bacteria and Fungi in Green Roof Ecosystems – Krista L. McGuire – Green Roof Ecosystems

Extremophile microbiome

Application of artificial neural networks as a tool for moisture prediction in microbially colonized halite in the Atacama Desert – K. Wierzchos – Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences

Bioreactor microbiology

Methanobacterium Dominates Biocathodic Archaeal Communities in Methanogenic Microbial Electrolysis Cells – Michael Siegert – ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

ProDeGe: a computational protocol for fully automated decontamination of genomes – Kristin Tennessen – The ISME Journal

RNeXML: a package for reading and writing richly annotated phylogenetic, character, and trait data in R – Carl Boettiger – arXiv

PrimerView: high-throughput primer design and visualization – Damien M. O’Halloran – Source Code for Biology and Medicine

Techniques

Whole genome capture of vector-borne pathogens from mixed DNA samples: a case study of Borrelia burgdorferi – Giovanna Carpi – BMC Genomics

Cultivation of Environmental Bacterial Communities as Multispecies Biofilms – Marc A. Demeter – Springer Protocols Handbook

Microbes in the news

Brits will swab surfers’ butts to understand antibiotic-resistant bacteria – Alexandra Ossola – Popular Science

You’ve been invaded – by your Microbiome! Video with Rob Knight – UCSD TV

Understanding the nasal microbiome – American Microbiome Institute

How gut bacteria affects your health: What we know, what we don’t – Emily Kaiser – MPR News

The Secrets of Ocular Microbiomes – Mark B. Abelson – Review of Ophthalmology

Nice graphics: To the Phyllosphere and Beyond! – Ben Wolfe – Lucky Peach

Meanwhile in the Future: When Antibiotics Stop Working – Rose Eveleth – Gizmodo

Obesity and Microbiota: What’s Hype, What’s Helpful? – Jeannette Y. Wick – HCP Live

Science, publishing, and career

Nobel Prize Winner Tim Hunt Shocks Journalists With Sexist Comments – Cat Ferguson – BuzzFeed Science

Career coaching for scientists – Joanne Kamens – Nature Biotechnology

Intel Capital Creates $125M Fund for Women-, Minority-led Startups – Deborah Gage – Wall Street Journal

UTHealth’s Kevin Morano, microbiologist receives prestigious teaching honor by Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation – EurekAlert

Bik’s Picks

Caffeine acts through neuronal adenosine A2A receptors to prevent mood and memory dysfunction triggered by chronic stress – Manuella P. Kaster – PNAS

Chimps dig palm wine, new study finds: And in case you were wondering, the apes did occasionally get tipsy – Amina Khan – Los Angeles Times

This new Google-backed app will identify a bird just from a photo – Quartz

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