December 16, 2020

Good morning from New Jersey! Only a few new research articles to share with you today, but FOUR new reviews on the microbiome’s role in cancers and periodontal disease. And if you’re feeling adventurous, PLOS ONE just published an article on human postmortem decomposition that includes a brief evaluation of the buried corpse microbiome.

Jobs

A new postdoctoral position was just posted at the University of Minnesota for research on new methods of fecal microbiota transplantation.

Review – Coffee Microbiota and Its Potential Use in Sustainable Crop Management, Benoit Duong et al., Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

Bioinformatics

Review – Tissue-associated microbial detection in cancer using human sequencing data, Rebecca M. Rodriguez et al., BMC Bioinformatics

Techniques

Preprint – BIOME-Preserve: A Novel Storage and Transport Medium for Preserving Anaerobic Microbiota Samples for Culture Recovery, Embriette R. Hyde et al., bioRxiv

December 9, 2020

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Svetlana Ugarcina Perovic

In today’s digest read about the selection and microdiversity in glacier-fed streams, Gardnerella vaginalis contribution to the increased rate of group B Streptococcus vaginal colonization, making F1 hybrids in Escherichia coli using MAE (Mass Allelic Exchange), smORFinder (annotation tool to identify small proteins in microbial genomes and metagenomes), and more.
Check out the new Science Friday podcast episode on microbial interactions in cheese rinds and Svetlana’s pick for happy holidays.
Cheers!

Human microbiome

Effects of Extended Postmortem Interval on Microbial Communities in Organs of the Human Cadaver – Holly Lutz – Frontiers in Microbiology

Gut microbiome

Landscapes of bacterial and metabolic signatures and their interaction in major depressive disorders – Jian Yang – Science Advances

Improved high-molecular-weight DNA extraction, nanopore sequencing and metagenomic assembly from the human gut microbiome – Dylan G. Maghini – Nature Protocols

Elucidation of Gut Microbiota-Associated Lipids Using LC-MS/MS and 16S rRNA Sequence Analyses – Shu Yasuda – iScience

The Healthy Microbiome (What is the definition of a healthy gut microbiome?) – Fergus Shanahan – Gastroenterology

The gut microbiota is associated with immune cell dynamics in humans – Jonas Schluter
– Nature

Utilizing the gut microbiome in decompensated cirrhosis and acute-on-chronic liver failure – Jonel Trebicka – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Animal microbiome

Remodeling of the maternal gut microbiome during pregnancy is shaped by parity – Alexander SF Berry – bioRxiv

Animal experiments

*Gardnerella vaginalis promotes group B Streptococcus vaginal colonization, enabling ascending uteroplacental infection in pregnant mice – Nicole M. Gilbert – American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology

Akkermansia muciniphila: A potential novel mechanism of nuciferine to improve hyperlipidemia – Yue Yu – Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy

Gut microbiota modulation by both Lactobacillus fermentum MSK 408 and ketogenic diet in a murine model of pentylenetetrazole-induced acute seizure – Ju Young Eor – Epilepsy Research

Host-age prediction from fecal microbiome composition in laboratory mice – Adrian Low – bioRxiv

Commensal Microbiota Regulates Skin Barrier Function And Repair Via Signaling Through The Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor – Aayushi Uberoi – bioRxiv

Water microbiome

*Homogeneous selection promotes microdiversity in the glacier-fed stream microbiome – Stilianos Fodelianakis – bioRxiv

Phages and viruses

Long-term persistence of crAss-like phage crAss001 is associated with phase variation in Bacteroides intestinalis – Andrey N. Shkoporov – bioRxiv

Diversity and Distribution of a Novel Genus of Hyperthermophilic Aquificae Viruses Encoding a Proof-Reading Family-A DNA Polymerase – Marike Palmer – Frontiers in Microbiology

Broad Virus Detection and Variant Discovery in Fecal Samples of Hematopoietic Transplant Recipients Using Targeted Sequence Capture Metagenomics – Suze A. Jansen – Frontiers in Microbiology

Antimicrobial Resistance

Review: Multidrug-resistant high-risk Enterococcus faecium clones: can we really define them? – Ana R. Freitas – International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents

Review: Current Trends in Experimental and Computational Approaches to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance – Madangchanok Imchen – Frontiers in Genetics

Predicting clinical resistance prevalence using sewage metagenomic data – Antti Karkman – Communications Biology

Fermented-Food Metagenomics Reveals Substrate-Associated Differences in Taxonomy and Health-Associated and Antibiotic Resistance Determinants – John Leech – mSystems

Uncovering hidden antimicrobial resistance patterns within the hospital microbiome – Bastiaan W. Haak and W. Joost Wiersinga – Nature Medicine

Isolation and characterization of human pathogenic multidrug resistant bacteria associated with plastic litter collected in Zanzibar – Farah N. Rasool – Journal of Hazardous Materials

Integrated metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analyses of ultraviolet disinfection effects on antibiotic resistance genes and bacterial communities during wastewater treatment – Shuyu Jia – Ecotoxicology

A metagenomic glimpse into the gut of wild and domestic animals: Quantification of antimicrobial resistance and more – Magdalena Skarżyńska – Plos One

Techniques

*Mass allelic exchange: enabling sexual genetics in Escherichia coli – Varnica Khetrapal – bioRxiv

Review: Microbial model communities: To understand complexity, harness the power of simplicity – Johan Bengtsson-Palme – Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for sub-typing of Streptococcus pneumoniae – Sivkheng Kann – BMC Microbiology

Bioinformatics

*Automated Prediction and Annotation of Small Open Reading Frames in Microbial Genomes – Matthew G. Durrant and Ami S. Bhatt – Cell Host Microbe

Accurate Microbiome Sequencing with Synthetic Long Read Sequencing – Nico Chung – bioRxiv

Species level resolution of female bladder microbiota from marker gene surveys – Carter Hoffman – bioRxiv

Synthetic Sequencing Standards: A Guide to Database Choice for Rumen Microbiota Amplicon Sequencing Analysis – Paul E. Smith – Frontiers in Microbiology

Events

H3ABioNet Seminars and Webinars – H3ABioNet Pan African Bioinformatics Network

Inspiring the next generation of scientists… online – The Young Microbiologists Symposium (YMS) 2020

MLCB 2020 Day 1 and 2 talks – Machine Learning in Computational Biology meeting

Podcast

Why We’re Giving Thanks To Microbes For Stinky Cheese with Benjamin Wolfe and Casey Cosetta – Katie Feather and Ira Flatow – Science Friday

Svetlana’s pick

Planning Our “Home-mas” this December – MissPond – Emma Pond

Holiday Gift Guide For Microbe Lovers – Justine Dees – Joyful Microbe

The 2020 cookbook giftlist – Fiona Beckett – Matching Food & Wine

November 27, 2020

Posted on November 27, 2020 by Axel Künstner

Hello from Luebeck!

Today’s digest covers the connection between human diseases and gut microbiome, the gut feeling, secrets about plant growth and vertical stratification in urban spaces. Happy reading and happy black Friday!

General microbiome

Human microbiome and allergy – Montecchiani & Fanos – Pediatric Allergy and Immunology

Early life and childhood

Early Gut Fungal and Bacterial Microbiota and Childhood Growth – Schei et al. – Frontiers in Pediatrics

Oral human microbiome

Characterization of Lactobacilli isolated from carious dentin after selective caries removal and cavity sealing – Damé-Teixeira et al. – Archives of Oral Biology

Human gut microbiome

A Pilot Study: Changes of Intestinal Microbiota of Patients With Non-small Cell Lung Cancer in Response to Osimertinib Therapy – Cong et al. – Frontiers in Microbiology

What connection is there between intestinal microbiota and heart disease? – Poli – European Heart Journal Supplements

The Student-Centered Classroom: The New Gut Feeling – Lyles & Oli – FEMS Microbiology Letters

Animal microbiome

Comparison of the fecal microbiota composition between the blue Sheep (Pseudois nayaur) fed with Lolium perenne and Sorghum sudanense – Wu, Yuan & Pan – Canadian Journal of Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

[REVIEW]The plant microbiome: The dark and dirty secrets of plant growth – Tkacz & Poole – Pants People Plant

Water and extremophile microbiome

[PREPRINT]Rapid shift in microbial community structure in a neutral hydrothermal hot spring from Costa Rica – Rojas-Gätjens et al. – bioRxiv

Environment

Vertical Stratification in Urban Green Space Aerobiomes – Robinson et al. – Environmental Health Perspectives

Techniques

Power calculations for detecting differences in efficacy of fecal microbiota donors – Olesen – Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications

November 20, 2020

Posted on November 19, 2020 by Svetlana Ugarcina Perovic

Today’s digest features a systematic assessment of best practices for the sequencing-based characterization of the human vaginal microbiome, studies on link between the plaque microbiome and peri-implantitis, cutimycin [a Cutibacterium acnes-produced antibiotic that affects niche competition among the human skin microbiota] and antibiotic resistance genes in shower drains, washing machines, and dishwashers. There is a new Micro Binfie Podcast episode about moving from the wet lab into the dry lab to become a bioinformatician. Also, check out a list of interesting (freely available) events. Happy reading/listening!

Oral microbiome

*Strong oral plaque microbiome signatures for dental implant diseases identified by strain-resolution metagenomics – Paolo Ghensi – npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

Skin microbiome

*A Cutibacterium acnes antibiotic modulates human skin microbiota composition in hair follicles – Jan Claesen – Science Translational Medicine

Review: Staphylococcus epidermidis—Skin friend or foe? – Morgan M. Brown and Alexander R. Horswill – Plos Pathogen

Gut microbiome

Preterm Infants Harbour a Rapidly Changing Mycobiota That Includes Candida Pathobionts – Stephen A. James – Journal of Fungi

Imidazole propionate is increased in diabetes and associated with dietary patterns and altered microbial ecology – Antonio Molinaro – Nature Communications

Gut microbiome stability and dynamics in healthy donors and patients with non-gastrointestinal cancers – Allyson L. Byrd – Journal of experimental medicine

Workshop report: Toward the development of a human whole stool reference material for metabolomic and metagenomic gut microbiome measurements – Rupasri Mandal – Metabolomics

Minireview: Communal Living: Glycan Utilization by the Human Gut Microbiota – Jonathon A. Briggs – Environmental Microbiology

Microbiota-directed fibre activates both targeted and secondary metabolic shifts in the distal gut – Leszek Michalak – Nature Communications

Vaginal microbiome

*Assessment of In Vitro and In Silico Protocols for Sequence-Based Characterization of the Human Vaginal Microbiome – Luisa W. Hugerth – mSphere

Shotgun sequencing of the vaginal microbiome reveals both a species and functional potential signature of preterm birth – Conor Feehily – npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

Intercepting genomic variability of Gardnerella vaginalis species through comparative genomics analyses: evolutionary and ecological implications – Chiara Tarracchini – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Engineered phage endolysin eliminates Gardnerella in bacterial vaginosis without damaging the healthy vaginal microbiome – Christine Landlinger – medRxiv

Adaptive response to iterative passages of five Lactobacillus species in simulated vaginal fluid – Katelyn Brandt & Rodolphe Barrangou – BMC Microbiology

Dominance network analysis of the healthy human vaginal microbiome not dominated by Lactobacillus species – Wendy Li and Zhanshan Sam Ma – Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

Animal microbiome

The haybiome: Characterising the viable bacterial community profile of four different hays for horses following different pre-feeding regimens – Simon Daniels – Plos One

Review: Value of Probiotics in Canine and Feline Gastroenterology – Silke Salavati Schmitz – Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice

Massive gene presence-absence variation shapes an open pan-genome in the Mediterranean mussel – Marco Gerdol – Genome Biology

Technique

Phylotype-Level Characterization of Complex Lactobacilli Communities Using a High-Throughput, High-Resolution Phenylalanyl-tRNA Synthetase (pheS) Gene Amplicon Sequencing Approach – Shaktheeshwari Silvaraju – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Metagenomics

Metagenomic assessment of the global distribution of bacteria and fungi – Mohammad Bahram – Environmental Microbiology

Bioinformatics

On the complexity of haplotyping a microbial community – Samuel M Nicholls – Bioinformatics

Challenges in Benchmarking Metagenomic Profilers – Zheng Sun – bioRxiv

Unifying the global coding sequence space enables the study of genes with unknown function across biomes – Chiara Vanni – bioRxiv

Nucleotide-resolution bacterial pan-genomics with reference graphs – Rachel M Colquhoun – bioRxiv

Efficient storage and analysis of quantitative genomics data with the Dense Depth Data Dump (D4) format and d4tools – Hao Hou – bioRxiv

An Integrated Workflow for Enhanced Taxonomic and Functional Coverage of the Mouse Faecal Metaproteome – Nicolas Nalpas – bioRxiv

The misuse of colour in science communication – Fabio Crameri – Nature Communications

Antimicrobial Resistance

*The Household Resistome: Frequency of β-Lactamases, Class 1 Integrons, and Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in the Domestic Environment and Their Reduction during Automated Dishwashing and Laundering – Laura Schages – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

The unintended consequences of a surge in antibiotic resistance when removing wastewater drain biofilm – Shireen M Kotay – bioRxiv

fosM, a new family of fosfomycin resistance gene identified in bacterial species isolated from human microbiota – Sami Khabthani – Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy

Heme is crucial for medium-dependent metronidazole resistance in clinical isolates of C. difficile – Ilse M. Boekhoud – bioRxiv

Events

Black In Immuno Week – Black in Immuno – 22-28 November 2020
*A collective of scientists to celebrating, amplifying, and promoting the work of Black Immunologists across the globe.

Webinar: Antibiotic Resistance in the Environment – Organizer: Resistomap – Date: Tuesday, 24 November 2020

Webinar: Microbiology Webinars – FEMS – webinar recordings available

Virtual course and symposium: Harnessing Our Inner Ecology To Track and Treat Disease – Institute for Systems Biology – October 15 and 16, 2020
*all course materials/tutorials and talks are available for free on the website

Virtual Conference on Prokaryotic Small Proteins – Organizers: Todd Gray, Kai Papenfort, Gigi Storz and Joe Wade – January 12-14, 2021

Podcast

*Moving from wet to dry with Phil Ashton – Hosts: Andrew Page, Nabil-Fareed Alikhan and Lee Katz – Micro Binfie Podcast

Real-time quantitative proteomics with Devin Schweppe – Host: Jacob Schreiber – The Bioinformatics Chat

Interspecies collaborations with Mindaugas Gapševičius – Host: Aga Pokrywka – Ferment Radio

Microbiome as Organ: Researcher Colin Hill Talks Bacteria and Bacteriophages in Human Body with Colin Hill – Host: Richard Jacobs – The Finding Genius Podcast

What Does Your Microbiome Say About You? with Colin Hill – Host: Andrea Hardy – Let’s Gut Real

Colouring booklet

Microbes, diet and beyond by Microbiome Support EU project; Illustrations by Maria Pock

Boardgame

Drugs vs Bugs, a free and exciting Print’n’Play boardgame developed by Célia Souque

November 17, 2020

Posted on November 16, 2020 by Axel Künstner

Multi-site human microbiome

Microbiome diversity predicts surgical success in patients with rectovaginal fistula – Leach et al. – International Urogynecology Journal

Human oral microbiome

[REVIEW]Oral Microbiota and Cancer Development – Tuominen & Rautava – Pathobiology

Human vaginal/pregnancy microbiome

Shotgun sequencing of the vaginal microbiome reveals both a species and functional potential signature of preterm birth – Feehily et al. – npj biofilms and microbiomes

Human gut microbiome

[REVIEW]IBDs and the pediatric age: Their peculiarities and the involvement of the microbiota – Cococcioni et al. – Digestive and Liver Disease

Gut microbiome stability and dynamics in healthy donors and patients with non-gastrointestinal cancers – Byrd et al. – JEM

Species-dependent variation of the gut bacterial communities across Trypanosoma cruzi insect vectors – Arias-Giraldo – PLOS One

Gut Microbiota and Cancer Correlates – Malaviya et al. – Probiotic Research in Therapeutics

Short-Chain Fatty Acids and Lipopolysaccharide as Mediators Between Gut Dysbiosis and Amyloid Pathology in Alzheimer’s Disease – Marizzoni et al. – Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease

Built environment (subways, indoor surfaces)
Unravelling the importance of the eukaryotic and bacterial communities and their relationship with Legionella spp. ecology in cooling towers: a complex network – Paranjape et al. – Microbiome

Techniques
Transductomics: sequencing-based detection and analysis of transduced DNA in pure cultures and microbial communities – Kleiner et al. – Microbiome

[REVIEW]NMR: Unique Strengths That Enhance Modern Metabolomics Research – Edison et al. – Analytical Chemistry

Microbes in the news (popular press, EurekAlert, ScienceDaily, Youtube, NPR, etc)

Study offers “indisputable” link between Alzheimer’s and gut microbiome – Lavars – New Atlas

November 12, 2020

Posted on November 12, 2020 by Rich Abdill

Good morning! There’s a really exciting collection of papers to share with you this morning. Among them, a study of gut archaea across multiple host domains, a link between F. nucleatum and esophageal cancer, and two new databases of shotgun metagenomic data. (There’s also a fun paper about environmental transmission of microbes aboard the International Space Station.)

General microbiome

Preprint – Strong influence of vertebrate host phylogeny on gut archaeal diversity, Nicholas D Youngblut et al., bioRxiv

A genomic catalog of Earth’s microbiomes, Stephen Nayfach et al., Nature Biotechnology

Human vaginal microbiome

Review – Vaginal microbiota and the potential of Lactobacillus derivatives in maintaining vaginal health, Wallace Jeng Yang Chee, Microbial Cell Factories

Human gut microbiome

Preprint – Fusobacterium Nucleatum Predicts a Risk for Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Chao Shi et al., Research Square

Preprint – Human reference gut microbiome comprising 5,414 prokaryotic species, including newly assembled genomes from under-represented Asian metagenomes, Kim and Lee et al., bioRxiv

Preprint – Genetic Evidence for Selective Transfer of Microbes Between the International Space Station and an Astronaut, David C. Danko et al., bioRxiv

Review: An infectious diseases perspective on the microbiome and allogeneic stem cell transplant, Olivia C. Smibert et al., Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases

Animal experiments

Preprint – Longitudinal effects of antibiotics and fecal transplant on lemur gut microbiota structure, associations, and resistomes, Sally L. Bornbusch et al., bioRxiv

Pinto beans modulate the gut microbiome, augment MHC II protein, and antimicrobial peptide gene expression in mice fed a normal or western-style diet, Babajide A. Ojo et al., Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry

Preprint – Contagious Antibiotic Resistance: Plasmid Transfer Among Bacterial Residents of the Zebrafish Gut, Wesley Loftie-Eaton et al., bioRxiv

Animal microbiome

Shifts in microbial diversity, composition, and functionality in the gut and genital microbiome during a natural SIV infection in vervet monkeys, Anna J. Jasinska et al., Microbiome

A multi-disciplinary comparison of great ape gut microbiota in a central African forest and European zoo, Narat and Amato et al., Scientific Reports

Bioinformatics

Preprint – AGORA2: Large scale reconstruction of the microbiome highlights wide-spread drug-metabolising capacities, Almut Heinken et al., bioRxiv

Techniques

Preprint – Benchmarking DNA isolation kits used in analyses of the urinary microbiome, Lisa Karstens et al., bioRxiv

November 9, 2020

Posted on November 9, 2020 by Ariane Panzer

Happy Monday morning from San Francisco, California! Hope everyone had a restful weekend. For those who aren’t quite ready for the working week, how about easing in to things with a warm beverage and some great microbiome reads?

Today’s digest includes two papers that blew my mind. The first is a paper by van Tatenhove-Pel et al. which looks at how cell-to-cell distance in 3D space impacts the metabolic interactions between bacteria. The second, by Nowosad et al., examines the role of the gut microbiota on B cell selection and antibody affinity maturation in gut-associated germinal centers. Other fascinating papers include: a pilot study profiling the gut microbiomes of South Africans in an urban cohort and a transitioning rural cohort which was designed collaboratively with community leaders (Oduaran et al.); a review paper about using brachyuran crabs as a model for studying how animal-microbiome symbioses evolve when aquatic organisms transition to land (Cannicci et al.); and a paper that used shotgun metagenomics to identify current and historical microbiomes in lake sediment which could help our understanding of how humans impact lake ecosystems over time (Garner et al.). Happy reading, y’all!

General Microbiome
Microbial competition reduces metabolic interaction distances to the low µm-range. – van Tatenhove-Pel, R.J. et al., The ISME Journal

Human Respiratory Microbiome
Developmental patterns in the nasopharyngeal microbiome during infancy are associated with asthma risk. – Tang, H.H.F, et al., Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Human Gut Microbiome
Distinct Fecal and Plasma Metabolites in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Their Modulation after Microbiota Transfer Therapy. – Kang, D-W et al., mSphere

Gut Microbiome in Children from Indigenous and Urban Communities in México: Different Subsistence Models, Different Microbiomes. – Sánchez-Quinto, A. et al., Microorganisms

Gut microbiome profiling of a rural and urban South African cohort reveals biomarkers of a population in lifestyle transition. – Oduaran, O.H. et al., BMC Microbiology

Maturation of the gut microbiome during the first year of life contributes to the protective farm effect on childhood asthma. – Depber, M. et al., Nature Medicine

Fecal Microbiota Changes in Patients With Postpartum Depressive Disorder. – Zhou, Y. et al., Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Animal Experiments
Tunable dynamics of B cell selection in gut germinal centres. – Nowosad, C.R. et al., Nature

Acute liver failure is regulated by MYC- and microbiome-dependent programs. – Kolodziejczyk, A.A. et al., Nature Medicine

Epithelial TLR4 signaling activates DUOX2 to induce microbiota-driven tumorigenesis. – Burgueño, J.F. et al., Gastroenterology

Gut Microbiome Alters the Activity of Liver Cytochromes P450 in Mice With Sex-Dependent Differences. – Jourová, L. et al., Frontiers in Pharmacology

Distinct Polysaccharide Utilization Determines Interspecies Competition between Intestinal Prevotella spp. – Gálvez, E.J.C. et al., Cell Host & Microbe

FXR in the dorsal vagal complex is sufficient and necessary for upper small intestinal microbiome-mediated changes of TCDCA to alter insulin action in rats. – Zhang, S-Y et al., Gut

Animal Microbiome
Review: To the Land and Beyond: Crab Microbiomes as a Paradigm for the Evolution of Terrestrialization. – Cannicci, S. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology

Insect Microbiome
The direct and indirect effects of environmental toxicants on the health of bumblebees and their microbiomes. – Rothman, J.A. et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences

A Very Hungry Caterpillar: Polyethylene Metabolism and Lipid Homeostasis in Larvae of the Greater Wax Moth ( Galleria mellonella). – LeMoine, C.M. et al., Environmental Science and Technology

Plant, Root, and Soil Microbiome
Deciphering the Microbial Taxonomy and Functionality of Two Diverse Mangrove Ecosystems and Their Potential Abilities To Produce Bioactive Compounds. – Liao, S. et al., mSystems

Introducing the Mangrove Microbiome Initiative: Identifying Microbial Research Priorities and Approaches To Better Understand, Protect, and Rehabilitate Mangrove Ecosystems. – Allard, S.M. et al., mSystems

Water and Extremophile Microbiome
The water chemistry and microbiome of household wells in Medawachchiya, Sri Lanka, an area with high prevalence of chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDu). McDonough, L.K. et al., Scientific Reports

Sediment Metagenomes as Time Capsules of Lake Microbiomes. – Garner, R.E. et al., mSphere

Built Environment
Bioaerosols in the Athens Metro: Metagenetic insights into the PM 10 microbiome in a naturally ventilated subway station. – Grydaki, N. et al., Environment International

Probiotics
Biotic Interactions Are More Important than Propagule Pressure in Microbial Community Invasions. – Albright, M.B.N. et al., mBio

Microbiological, immunological, and histological changes in the gut of Salmonella Enteritidis-challenged rats fed goat cheese containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus EM1107. – Rolim, F.R.L. et al., Journal of Dairy Science

Comparative Genome Analysis of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis Strains Reveals Variation in Human Milk Oligosaccharide Utilization Genes among Commercial Probiotics. – Duar, R.M. et al., Nutrients

Persistence of Suspected Probiotic Organisms in Preterm Infant Gut Microbiota Weeks After Probiotic Supplementation in the NICU. – Yousuf, E.I. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology

Bioinformatics
Model-based and phylogenetically adjusted quantification of metabolic interaction between microbial species. – Lam, T.J. et al., PLoS Computational Biology

Comprehensive screening of genomic and metagenomic data reveals a large diversity of tetracycline resistance genes. – Berglund, F. et al., Microbial Genomics

Review: Naught all zeros in sequence count data are the same. – Silverman, J.S. et al., Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

Techniques
Microbiomic Analysis on Low Abundant Respiratory Biomass Samples; Improved Recovery of Microbial DNA From Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid. – Saladié, M. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology

Jumping the green wall: The use of PNA-DNA clamps to enhance microbiome sampling depth in wildlife microbiome research. – Víquez-R, L. et al., Ecology and Evolution

November 5, 2020

Posted on November 5, 2020 by Kara

Hello, friends!

I’m an American who grew up in North Carolina, lived in Georgia for many years, and now counts Pennsylvania as home. All of this is to say, I’ve been especially consumed by the US election this morning and so today’s digest is tailor made to distract me for a few hours. It contains a heavy dose of general microbiome, environmental microbiology, and microbial ecology articles. If you need a bigger distraction than usual, I’ve highlighted a few articles that I am particularly looking forward to reading and am using this space as an opportunity to reintroduce myself and share why these articles have peaked my interest.

I completed my PhD research on the cockroach gut microbiome and through this work, I realized how complex microbiome-host-environmental interactions can be. Because of this, my first highlighted article is a review about cockroach-associated microbes. Currently, I work in a national lab studying environmental-associated microbes (and their functional capacity!) in a variety of different energy-associated environments. It’s no wonder I’m excited to read the second highlighted article focused on novel soil microbes found in an abandoned coal mine! I’m also very hungry at the moment, so as soon I read the phrase “smoked cow cheese” I was motivated to explore my cheese drawer as well as think more about microbial food safety and the microbial production of favor compounds. Finally, I love musical theater and science outreach, so I’m delighted to share a mouldy article that combines both passions.

Happy reading, everyone!

General microbiome

Review: The pneumococcal social network – Aggarawal et al. – PLOS Pathogens

Expanding magnetic organelle biogenesis in the domain Bacteria – Lin et al. – Microbiome

Gene duplication drives genome expansion in a major lineage of Thaumarchaeota – Sheridan et al. – Nature Communications

Metatranscriptomic analysis reveals active microbes and genes responded to short-term Cr(VI) stress – Yu et al. – Ecotoxicology

Effects of heavy ion particle irradiation on spore germination of Bacillus spp. from extremely hot and cold environments – Zammuto et al. – Life
Human gut microbiome

Gut microbiome

Gut microbiota ecology: Biodiversity estimated from hybrid neutral-niche model increases with health status and aging – Sala et al. – PLOS ONE

Implication of gut microbiota in the physiology of rats intermittently exposed to cold and hypobaric hypoxia – Ramos-Romero et al. – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

Exploring the resident gut microbiota of stranded odontocetes: high similarities between two dolphin species Tursiops truncatus and Stenella coeruleoalba – Abdelrhman et al. – Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK

**Review: Bacteria associated with cockroaches: health risk or biotechnological opportunity? – Guzman & Vilcinskas – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Impact of land uses, drought, flood, wildfire, and cascading events on water quality and microbial communities: A review and analysis – Mishra et al. – Journal of Hydrology

Dams shift microbial community assembly and imprint nitrogen transformation along the Yangtze River – Gao et al. – Water Research

Built environment

**Isolation and characterization of soil bacteria from an abandoned coal mine in southeast Kansas – Bechtold et al. – BioOne Complete

Review: Understanding building-occupant-microbiome interactions toward healthy built environments – Li et al. – Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering

Food microbiology

**Microbial quality of smoked cow cheese “Parencia” – Kačániová et al. – Scientific Papers: Animal Science and Biotechnologies

Phages and viruses

Virome of bat guano from nine northern California roosts – Li et al. – Journal of Virology

Bioinformatics

The IMG/M data management and analysis system v.6.0: new tools and advanced capabilities – Chen et al. – Nucleic Acids Research

PhANNs, a fast and accurate tool and web server to classify phage structural proteins – Cantu et al. – PLOS Computational Biology

Techniques

Low-cost biofuel-powered autoclaving machine for use in rural health care centres – Ahmed et al. – Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology

**‘The Mould that Changed the World’: Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of children’s knowledge and motivation for behavioural change following participation in an antimicrobial resistance musical – Hall et al. – PLOS ONE

Harnessing the power of eDNA metabarcoding for the detection of deep-sea fishes – McClenaghan et al. – PLOS ONE

October 27, 2020

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Kara

Greetings from Pittsburgh, PA!

Today’s digest a contains articles focused on the oral microbiome, koala symbionts, soil microbial communities, and more. For those of you who are a bit too tired to digest cutting-edge research, I suggest using the 10 simple steps outlined in the highlighted editorial to colorize your own data visualizations. Finally, if you just need a break, I suggest bookmarking the article on the whale skin microbiome and revisiting the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Happy reading (or movie watching)!

General microbiome

Taxonomic profiling and functional characterization of the healthy human oral bacterial microbiome from the north Indian urban sub-population – Verma et al. – Archives of Microbiology

Pregnancy and early life

Maternal and cord blood vitamin D level and the infant gut microbiota in a birth cohort study – Kassem et al. – Maternal Health, Neonatology and Perinatology

Human gut microbiome

Review: A review on preventive role of ketogenic diet (KD) in CNS disorders from the gut microbiota perspective – Rawat et al. – Reviews in Neurosciences

Animal experiments

Challenges in microbiological identification of aerobic bacteria isolated from the skin of reptiles – Brockmann et al. – PLOS ONE

Isolation and sequence-based characterization of a koala symbiont: Lonepinella koalarum – Dahlhausen et al. – Peer J

Vertical transmission of zika virus in Aedes albopictus – Lai et al. – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Cultured-dependent and cultured-independent study of bacteria associated with Thai commercial stingless bee Lepidotrigona terminata – Suphaphimol et al. – Journal of Apicultural Research

Animal microbiome

**Skin microbiome of beluga whales: spatial, temporal, and health-related dynamics – Van Cise et al. – Animal Microbiome

Diversity of bacterial symbionts associated with Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Hemiptera: Aphididae: Aphidinae) revealed by 16S rRNA Illumina sequencing – Xu et al. – Microbial Ecology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Protists and collembolans alter microbial community composition, C dynamics and soil aggregation in simplified consumer–prey systems – Erktan et al. – Biogeosciences

Responses of soil bacteria and fungi after 36 years fertilizer, straw cover, and irrigation management practices in northwest China – Zhang et al. – Soil Use and Management

Water and extremophile microbiome

Integration of time-series meta-omics data reveals how microbial ecosystems respond to disturbance – Herold et al. – Nature Communications

Islands in the sand: Are all hypolithic microbial communities the same? – Lebre et al. – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Shifts of sediment bacterial community and respiration along a successional gradient in a typical karst plateau lake wetland (China) – Xia et al. – Journal of Oceanology and Limnology

Salinity controls soil microbial community structure and function in coastal estuarine wetlands – Zhang et al. – Environmental Microbiology

Phages and viruses

Association of host proteins with the broad host range filamentous phage NgoΦ6 of Neisseria gonorrhoeae – Piekarowicz et al. – PLOS ONE

Bioinformatics

**Editorial: Ten simple rules to colorize biological data visualization – Hattab et al. – PLOS Computational Biology

NanoGalaxy: Nanopore long-read sequencing data analysis in Galaxy – de Koning et al. – GigaScience

Predicting antimicrobial resistance using conserved genes – Nguyen et al. – PLOS Computational Biology

Techniques

Review: Innovations to culturing the uncultured microbial majority – Lewis et al. – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Comparison of the diversity of cultured and total bacterial communities in marine sediment using culture-dependent and sequencing methods – Wang et al. – PeerJ

Science, publishing, and career

Comment: Crowdsourcing virtual summer research opportunities to support minorities in microbiology – Johnson et al. – Nature Microbiology

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Microbiome Digest – Bik's Picks

A daily digest of scientific microbiome papers, by the MD team. Founded by Elisabeth Bik, microbiome and science integrity consultant. Twitter: @microbiomdigest

Category Archives: Techniques

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