August 8, 2015

Lung and oral microbiomes in setting of HIV infection, cell biology of the plant–microbe interface, deep see prokaryotes, bacterial succession during grape fermentation, and correcting amplicon errors with Dada2.

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Is abnormal vaginal microflora a risk factor for intrauterine fetal growth restriction? – Natalija Vedmedovska – Asian Pacific Journal of Reproduction

Multiple Opportunistic Pathogens, but Not Pre-existing Inflammation, May Be Associated with Necrotizing Enterocolitis – Steven T. Leach – Digestive Diseases and Sciences

Review: Nutrient availability, the microbiome and intestinal transport during pregnancy – Stuart Astbury – Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism

Human oral and lung microbiome

Multi-center Comparison of Lung and Oral Microbiomes of HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected Individuals – James M. Beck – American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

Review: Microbial protection and virulence in periodontal tissue as a function of polymicrobial communities: symbiosis and dysbiosis – Frank A. Roberts and Richard P. Darveau – Periodontology 2000

Needs assessment for emerging oral microbiome knowledge in dental hygiene education – R. Constance Wiener – Journal of Epidemiological Research

Human reproductive microbiome

Is abnormal vaginal microflora a risk factor for intrauterine fetal growth restriction? – Natalija Vedmedovska – Asian Pacific Journal of Reproduction

Human gut microbiome

Alterations of mucosal microbiota in the colon of patients with inflammatory bowel disease revealed by real time polymerase chain reaction amplification of 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid – Jayakanthan Kabeerdoss – Indian J Med Res

An In Vitro Method to Assess Soil Arsenic Metabolism by Human Gut Microbiota: Arsenic Speciation and Distribution – Naiyi Yin – Environmental Science & Technology

Review: Does a low FODMAP diet help IBS? – Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin

Microbiome models

Modulation of intestinal microbiota in mice by kefir administration – Dong-Hyeon Kim – Food Science and Biotechnology

High nutrient availability reduces the diversity and stability of the equine caecal microbiota – Naja C. K. Hansen – Microbial Ecology in Health & Disease

Impact of Dietary Fiber/Starch Ratio in Shaping Cecal Microbiota in Rabbits – YanLi Zhu – Canadian Journal of Microbiology

Animal microbiome

Electrical Retrieval of Living Microorganisms from Cryopreserved Marine Sponges Using a Potential-Controlled Electrode – Sumihiro Koyama – Marine Biotechnology

PhD Thesis: Reproduction, Sex Ratio and Bacterial Communities of the Coffee Berry Borer Hypothenemus Hampei F. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) – Mariño Cárdenas – Universidad de Puerto Rico

Effect of starch source (corn, oats or wheat) and concentration on fermentation by equine fecal microbiota in vitro – Brittany E. Harlow – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Role of peptidases of the intestinal microflora and prey in temperature adaptations of the digestive system in planktivorous and benthivorous fish – V. V. Kuz’mina – Fish Physiology and Biochemistry

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Environmental conditions rather than microbial inoculum composition determine the bacterial composition, microbial biomass and enzymatic activity of reconstructed soil microbial communities – Weibing Xun – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Editorial: Introduction to a Virtual Special Issue on cell biology at the plant–microbe interface – Ralph Panstruga and Hannah Kuhn – New Phytologist

Influence of 34-years of fertilization on bacterial communities in an intensively cultivated black soil in northeast China – Jing Zhou – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Functional and structural responses of methanogenic microbial communities in Uruguayan soils to intermittent drainage – Yang Ji – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Effects of pasture management on soil fertility and microbial communities in the semi-arid grasslands of Inner Mongolia – Jun Liu – Journal of Soils and Sediments

Antibiotic resistance differentiates Echinacea purpurea endophytic bacterial communities with respect to plant organs – Alessio Mengoni – Research in Microbiology

Effect of combined microbes on plant tolerance to Zn–Pb contaminations – Anna Ogar – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

From mesophilic to thermophilic digestion: the transitions of anaerobic bacterial, archaeal, and fungal community structures in sludge and manure samples – Weimin Sun – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Water microbiome

Metagenome-based diversity analyses suggest a significant contribution of non-cyanobacterial lineages to carbonate precipitation in modern microbialites – Aurélien Saghaï – Frontiers in Microbiology

Thesis: Geobiological interactions of archaeal populations in acidic and alkaline geothermal springs of Yellowstone National Park, WY, USA – Jacob Preston Beam – Montana State University

Global diversity and biogeography of deep-sea pelagic prokaryotes – Guillem Salazar – ISME Journal

Built environment microbiology

Halophilic microbial communities in deteriorated buildings – Justyna Adamiak – World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Food microbiology

Insights into the bacterial community and its temporal succession during the fermentation of wine grapes – Hailan Piao – Frontiers in Microbiology

Identification of key microorganisms involved in Douchi fermentation by statistical analysis and their use in an experimental fermentation – Chen Chen – Journal of Applied Microbiology

In vitro fermentation of lupin seeds (Lupinus albus) and broad beans (Vicia faba): dynamic modulation of the intestinal microbiota and metabolomic output – Patricia Gullón – Food & Function

Bioinformatics

DADA2: High resolution sample inference from amplicon data – Benjamin J Callahan

Transcriptomics

Molecular and chemical dialogues in bacteria-protozoa interactions – Chunxu Song – Scientific Reports

Techniques

Methods for Improving Human Gut Microbiome Data by Reducing Variability through Sample Processing and Storage of Stool – Monika A. Gorzelak – PLOS ONE

Microbes in the News

Prestigious Japanese university comes up with cheesecake … made with Gorilla bacteria! – RocketNews

Lambton College research project proves successful in eliminating bacteria in firefighting gear – Lambton College

Where the sausage gets made – Holly Ganz – MicroBEnet

Calgary diseases expert on the importance of studying our guts – The Globe and Mail

Bik’s Picks

Creepers’ peepers: Why animals’ pupils have different shapes – Nicholas St. Fleur – Seattle Times

Venomous frogs discovered during painful scientific mishap: Frogs head-butt enemies with their spines to inject toxic venom – CBC News

ISS Astronauts to Sample Leafy Greens Grown on Space Station – NDTV

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July 29, 2015

Pack hunting by soil amoeba, microbiota of meconium and uterus, transcriptomics of oral phages, no differences in antibiotic resistance gene content in organic or regular pigs, and effects of IBD associated microbes on mouse physiology.

General microbiome

Editorial: News Feature: Microbes on the mind – Helen H. Shen – PNAS

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Note: just one sample was PCR positiveFirst-Pass Meconium Samples from Healthy Term Vaginally-Delivered Neonates: An Analysis of the Microbiota – Richard Hansen – PLOS ONE

Understanding the Biologic Therapies of Probiotics, Prebiotics, and Synbiotics: Exploring Current Evidence for Use in Premature Infants for the Prevention of Necrotizing Enterocolitis – Asmerom, Mussie – Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing

Human oral microbiome

Transcriptome analysis of bacteriophage communities in periodontal health and disease – Tasha M. Santiago-Rodriguez – BMC Genomics

Human respiratory microbiome

Paired analysis of the microbiota of surface mucus and whole-tissue specimens in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis – Raymond J.T. Kim – International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology

Human genital microbiome

Characterisation of the human uterine microbiome in non-pregnant women through deep sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene – Hans Verstaelen – PeerJ

Human skin microbiome

Review: Regulation of T cell immunity in atopic dermatitis by microbes: the Yin and Yang of cutaneous inflammation – Tilo Biedermann – Frontiers in Immunology

Human gut microbiome

Ruminococcal cellulosomes: molecular Lego to deconstruct microcrystalline cellulose in human gut – Gurvan Michel – Environmental Microbiology

Influence of galacto-oligosaccharide mixture (B-GOS) on gut microbiota, immune parameters and metabonomics in elderly persons – Jelena Vulevic – British Journal of Nutrition

Review: Microbiome influences on allergy in mice and humans – Benjamin J Marsland – Current Opinion in Immunology

Editorial: Gut microbiota: Microbiota and neuroimmune signalling—Metchnikoff to microglia – John F. Cryan & Timothy G. Dinan

Review: A Survey on the Developmental Intestinal Microbiota Research in China: the history, funding, and frontiers of gut bacteria – Hui Min Chen – Journal of Digestive Diseases

EditorialStool microbiome changes in VEGF-TKI-induced diarrhoea – Nature Reviews Urology

Models of microbiome research

Microorganisms linked to inflammatory bowel disease-associated dysbiosis differentially impact host physiology in gnotobiotic mice – Thomas W Hoffmann – ISME Journal

The Role of Curcumin in Modulating Colonic Microbiota During Colitis and Colon Cancer Prevention – Rita-Marie McFadden – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Intestinal microbiota of mice influences resistance to Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia
Stefanie Gauguet – Infection and Immunity

Oral Administration of P. gingivalis Induces Dysbiosis of Gut Microbiota and Impaired Barrier Function Leading to Dissemination of Enterobacteria to the Liver – Mayuka Nakajima – PLOS ONE

Fecal microbiota transplantation and bacterial consortium transplantation have comparable effects on the re-establishment of mucosal barrier function in mice with intestinal dysbiosis – Ming Li – Frontiers in Microbiology

Symbiotic maple saps minimize disruption of the mice intestinal microbiota after oral antibiotic administration – Riadh Hammami – International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition

Animal microbiome

Characterization of Antibiotic Resistance Gene Abundance and Microbiota Composition in Feces of Organic and Conventional Pigs from Four EU Countries – Lenka Gerzova – PLOS ONE

Symbiotic bacteria enable olive fly larvae to overcome host defences – Michael Ben-Yosef – Royal Society Open Science

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Not sure where to file this one under, but pretty cool: Pack hunting by a common soil amoeba on nematodes – Stefan Geisen – Environmental Microbiology

Anaerobic degradation pathway of the novel chiral insecticide Paichongding and its impact on bacterial communities in soils – Zhiqiang Cai – Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Exploiting topic modeling to boost metagenomic reads binning – Ruichang Zhang – BMC Bioinformatics

Metabolomics and Proteomics

Effects of Dietary Different Doses of Copper and High Fructose Feeding on Rat Fecal Metabolome – Xiaoli Wei – Journal of Proteome Research

Science, publishing, and career

Let’s Make Gender Diversity in Data Science a Priority Right from the Start – Francine D. Berman – PLOS Biology

Microbes in the news

What are ‘eye crusties’ made of? uBiome asking for participants to use their eye kit

Bacteria Hysteria

Germaphobes look away! Your gym bag might contain high levels of bacteria usually found in faeces – Irish Examiner

Bik’s Picks

A Skeleton, a Catholic Relic, and a Mystery About American Origins – Adrienne Lafrance – The Atlantic

The confounding case of the missing carbon – Michael Casey – CBS News

Washington Is Finally Getting What It Deserves As It Sinks Into The Sea – Kate Sheppard – Huffington Post

[hr]

July 20, 2015

Transcriptomics in periodontitis, stool consistency, truffles, ginger and pigs, and salt deserts.

Events (repeat posts)

Free Cell Press Webinar: Microbiome, Antibiotics and Human Disease with human microbiome leaders Martin Blaser, Michael Fischbach and Julie Segre – July 28, 2015, noon EST

Multi-omics for Microbiomes Conference, September 14-16, 2015, Three Rivers Convention Center, Kennewick, WA
Human oral microbiome / transcriptomics

Small RNA transcriptome of the oral microbiome during periodontitis progression – Ana E. Duran-Pinedo – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Solid evidence: Stool consistency as a major confounding factor affecting microbiota composition: an ignored variable? – Jack A Gilbert – Gut

Review [PDF]: Beyond gut microbiota: understanding obesity and type 2 diabetes – Eva Lau – Hormones

Models of microbiome research

Ginger and inulin: Assessment of Fecal Microflora Changes in Pigs Supplemented with Herbal Residue and Prebiotic – Ashis Kumar Samanta – PLOS ONE

Plant, root, and soil microbiome (and extremophiles!)

The role of the microbiome of truffles in aroma formation: a meta-analysis approach -Maryam Vahdatzadeh – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Bacterial diversity and composition in the fluid of pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes – Yayoi Takeuchi – Systematic and Applied Microbiology

A snapshot of microbial communities from the Kutch: one of the largest salt deserts in the World – Aanal S. Pandit – Extremophiles

Temporal patterns of prokaryotic abundance, community structure and microbial activity in glacier foreland soils – Katrin Hofmann – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Built environment microbiome

Winner of today’s Longest Title AwardIntensive 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 – Journal of Hospital Infection

Waste treatment microbiology

High prevalence of type 41 and high sequence diversity of partial hexon gene of human adenoviruses in municipal raw sewage and activated sludge – Hsion-Wen Kuo – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Acute Gastrointestinal Illness Risks in North Carolina Community Water Systems: A Methodological Comparison – Nicholas B. DeFelice – Environmental Science & Technology

Metagenomics

Phylogenetically typing bacterial strains from partial SNP genotypes observed from direct sequencing of clinical specimen metagenomic data – Jason W. Sahl – Genome Biology

Microbial Ecology

Gene-specific selective sweeps in bacteria and archaea caused by negative frequency-dependent selection – Nobuto Takeuchi – BMC Biology

Techniques

A method to analyze, sort, and retain viability of obligate anaerobic microorganisms from complex microbial communities – Anne W. Thompson – Journal of Microbiological Methods

Use of 16S rRNA gene-targeted group-specific primers for real-time PCR analysis of predominant bacteria in mouse feces – Yun-wen Yang – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Antibiotics

Prevalence of Parental Misconceptions About Antibiotic Use – Louise Elaine Vaz – Pediatrics

Microbes in the news

Ginger and prebiotic promote good bacteria in pigs – All About Feed

How plants keep bad bacteria out – ZeeNews India

Parental Knowledge About Appropriate Antibiotic Use Still Poor – Diana Phillips – Medscape

Bik’s Picks

Can’t get Kylie out of your head? Blame the shape of your brain – Sam Wong – New Scientist

Seti: Search for alien life receives $100m boost – Clive Cookson – Financial Times

Remembering the Apollo 11 Moon Landing With the Woman Who Made It Happen – Lily Rothman – Time

Endangered dragonflies, raised in captivity over several years, being released – Dispatch Times

[hr]

July 14, 2015

Antibiotic-induced changes in mouse gut microbiome, the lichen microbiome, and what’s floating in the airplane toilet?

Human respiratory microbiome

Common Cell Shape Evolution of Two Nasopharyngeal Pathogens – Frédéric J. Veyrier – PLOS Genetics

Human gut microbiome

Trimethylamine-N -oxide: A Novel Biomarker for the Identification of Inflammatory Bowel Disease – Aze Wilson – Digestive Diseases and Sciences

Review: Roles of commensal microbiota in pancreas homeostasis and pancreatic pathologies – Camila Leal-Lopes – Journal of Diabetes Research

Animal models of microbiome research

Antibiotic-Induced Alterations of the Murine Gut Microbiota and Subsequent Effects on Colonization Resistance against Clostridium difficile – Alyxandria M. Schubert – mBio

Animal microbiome

The Apis mellifera Filamentous Virus Genome – Laurent Gauthier – Viruses

Concentrations of viable oil-degrading microorganisms are increased in feces from Calanus finmarchicus feeding in petroleum oil dispersions – Ingvild Fladvad Størdal – Marine Pollution Bulletin

Editorial: Microbial symbiosis of marine sessile hosts- diversity and function – Suhelen Egan – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

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

Indigenous trees restore soil microbial biomass at faster rates than exotic species – Chun Li – Plant and Soil

MSc Thesis: Tree Islands of Fertility Structure Bacterial Community Assembly and Functional Genes Contributing to Ecosystem Processes – Tayte Paul Campbell – Brigham Young University

Rhizosphere microbiome selection by Epichloë endophytes of Festuca arundinacea – Elizabeth Lewis Roberts – Plant and Soil

Responses of soil microbial communities and enzyme activities to nitrogen and phosphorus additions in Chinese fir plantations of subtropical China – W. Y. Dong – Biogeosciences Discussions

Water microbiome

Ubiquitous healthy diatoms in the deep sea confirm deep carbon injection by the biological pump – S. Agusti – Nature Communications

Extremophile microbiome

Characterization of the Bacterial and Sulphate Reducing Community in the Alkaline and Constantly Cold Water of the Closed Kotalahti Mine – Malin Bomberg – Minerals

Co-occurrence patterns in aquatic bacterial communities across changing permafrost landscapes – J. Comte – Biogeosciences Discussions

Built environment and waste microbiome

Meta-genomic analysis of toilet waste from long distance flights; a step towards global surveillance of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance – Thomas Nordahl Petersen- Scientific Reports

Development of antibiotic resistance genes in microbial communities during long-term operation of anaerobic reactors in the treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater – Sevcan Aydin – Water Research

One-Time Addition of Nano-TiO2 Triggers Short-Term Responses in Benthic Bacterial Communities in Artificial Streams – Alexandra Ozaki – Microbial Ecology

Characterization of microbial community structure during continuous anaerobic digestion of straw and cow manure – Li Sun – Microbial Biotechnology

Characterization of the microbial community structure and the physicochemical properties of produced water and seawater from the Hibernia oil production platform – C. William Yeung – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Archaea

The distribution, diversity, and importance of 16S rRNA gene introns in the order Thermoproteales – Zackary J. Jay – Biology Direct

Bioinformatics

Estimating beta diversity for under-sampled communities using the variably weighted Odum dissimilarity index and OTUshuff – Daniel K. Manter – Bioinformatics

Swarm v2: highly-scalable and high-resolution amplicon clustering – Frederic Mahe – PeerJ

Cutting edge: Anatomy of BioJS, an open source community for the life sciences – Guy Yachdav – eLIFE

Metagenomics

Metagenomic insights into strategies of aerobic and anaerobic carbon and nitrogen transformation in boreal lakes – Sari Peura – Scientific Reports

Metabolic networks, proteomics

A Single Host-Derived Glycan Impacts Key Regulatory Nodes of Symbiont Metabolism in a Coevolved Mutualism – Min Pan – mBIO

Extracellular protein analysis of activated sludge and their functions in wastewater treatment plant by shotgun proteomics – Peng Zhang – Scientific Reports

Techniques

Scaffolding of a bacterial genome using MinION nanopore sequencing – E. Karlsson – Scientific Reports

Microbial Ecology

Biodiversity inhibits parasites: Broad evidence for the dilution effect – David J. Civitello – PNAS

Science, publishing, and career

Big Data: Astronomical or Genomical? Projecting to the year 2025, we compared genomics with three other major generators of Big Data: astronomy, YouTube, and Twitter. – Zachary D. Stephens – PLOS Biology

The Outrage Factor – Then and Now: There’s a lot of outrage about outrage storming around women in science and science journalism at the moment. And fear of causing it, too. – Hilda Bastian – PLOS Blogs

Microbes in the news

Aging in Microbes: bacteria are using every trick in the book to get ahead – Josh Mitteldorf

Bik’s Picks

Everything you need to know about Tuesday’s Pluto encounter – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

Introducing the Pentaquark: Physicists Prove a New Particle Exists – Tanya Basu – Time

Neighborhood greenspace and health in a large urban center : higher health perception if you live near trees – Omid Kardan – Scientific Reports
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July 13, 2015

Trans-sialidases in human gut microbes, microbiome of the dairy cow’s uterus during metritis, and bacteria getting smaller because of ocean warming.

Jobs

Post-doctoral position is available in the laboratory of Lawrence David at Duke University: to help develop high-throughput microfluidic techniques for investigating bacterial interactions and ecology.

Conferences

Microbiome, Antibiotics and Human Disease, with Michael Fishbach, Martin Blaser, and Julie Segre – Cell Press Webinar July 28, 2015

11 speakers, only 1 woman: Meeting the Microbiome – 12 September 2015 – London, UK – CAM conferences

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

High rates of Double-Stranded RNA Viruses and Mycoplasma hominis in Trichomonas vaginalis Clinical Isolates in South Brazil – Débora da Luz Becker – Infection, Genetics and Evolution

First Trimester Levels of BV-Associated Bacteria and Risk of Miscarriage Among Women Early in Pregnancy – Deborah B. Nelson – Maternal and Child Health Journal

Human oral microbiome

The impact of smoking and previous periodontal disease on peri-implant microbiota and health: a retrospective study up to 7-year follow-up – Quaranta A. – Annali Di Stomatologia

Human respiratory microbiome

Review: The Etiology and Pathogenesis of Chronic Rhinosinusitis: a Review of Current Hypotheses – Kent Lam – Current Allergy and Asthma Reports

Human gut microbiome

Discovery of intramolecular trans-sialidases in human gut microbiota suggests novel mechanisms of mucosal adaptation – Louise E. Tailford – Nature Communications

Viewpoint: Helicobacter pylori: enemy, commensal or, sometimes, friend? –  Michael B Whalen – The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries

Review: Engineering the Microbiome: a Novel Approach to Immunotherapy for Allergic and Immune Diseases – Nan Shen – Current Allergy and Asthma Reports

Review: Antimicrobial Use, Human Gut Microbiota and Clostridium difficile Colonization and Infection – Caroline Vincent – Antibiotics

Animal models

The microbiota regulates type 2 immunity through RORγt+ T cells – Caspar Ohnmacht – Science

Animal microbiome

Uterine microbiota progression from calving until establishment of metritis in dairy cows – Soo Jin Jeon – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Preening as a Vehicle for Key Bacteria in Hoopoes – Ángela Martínez-García – Microbial Ecology

Variation in the Microbiota of Ixodes ticks with geography, species and sex – Will Van Treuren – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

The Host as Driver of the Microbiota in the Gut and External Environment of Drosophila melanogaster – Adam C-N Wong – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

An Efficient Strategy Developed for Next-Generation Sequencing of Endosymbiont Genomes Performed Using Crude DNA Isolated from Host Tissues: A Case Study of Blattabacterium cuenoti Inhabiting the Fat Bodies of Cockroaches – Yukihiro Kinjo – Microbes and Environments

Arsenophonus and Sodalis symbionts in louse flies: an analogy to the Wigglesworthia and Sodalis system in tsetse flies – Eva Nováková – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Review: Microbial metagenomics in aquaculture: a potential tool for a deeper insight into the activity – Marcel Martínez-Porchas – Reviews in Aquaculture

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

High-Throughput Sequencing Reveals Drastic Changes in Fungal Communities in the Phyllosphere of Norway Spruce (Picea abies ) Following Invasion of the Spruce Bud Scale (Physokermes piceae ) – Audrius Menkis – Microbial Ecology

Diversity of endophytic and rhizoplane bacterial communities associated with exotic Spartina alterniflora and native mangrove using Illumina amplicon sequencing – Youwei Hong – Canadian Journal of Microbiology

Communities of Cultivable Root Mycobionts of the Seagrass Posidonia oceanica in the Northwest Mediterranean Sea Are Dominated by a Hitherto Undescribed Pleosporalean Dark Septate Endophyte – Martin Vohník – Microbial Ecology

Precipitation modifies the effects of warming and nitrogen addition on soil microbial communities in northern Chinese grasslands – Naili Zhang – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Long-term responses of plant growth, soil microbial communities and soil enzyme activities to elevated CO2 and neighbouring plants – Baoli Duan – Agricultural and Forest Meteorology

Denitrifying and diazotrophic community responses to artificial warming in permafrost and tallgrass prairie soils – Christopher R. Penton – Frontiers in Microbiology

Methanotrophic community abundance and composition in plateau soils with different plant species and plantation ways – Yu Dai – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Water microbiome

More, smaller bacteria in response to ocean’s warming? – Xosé Anxelu G. Morán – Proceedings B

Microbial community changes along the active seepage site of one cold seep in the Red Sea – Huiluo Cao – Frontiers in Microbiology

Spatiotemporal dynamics and determinants of planktonic bacterial and microeukaryotic communities in a Chinese subtropical river – Yongming Wang – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Sediment Ammonia-Oxidizing Microorganisms in Two Plateau Freshwater Lakes at Different Trophic States – Yuyin Yang – Microbial Ecology

Detecting nuisance species using NGST: Methodology shortcomings and possible application in ballast water monitoring – Anastasija Zaiko – Marine Environmental Research

A novel bacterial community index to assess stream ecological health – Kelvin E. M. Lau – Freshwater Biology

Bioreactor microbiome

Functional and taxonomic dynamics of an electricity-consuming methane-producing microbial community – Orianna Bretschger – Bioresource Technology

Microbial community distribution and genetic analysis in a sludge active treatment for a complex industrial wastewater: a study using microbiological and molecular analysis and principal component analysis – Giulio Moretti – Annals of Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

A reproducible approach to high-throughput biological data acquisition and integration – Daniela Börnigen – PeerJ

MetaBoot: a machine learning framework of taxonomical biomarker discovery for different microbial communities based on metagenomic data – Xiaojun Wang – PeerJ

Good laboratory practice for clinical next-generation sequencing informatics pipelines
Amy S Gargis – Nature Biotechnology

Transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics

Mining microbial metatranscriptomes for expression of antibiotic resistance genes under natural conditions – Dennis Versluis – Scientific Reports

Fractionation of biogas plant sludge material improves metaproteomic characterization to investigate metabolic activity of microbial communities – Fabian Kohrs – Proteomics

Combining Mass Spectrometric Metabolic Profiling with Genomic Analysis: A Powerful Approach for Discovering Natural Products from Cyanobacteria – Karin Kleigrewe – Journal of Natural Products

Microbial Ecology

Phylogenetic diversity analyses reveal disparity between fungal and bacterial communities during microbial primary succession – Shawn P. Brown – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Editorial: Stopping superbugs, maintaining the microbiota – Victor Nizet – Science Translational Medicine

Biofilm Formation As a Response to Ecological Competition – Nuno M. Oliveria – PLOS Biology

Pawnobiome: Manipulation of the Hologenome Within One Host Generation and Beyond – Jameson D. Voss – Frontiers in Microbiology

Functional foods

Review: Towards microbial fermentation metabolites as markers for health benefits of prebiotics – Kristin A. Verbeke – Nutrition Research Reviews

Techniques

Blocking primers reduce co-amplification of plant DNA when studying bacterial endophyte communities – Brett E. Arenz – Journal of Microbiological Methods

Microbes in the news

The role of the microbiota in preventing allergies – Medical Xpress

World’s largest steel company to use rabbit gut microbe to cut emissions – Emma Hartley – The Guardian

Paw Prints: Streptococcus bacteria a part of natural flora of cats and dogs – Niki Laviolette – Tribune Star

“I’m treating my son’s autism… with someone else’s faeces” – Liam Quinn – Daily Mail
This celebrity reckons autism can be treated with a poo transplant: is he right? – Clair Weaver – AWW

Navy Researchers Identify Bacteria in Human Serum – Christian Kotanen – Science DOD
surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy

Why you can’t just eat one french fry (or donut or slice of pizza) – Katherine Ellen Foley – SBS.com

Genetically Modified Bacteria Could Change Future Drug Treatments – Brandi – Clapway

Scientists at Brown University using federal grant to study mysterious fungus killing bats – The Sun Chronicle

Stop Kissing And Cuddling Chicken To Stop Salmonella Outbreak: CDC – Jill Arce – Tech Times

Bik’s Picks

New Horizons Science Update: Pluto Is The Biggest One Of All – Nadia Drake – National Geographic

Your last chance to see ‘Manhattanhenge’ sunset is tonight – Amanda Schallert – NJ.com

What’s in a name? For newborns, maybe fewer medical errors – Tara Haelle – MS News
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July 7, 2015

A personal perspective on microbiome research, phenotypic heterogeneity in microorganisms, ruling out viruses as causes for necrotizing enterocolitis, and Robert Edgar’s USEARCH.

Job openings

Philipps-Universität Marburg and the Max-Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology are looking for 2 postdocs (one experimentalist and one bioinformatician)

General microbiome

Personal perspective: From cell biology to the microbiome: An intentional infinite loop – Wendy S. Garrett – Journal of Cell Biology

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Cytomegalovirus and other common enteric viruses are not commonly associated with Necrotizing Enterocolitis – Thomas Skeath – Acta Paediatrica

Viremia during pregnancy and risk of childhood leukemia and lymphomas in the offspring: Nested case-control study – Davit Bzhalava – International Journal of Cancer

Human oral microbiome

The Oral Bacterial Communities of Children with Well-Controlled HIV Infection and without HIV Infection – Brittany E. Goldberg – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory microbiome

Sputum Bacterial and Fungal Dynamics during Exacerbations of Severe COPD – Jin Su – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Chemotherapy-driven dysbiosis in the intestinal microbiome – E. Montassier – Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Animal models of microbiome research

Perilipin-2 Modulates Lipid Absorption and Microbiome Responses in the Mouse Intestine – Daniel N. Frank – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

NGS metabarcoding proves successful for quantitative assessment of symbiont abundance: the case of feather mites on birds – J. Diaz-Real

Genetic Structure and Antimicrobial Resistance of Escherichia coli and Cryptic Clades in Birds with Diverse Human Associations – Michaela D. J. Blyton – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Coral transplantation triggers shift in microbiome and promotion of coral disease associated potential pathogens – Jordan M. Casey – Scientific Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Metabarcoding Analysis of Fungal Diversity in the Phyllosphere and Carposphere of Olive (Olea europaea) – Ahmed Abdelfattah – PLOS ONE

High carbon use efficiency in soil microbial communities is related to balanced growth, not storage compound synthesis – Paul Dijkstra – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Earthworms modify microbial community structure and accelerate maize stover decomposition during vermicomposting – Yuxiang Chen – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Water microbiome

Microbial Communities Associated with Zones of Elevated Magnetic Susceptibility in Hydrocarbon-contaminated Sediments – Carol L. Beaver – Geomicrobiology Journal

Bacterial diversity differences along an epigenic cave stream reveal evidence of community dynamics, succession, and stability – Kathleen Brannen-Donnelly – Frontiers in Microbiology

Firmicutes is an Important Component of Microbial Communities in Water-Injected and Pristine Oil Reservoirs; Western Siberia, Russia – Yulia Frank – Geomicrobiology Journal

Functional interactions among filamentous Epsilonproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes in a deep-sea hydrothermal vent biofilm – Runar Stokke – Environmental Microbiology

Temporal Study of the Microbial Diversity of the North Arm of Great Salt Lake, Utah, U.S. – Swati Almeida-Dalmet – Microorganisms

Diversity of the Sediment Microbial Community in the Aha Watershed (Southwest China) in Response to Acid Mine Drainage Pollution Gradients – Weimin Sun – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbial Transport, Retention, and Inactivation in Streams: A Combined Experimental and Stochastic Modeling Approach – Jennifer D. Drummond – Environmental Science & Technology

Extremophile microbiome

Ribosomal tag pyrosequencing of DNA and RNA reveals ‘rare’ taxa with high protein synthesis potential in the sediment of a hypersaline lake in Western Australia – Pascal Weigold – Geomicrobiology Journal

Microbial Diversity in Engineered Haloalkaline Environments Shaped by Shared Geochemical Drivers Observed in Natural Analogues – Talitha C. Santini – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

A New Perspective on Microbiome and Resource Management in Wastewater Systems – Veera Gnaneswar Gude – Biotechnology & Biomaterials

Microbial Ecology

A functional perspective on phenotypic heterogeneity in microorganisms – Martin Ackermann – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Bioinformatics and statistics

USEARCH: Error filtering, pair assembly, and error correction for next-generation sequencing reads – Robert C. Edgar – Bioinformatics

Assessment and Selection of Competing Models for Zero-Inflated Microbiome Data – Lizhen Xu – PLOS ONE

Metabolomics and metatranscriptomics

Functional metabolomics: from biomarker discovery to metabolome reprogramming – Bo Peng – Protein & Cell

Stool metatranscriptomics: A technical guideline for mRNA stabilisation and isolation – Michael Reck – BMC Genomics

Hydrodynamic chronoamperometry for probing kinetics of anaerobic microbial metabolism – case study of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii – Antonin Prévoteau – Scientific Reports

Techniques

A flexible and economical barcoding approach for highly multiplexed amplicon sequencing of diverse target genes – Craig W. Herbold – Frontiers in Microbiology

This paper is not novel at all: An improved method for bacterial identification through 16S rDNA sequencing using double set of primers: a case study – Amanat Ali – Pak. J. Agri. Sci.,

Microbes in the news

How Bacteria Make This Underground, Awe-Inspiring Cave Shine Gold – Michele Lent Hirsch – Smithsonian

Bacteria in a bottle? AOBiome offers ways to stay clean without traditional soap – Nidhi Subbaraman – The Boston Globe

uBiome to Award Grant of up to $100k for Groundbreaking Microbiome Research – PR Web

Bik’s Picks

NASA Releases Time-Lapse Video Of Mars Rover Opportunity’s Journey: 11 Years In Just 8 Minutes – Jim Algar – Tech Times

Self-Driving ‘Robocabs’ Could Help Curb Global Warming – Wendy Koch – National Geographic

‘Vampires’ keep doctors in the dark for fear of stereotyping: study – Reuters

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June 25, 2015

Vitamin B12 modulates skin microbiome transcription, viruses in fluvial systems, and a webserver for annotation of gut microbiome genes.

Human skin microbiome

Vitamin B12 modulates the transcriptome of the skin microbiota in acne pathogenesis – Dezhi Kang – Science Translational Medicine

Human oral microbiome

Review: Shaping the oral mycobiota: interactions of opportunistic fungi with oral bacteria and the host – H Xu – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Virulence genes are a signature of the microbiome in the colorectal tumor microenvironment – Michael B. Burns – Genome Medicine

Randomised clinical trial: gut microbiome biomarkers are associated with clinical response to a low FODMAP diet in children with the irritable bowel syndrome – B. P. Chumpitazi – Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Review: Host-microbiome interactions in health and disease – Liam O’Mahony – Clinical Liver Disease

 

Review: Regulation of intestinal TH17 and Treg cells by gut microbiota – Takeshi Tanoue – Inflammation and Regeneration

Review: Gut microbial short-chain fatty acids in host defense and immune regulation – Hiroshi Ohno – Inflammation and Regeneration

Review: Gut Microbiota-derived Outer Membrane Vesicles: Under-recognized Major Players in Health and Disease? – Maurizio Muraca – Discovery Magazine

Review: The Interplay between the Microbiota and Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli – Reed Pifer – ASM Microbiology Spectrum

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

An in-depth analysis of actinobacterial communities shows their high diversity in grassland soils along a gradient of mixed heavy metal contamination – Tomáš Větrovský – Biology and Fertility of Soils

Review: Endophytic actinobacteria of medicinal plants: diversity and bioactivity – Patrycja Golinska – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Differences in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Community Composition in Soils of Three Land Use Types in Subtropical Hilly Area of Southern China – Caihuan Wang – PLOS ONE

Water microbiome

Long-term effects of the antibacterial agent triclosan on marine periphyton communities – K. Martin Eriksson – Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Revealing the unexplored fungal communities in deep groundwater of crystalline bedrock fracture zones in Olkiluoto, Finland – Elina Sohlberg – Frontiers in Microbiology

Prevalence of tetracycline resistance genes among multi-drug resistant bacteria from selected water distribution systems in southwestern Nigeria – Ayodele. T. Adesoji – Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials

Functional gene pyrosequencing reveals core proteobacterial denitrifiers in boreal lakes
Jatta Saarenheimo – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Virus ecology of fluvial systems: a blank spot on the map? – Peter Peduzzi – Biological Reviews

Built Environment Microbiome

Microbially influenced corrosion communities associated with fuel-grade ethanol environments – Charles H. D. Williamson – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

MetaQuery: a web server for rapid annotation and quantitative analysis of specific genes in the human gut microbiome – Stephen Nayfach – Bioinformatics

Review: Biotechnological applications of functional metagenomics in the food and pharmaceutical industries – Laura M. Coughlan – Frontiers in Microbiology

Techniques

Label-free NIR-SERS discrimination and detection of foodborne bacteria by in situ synthesis of Ag colloids – Longyan Chen – Journal of Nanobiotechnology

Microbes in the news

How To Prevent Acne: Vitamin B12, Found In Meat And Dairy, Alters Bacteria And Leads To Pimples – Susan Scutti – Medical Daily

When Gut Bacteria Changes Brain Function: Some researchers believe that the microbiome may play a role in regulating how people think and feel – David Kohn – The Atlantic

Klaus Nielsen, scientist who tried to smuggle contagious bacteria, begins sentencing hearing – CBC News

Squares, triangles, circles: regardless of their form, bacteria can figure out where to split – TU Delft / Kavli Foundation

 

Students Find, Name Bacteriophages in Massive Team Project – Illinois Wesleyan University

BacteriaHysteria

Shocking images reveal how a Glastonbury wristband could ‘harbour 20 TIMES more bacteria than clothes’ – Daily Mail

BlackBerry Ltd May Have Plans To Develop Bacteria-Free Phones – Aman Jain – Value Walk

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June 23, 2015

Gill structure and microbiome of clownfish (Nemo), the Ocean Sampling Day consortium, and capturing prokaryotic dark matter genomes.

Human respiratory microbiome

The use of Next Generation Sequencing in the diagnosis and typing of respiratory infections – Fiona Thorburn – Journal of Clinical Virology

Effects of Vaccination with 10-Valent Pneumococcal Non-Typeable Haemophilus influenza Protein D Conjugate Vaccine (PHiD-CV) on the Nasopharyngeal Microbiome of Kenyan Toddlers – Leah M. Feazel – PLOS ONE

Human vaginal microbiome

Isolation of Vaginal Lactobacilli and Characterization of Anti-Candida Activity – Carola Parolin – PLOS ONE

Letter: Accuracy of Self-Report of Sexual Activity among Adolescent Girls: Implications for Interpretation of Vaginal Flora Patterns – Christina A. Muzny – mBio

Human gut microbiome

Effects of a Formula Containing Two Types of Prebiotics, Bifidogenic Growth Stimulator and Galacto-oligosaccharide, and Fermented Milk Products on Intestinal Microbiota and Antibody Response to Influenza Vaccine in Elderly Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial – Nagafuchi S – Pharmaceuticals

Systemic Sclerosis is Associated with a Unique Colonic Microbial Consortium – E. Volkmann – Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases

Review: Influence of the human intestinal microbiome on obesity and metabolic dysfunction – Herbert Tilg and Timon E. Adolph

Review: Is intestinal inflammation linking dysbiosis to gut barrier dysfunction during liver disease? – Katharina Brandl – Expert Review of Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Review: Microbiome-generated amyloid and potential impact on amyloidogenesis in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) – Yuhai Zhao – Journal of Nature and Science

Animal models

Non Digestible Oligosaccharides Modulate the Gut Microbiota to Control the Development of Leukemia and Associated Cachexia in Mice – Laure B. Bindels – PLOS ONE

Engineering the gut microbiota to treat hyperammonemia – Ting-Chin David Shen – Journal of Clinical Investigation

Animal microbiome

Exposure of clownfish larvae to suspended sediment levels found on the Great Barrier Reef: Impacts on gill structure and microbiome – Sybille Hess – Scientific Reports

Longitudinal analysis reveals characteristically high proportions of bacterial vaginosis-associated bacteria and temporal variability of vaginal microbiota in northern pig-tailed macaques (Macaca leonina) – Lin Zhu – Zoological Research

Review: Giving microbes their due – animal life in a microbially dominant world – Margaret J. McFall-Ngai – The Journal of Experimental Biology

Plant, root and soil microbiome

Context dependency and saturating effects of loss of rare soil microbes on plant productivity – Gera Hol – Frontiers in Plant Science

Genetic Diversity and Functional Traits of Jacq. Associated with Symbiotic Microbial Communities in Caribbean Swamp Forests in Relation to Insular Distribution, Salinity and Flooding – Amadou Bâ – Wetlands

Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis of Soil Bacterial Communities under Different Vegetation Types in Subtropical Area – Zeyan Wu – PLOS ONE

Water microbiome

The ocean sampling day consortium – Anna Kopf and many others – Gigascience

Thesis: Analysis of the Microbial Community Along Three Sites of the Rio Grande by Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis – Rebeca Imelda Castro – Texas A&M International University

Bioinformatics

On the Origins and Control of Community Types in the Human Microbiome – Travis E. Gibson – ArXiv

Thesis: Exploring microbial community structure and resilience through visualization and analysis of microbial co-occurrence networks – Sarah Isa Esther Perez – University of British Columbia

Metagenomics

Phylogeny and physiology of candidate phylum ‘Atribacteria’ (OP9/JS1) inferred from cultivation-independent genomics – Masaru K Nobu – The ISME Journal

Review: Capturing prokaryotic dark matter genomes – Cyrielle Gasc – Research in Microbiology

Viruses and phages

Large tailed spindle viruses of Archaea: A new way of doing viral business – Rebecca Hochstein – Journal of Virology

Draft Genome Sequences of Marine RNA Viruses SF-1, SF-2, and SF-3 Recovered from San Francisco Wastewater – Alexander L. Greninger – Genome Announcements

Microbial ecology

Backbones of evolutionary history test biodiversity theory for microbes – James P. O’Dwyer – PNAS

Techniques

Effect of DNA Extraction Methods on the Apparent Structure of Yak Rumen Microbial Communities as Revealed by 16S rDNA Sequencing – Ya-Bing Chen – Polish Journal of Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Bacteria may help bats to fight deadly fungus: As white-nose syndrome spreads, researchers are trialling ways to stop colonies from collapsing – Nala Rogers – Nature

This mushroom might alter gut bacteria for the better, study finds – Catherine Woods – PBS Newshour

Can the Bacteria in Your Gut Explain Your Mood? The rich array of microbiota in our intestines can tell us more than you might think – Peter Andrey Smith – New York Times

Urban microbes come out of the shadows: Genomic sequences reveal cities’ teeming masses of bacteria and viruses – Rachel Ehrenberg – Nature

NIH Earmarks $1.5M to Fund Human Microbiome Research Projects – GenomeWeb

Fat, sugar cause bacterial changes that may relate to loss of cognitive function – Oregon State University

Why Would Anyone Get a Fecal Transplant? Watch a Brother and Sister Explain – Maryn McKenna – National Geographic

Bik’s Picks

Astronaut Terry Virts on the Power of Space Photography – Andrew Katz – Time

Dangerous cervical lesions reduced since start of HPV vaccination – Kathryn Doyle – Reuters

This cockroach-inspired robot will scurry right into your nightmares: Crawling soon to a rescue squad near you – Arielle Duhaime-Ross – The Verge

 

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April 20, 2015

Happy 4/20! Here is a paper from last June that deserves renewed attention today: 

Understanding Cultivar-Specificity and Soil Determinants of the Cannabis Microbiome – Max E. Winston – PLOS ONE

Human oral microbiome

Review: Ecological Approaches to Oral Biofilms: Control without Killing – Marsh P.D. – Caries Research

Human vaginal microbiome

A multi-platform metabolomics approach identifies novel biomarkers associated with bacterial diversity in the human vagina – Amy McMillan – ArXiv

Comparison of detection methods for vaginal lactobacilli – I. Smidt – Beneficial Microbes

Human gut microbiome

Differences in Gut Microbiota Between Atopic and Healthy Children – Tiina Drell – Current Microbiology

DGGE: Is there interaction between gut microbial profile and cardiovascular risk in chronic kidney disease patients? – Amanda F Barros – Future Medicine

Thesis: Characterization and Investigation of Fungi Inhabiting the Gastrointestinal Tract of Healthy and Diseased Humans – Mallory J Suhr – University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Poster: The MS Microbiome Consortium (MSMC): an academic multi-disciplinary collaborative effort to elucidate the role of the gut microbiota in MS (P2.205)
Ilana Katz Sand – Neurology

Review: Gut microbiota and Ma-Pi 2 macrobiotic diet in the treatment of type 2 diabetes – Francesco Fallucca – World Journal of Diabetes

Animal microbiome

The coral core microbiome identifies rare bacterial taxa as ubiquitous endosymbionts
Tracy D Ainsworth – The ISME Journal

Plant root and soil microbiome

Tree: Genetic Diversity and Functional Traits of Pterocarpus officinalis Jacq. Associated with Symbiotic Microbial Communities in Caribbean Swamp Forests in Relation to Insular Distribution, Salinity and Flooding – Amadou M. Bâ, Elsie Rivera-Ocasio – Wetlands

Plant: Effects of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) root mucilage on microbial community response and capacity for phenanthrene remediation – Ran Sun – Journal of Environmental Sciences

Effect of conventional and organic orchard floor management practices on enzyme activities and microbial counts in a ‘Cripp’s Pink’/M7 apple orchard – André H Meyer – South African Journal of Plant and Soil

Successional and seasonal variations in soil and litter microbial community structure and function during tropical post-agricultural forest regeneration: A multi-year study
A. Peyton Smith – Global Change Biology

Editorial: Increasing diversity – Andrea Du Toit – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Soils naturally suppressive to banana Fusarium wilt disease harbor unique bacterial communities – Zongzhuan Shen – Plant and Soil

Cropping systems modulate the rate and magnitude of soil microbial autotrophic CO2 fixation in soil – Xiao H. Wu – Frontiers in Microbiology

Cave microbiome
Nutrient input influences fungal community composition and size and can stimulate Mn(II) oxidation in caves – SK Carmichael – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Water microbiome

Temporal and spatial constraints on community assembly during microbial colonization of wood in seawater – Dimitri Kalenitchenko – The ISME Journal

Extremophiles

In situ expression of eukaryotic ice-binding proteins in microbial communities of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice – Christiane Uhlig – The ISME Journal

Metatranscriptomes reveal functional variation in diatom communities from the Antarctic Peninsula – Gareth A Pearson – The ISME Journal

Venn Diagrams galore: Multi-scale variability analysis reveals the importance of spatial distance in shaping Arctic soil microbial functional communities – Yu Shi – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Microbes of the built environment

Influence of housing characteristics on bacterial and fungal communities in homes of asthmatic children – K. C. Dannemiller – Indoor Air

Microbial diversity in bioaerosol samples causing ODTS compared to reference bioaerosol samples as measured using Illumina sequencing and MALDI-TOF – Anne Mette Madsen – Environmental Research

Molecular characterization of microbial communities and quantification of Mycobacterium immunogenum in metal removal fluids and their associated biofilms
Jianfeng Wu – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Bioreactor and wastewater microbiology

Microbial Mats as a Biological Treatment Approach for Saline Wastewaters: The Case of Produced Water from Hydraulic Fracturing – Benay Akyon – Environmental Science & Technology

Dynamics and distribution of bacterial and archaeal communities in oil-contaminated temperate coastal mudflat mesocosms – Gbemisola O. Sanni – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Techniques

Flow cytometry as an auxiliary tool for the selection of probiotic bacteria – D. Mudroňová – Beneficial Microbes

Other microbiology papers

Shattering old beliefsGram’s stain does not cross the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane – Michael J. Wilhelm – ACS Chemical Biology

Dynamic Clustering in Suspension of Motile Bacteria – Xiao Chen – ArXiv

Microbes in the news

Jessica Richman, CEO of uBiome joins for short Toolmaker Talk about microbiome
 – Quantified Self Radio

Top 100 Most Influential People, with Martin Blaser – Almudena Bernabea – Time

VideoDavid Sela, PhD: Probiotics, nutrition & the microbiome – UMass Amherst – YouTube

Can Specks of Dust Help Solve Crimes? – Mandy Oaklander – Time

Bacterial flora of remote tribespeople carries antibiotic resistance genes – Science Daily

In fight against Crohn’s, professor battles bacteria – Scott Goss – USA Today

Are gut bacteria manipulating your mood? – Viviane Richter – Cosmos Magazine

To fight nasty digestive bugs, U-M scientists set out to build a better gut – using stem cells – HealthCanal

Mouth bacteria can tell the status of liver disease – Zee News

How the gut garden affects fat-burning – Sylvia Harral, Michele Stewart – Recorder Online

Maple Syrup Extract May Fight Infection-Causing Bacteria: Study – Joanna Adams – Huffington Post

How Things Work: Phages occupy bacteria to cure infection – Sharon Wu – The Tartan

The Bacteria Will See You Now: How Little Bugs Create Big Problems in Hospitals – Brian Krans – HealthLine

Cytokinins Cannot Be Associated with Plants Only: Being Present in Bacteria, They Also Affect Resistance to TB – Martina Šaradínová

Microbes and art

VideoAnna Dumitriu – “Don’t try this at home” – creating microbial artwork from faecal transplants – YouTube

Now with a Colon and Rectum – but Super Stomach and Tremendous Testicle are cute too. Bladder is on sale! I Heart Guts Plush Organs

Science, publishing, and career

University of Victoria student diving for his master’s – Jeff Bell – Times Colonist (HT: Ed Yong)

Bik’s Picks

Roundup and Risk Assessment – Michael Specter – New Yorker

Vampire Squid Outlast Their Shallower Peers – SindyaN. Bhanoo – New York Times

New species of frog found in Costa Rica looks just like Kermit – Andrea Romano – Mashable

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April 16, 2015

Human gut microbiome

Alcoholic Liver Disease: The Gut Microbiome and Liver Cross Talk – Phillipp Hartmann – Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research

Animal models of microbiome research

Xylo-oligosaccharides and virginiamycin differentially modulate gut microbial composition in chickens – Mohsen Pourabedin – Microbiome

Taking advantage of quorum sensing – Cláudio Nunes-Alves – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Changes in the colon microbiota and intestinal cytokine gene expression following minimal intestinal surgery – Susan Lapthorne – World Journal of Gastroenterology

Animal microbiome

Insect life history and the evolution of bacterial mutualism – Lee M. Henry – Ecology Letters

Bugs full of viruses – Astrid Gall – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Similar sponge-associated bacteria can be acquired via both vertical and horizontal transmission – Detmer Sipkema – Environmental Microbiology

Transcriptional activity of the giant barrel sponge, Xestospongia muta Holobiont: Molecular Evidence for Metabolic Interchange – Cara L. Fiore – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water microbiome

Shift of anammox bacterial community structure along the Pearl Estuary and the impact of environmental factors – Bingbing Fu – Journal of Geophysical Research

Metatranscriptome analyses indicate resource partitioning between diatoms in the field – Harriet Alexander – PNAS USA

Microbiome of the built environment

Total Concentrations of Virus and Bacteria in Indoor and Outdoor Air – Aaron J. Prussin – Environmental Science and Technology Letters
See also my blog post on MicroBE.net about this paper, with a lively discussion on filters and pore sizes

Food microbiology

Effect of Gamma Irradiation on the Bacteriological and Sensory Analysis of Raw Whole Milk under Refrigeration – Adriana Cristina de Oliveira Silva

Bioreactor microbiology

Disturbance opens recruitment sites for bacterial colonization in activated sludge – David C. Vuono – Environmental Microbiology

Metaproteomics of complex microbial communities in biogas plants – Robert Heyer – Microbial Biotechnology

16S rRNA gene analysis, not metagenomics: Metagenomic analysis for the microbial consortium of anaerobic CO oxidizers – Ying Guo – Microbial Biotechnology

Bioinformatics

Protocol: Bioinformatics and Microarray Data Analysis on the Cloud – Barbara Calabrese, Mario Cannataro – Methods in Molecular Biology

An Ontology-Based GIS for Genomic Data Management of Rumen Microbes – Saber Jelokhani-Niaraki – Genomics & Informatics

Behind a very thick paywall: Application of Meta-Mesh on the analysis of microbial communities from human associated-habitats – Xiaoquan Su – Quantitative Biology

Metagenomics

The metagenomic approach and causality in virology – Silvana Beres Castrignano and Teresa Keico Nagasse-Sugahara – Rev Saúde Pública

Techniques

Use of pressure cycling technology for cell lysis and recovery of bacterial and fungal communities from soil – Emily A. Bruner – BioTechniques

Microbial Ecology

Estimating and Mapping Ecological Processes Influencing Microbial Community Assembly – James C. Stegen – Frontiers in Microbiology

More microbiology

The Infallible Microbial Identification Test: Does It Exist? – Alex van Belkum – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Synthetic Cheese and the Microbiome – Alex A. — MicroBE.net

Total Concentrations of Virus and Bacteria in Indoor and Outdoor Air – Elisabeth Bik – MicroBE.net

A Review of the Oral Microbiome: Orli Reports – Orli Kadoch – uBiome Blog

To fight nasty digestive bugs, scientists set out to build a better gut—using stem cells – Medical Xpress

#BacteriaArePlural The bacteria that steals DNA from its surroundings – Mette Risbråthe – Norwegian University of Life Sciences

#BacteriaHysteria: Germ warfare: Kitchens can harbor hidden bacteria – Katherine Roth – The Pueble Chieftain

Science, publishing, and career

A resource for cell line authentication, annotation and quality control – Mamie Yu – Nature

Science AMA Series: We are Charon Pierson, journal editor and elected member of the Governing Council for the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch. AUA about publication ethics and retractions.

Rule rewrite aims to clean up scientific software – Nature Biotechnology asks peer reviewers to check accessibility of code used in computational studies – Erika Check Hayden – Nature

Bik’s Picks

Response of seafloor ecosystems to abrupt global climate change – Sarah E. Moffitt – PNAS USA

Longread: The Pollen Detective – He’d used science to crack cases from art forgery to bank robbery. But then a murder took place in his own backyard – David Wolman – Medium

This professor measured his fingernail growth for 35 years. The results will amaze you! – Seriously, Science? – Discover