April 14, 2015

Human oral microbiome

Bacteriophage and their potential roles in the human oral cavity – Anna Edlund – Journal of Oral Microbiology

A Potential Biofilm Metabolite Signature for Caries Activity – A Pilot Clinical Study
Zandona F – Metabolomics

Human gut microbiome

Functional Dynamics of the Gut Microbiome in Elderly People during Probiotic Consumption – Emiley A. Eloe-Fadrosh – mBio

Siblings of patients with Crohn’s disease exhibit a biologically relevant dysbiosis in mucosal microbial metacommunities – Charlotte Hedin – Gut

Effect of iron supplementation with or without vitamin E (VE) on gut microbiome (MB) in iron deficient (ID) infants and toddlers – Minghua Tang – The FASEB Journal

Molecular assessment of differences in the duodenal microbiome in subjects with irritable bowel syndrome – Evangelos Giamarellos-Bourboulis – Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology

Review: Viruses, Other Pathogenic Microorganisms and Esophageal Cancer – Xu W. – Gastrointestinal Tumors

Human genital tract microbiome

True love: Complementary seminovaginal microbiome in couples – Reet Mändar – Research in Microbiology

Metabolic Signatures of Bacterial Vaginosis – Sujatha Srinivasan – mBio

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Low birthweight, gestational age, need for surgical intervention and gram-negative bacteraemia predict intestinal failure following necrotising enterocolitis – Anders Elfvin – Acta Paediatrica

Animal models of microbiome research

Gut microbiota depletion from early adolescence in mice: Implications for brain and behaviour – Lieve Desbonnet – Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

Animal microbiome

Dog: Draft Genome Sequences of 26 Porphyromonas Strains Isolated from the Canine Oral Microbiome – David A. Coil – Genome Announcements

Ragworm: Polychaete burrows harbour distinct microbial communities in oil-contaminated coastal sediments – Joe D Taylor and Michael Cunliffe – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Just dropping by (Aphids): Do Bacterial Symbionts Govern Aphid’s Dropping Behavior? – Omer Lavy – Environmental Entomology

Review (corals): Nitrogen cycling in corals: the key to understanding holobiont functioning? – Nils Rädecker – Trends in Microbiology

Plant and soil microbiome

Below-ground abiotic and biotic heterogeneity shapes above-ground infection outcomes and spatial divergence in a host–parasite interaction – Ayco J. M. Tack – New Phytologist

A pyrosequencing insight into sprawling bacterial diversity and community dynamics in decaying deadwood logs of Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies – Björn Hoppe – Scientific Reports

Effect of crop management and sample year on abundance of soil bacterial communities in organic and conventional cropping systems – Caroline H. Orr – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Phylogenetic community ecology of soil biodiversity using mitochondrial metagenomics – Carmelo Andújar – Molecular Ecology

Soil treatment-induced differential gene expression in tomato: Relationships between defense gene expression and soil microbial community composition – Shawn T. Lucas – Applied Soil Ecology

Diversity and characterization of Cd-tolerant dark septate endophytes (DSEs) associated with the roots of Nepal alder (Alnus nepalensis) in a metal mine tailing of southwest China – Runbing Xu – Applied Soil Ecology

Plant traits related to nitrogen uptake influence plant-microbe competition – Delphine Moreau – Ecology

Soil microbial functionality in response to dairy sewage sludge and mineral fertilisers application under winter rape – K. Oszust – International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology

Water microbiome

Dynamic succession of groundwater functional microbial communities in response to emulsified vegetable oil amendment during sustained in situ U(VI) reduction – Ping Zhang – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Distribution of PAHs and the PAH-degrading bacteria in the deep-sea sediments of the high-latitude Arctic Ocean – C. Dong – Biogeosciences

Sulfate-reducing bacterial communities in the water column of the Gdansk Deep (Baltic Sea) – V. A. Korneeva – Microbiology

Bioreactor microbiology

Rare taxa have potential to make metabolic contributions in enhanced biological phosphorus removal ecosystems – Christopher E. Lawson – Environmental Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome

Archaeal Viruses Multiply: Temporal Screening in a Solar Saltern – Nina S. Atanasova – Viruses

Review: 40 Years of archaeal virology: Expanding viral diversity – Jamie C. Snyder – Virology

Methane Yield Database: Online Infrastructure and Bioresource for Methane Yield Data and Related Metadata – Boštjan Murovec – Bioresource Technology

Call for papers: BIODESERT: Exploring and Exploiting the Microbial Resource of Hot and Cold Deserts – Hindawi BioMed Research International

Metagenomics and metabolomics

Reconstructing Rare Soil Microbial Genomes using in situ Enrichments and Metagenomics – Tom O. Delmont – Frontiers in Microbiology

Characterization and Detection of a Widely Distributed Gene Cluster That Predicts Anaerobic Choline Utilization by Human Gut Bacteria – Ana Martínez-del Campo – mBio

Metabolic Signatures of Bacterial Vaginosis – Sujatha Srinivasan – mBio

Review: Prokaryotic functional gene diversity in the sunlit ocean: Stumbling in the dark
Isabel Ferrera – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Techniques

Specific amplification of bacterial DNA by optimized so-called universal bacterial primers in samples rich of plant DNA – Samart Dorn-In – Journal of Microbiological Methods

More microbiology papers

Bacterial Raincoats: Interfacial self-assembly of a bacterial hydrophobin – Keith M. Bromley – PNAS USA

A New Synthesis for Dual Use Research of Concern – Michael J. Imperiale, Arturo Casadevall – PLOS Biology

Microbes in the news

Here’s Your New Science-Backed Reason to Eat More Cheese Your good bacteria love stinky fromage as much as you do – Mandy Oaklander – Time

Making a microbe subway map – Bethany Brookshire – Student Science

Video: Can gut bacteria help us live longer? – Simin Nikbin Meydani – Tufts University

Bacterial raincoat discovery paves way to better crop protection – Phys.org

CRISPR Shows How A Bacterial Cell Can Recognize Its Own DNA – Science 2.0

Spotlight on the Banfield labLonger DNA fragments reveal rare species diversity  – TANN – Archaeology News Network

Submission for the ASM Global Video Challenge 2015: Bacterial Friends Within You – YouTube

Spread of bacteria an issue in doctors’ white coat debate – Murray Feingold – Standard Speaker

Science, publishing, and career

How should journalists cover quacks like Dr. Oz or the Food Babe? – Julia Belluz – Vox

Great news: National hiring experiments reveal 2:1 faculty preference for women on STEM tenure track – Wendy M. Williams and Stephen J. Ceci – PNAS USA

Bik’s Picks

Four Corners Methane ‘Hot Spot’: NASA Joins Team Of Scientists Attempting To Pinpoint Source Of Gas – Avaneesh Pandey – International Business Times

Natural Selection May Help Account for Dutch Height Advantage – Carl Zimmer – New York Times

This Doughnut In Space Went Where No Breakfast Pastry Has Been Before – Cameron Keady – Huffington Post
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April 11, 2015

Another new paper on gorilla gut microbiome, reviews on role of microbes in obesity, and finding the microbial equivalent of cockroaches.

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Pathogenesis of neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis – Joanna C. Lim – Pediatric Surgery International

Human oral microbiome

Differentiation of salivary bacterial profiles of subjects with periodontitis and dental caries – Daniel Belstrøm – Journal of Oral Microbiology

Secretome of gingival epithelium in response to subgingival biofilms – N. Bostanci – Molecular Oral Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Perspective: Integrating host gene expression and the microbiome to explore disease pathogenesis – Allyson L Byrd and Julia A Segre – Genome Biology

Review: Recent Advances in Characterizing the Gastrointestinal Microbiome in Crohn’s Disease: A Systematic Review – Emily K Wright – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Review: Dietary effects on human gut microbiome diversity – Zhenjiang Xu and Rob Knight – British Journal of Nutrition

Review: Obesity and the gastrointestinal microbiota: a review of associations and mechanisms – Catherine Graham – Nutrition Reviews

Review: Gut Microbiome and Obesity: A Plausible Explanation for Obesity – Claudia Sanmiguel – Current Obesity Reports

Animal model microbiome

Distinct Commensals Induce Interleukin-1β via NLRP3 Inflammasome in Inflammatory Monocytes to Promote Intestinal Inflammation in Response to Injury – Sang-Uk Seo – Immunity
Animal microbiome

Gut microbiome composition and metabolomic profiles of wild western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) reflect host ecology – Andres Gomez – Molecular Ecology

Soil and plant root microbiome

Forest floor community metatranscriptomes identify fungal and bacterial responses to N deposition in two maple forests – Cedar N. Hesse – Frontiers in Microbiology

Parent materials have stronger effects than land use types on microbial biomass, activity and diversity in red soil in subtropical China – Huan Deng – Pedobiologia

Changes in soil microbial functional diversity and biochemical characteristics of tree peony with amendment of sewage sludge compost – Xiangdong Huang – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

16S rRNA study, not metagenomics: Cataloguing the bacterial diversity of the Sundarbans mangrove, India in the light of metagenomics – Pijush Basak – Genomics Data

Relationships among bulk soil physicochemical, biochemical, and microbiological parameters in an organic alfalfa-rice rotation system – Ana R. Lopes – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Soil microbial responses over 2 years following biochar addition to a north temperate forest – Genevieve L. Noyce – Biology and Fertility of Soils

Water microbiome

Temporal Dynamics of Active Prokaryotic Nitrifiers and Archaeal Communities from River to Sea – Mylène Hugoni – Microbial Ecology

Extremophile microbiome

Finding the microbial equivalent of cockroachesThe impact of gamma radiation on sediment microbial processes – Ashley R. Brown – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Methods to Assess Human Occupancy and Occupant Activity in Hospital Patient Rooms – Sandra Dedesko – Building and Environment

Bioreactor microbiology

Bacterial communities in haloalkaliphilic sulfate-reducing bioreactors under different electron donors revealed by 16S rRNA MiSeq sequencing – Jiemin Zhou – Journal of Hazardous Materials

Microbial Ecology

Antimicrobial Resistance: The Major Contribution of Poor Governance and Corruption to This Growing Problem – Peter Collignon – PLOS ONE

Local–global overlap in diversity informs mechanisms of bacterial biogeography – Joshua A Livermore and Stuart E Jones – The ISME Journal

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Inference of Markovian Properties of Molecular Sequences from NGS Data and Applications to Comparative Genomics – Jie Ren – ArXiv

Techniques

Normalization of environmental metagenomic DNA enhances the discovery of under-represented microbial community members – J.-B. Ramond – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Estimating Protistan Diversity using High-throughput Sequencing – Sarah K. Hu – Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Connecting Indoor Microbiome Studies with Indoor Chemistry – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBE.net

Smart Sewers Will Reveal What’s in Cambridge Citizens’ Guts – Elie Dolgin – IEEE Spectrum

Microbes disprove long-held assumption that all organisms share a common vocabulary – Science Daily

Scientists study mystery of Lake Erie toxic bacteria – Detroit Free Press

Jessica Cofield puts degrees in microbiology to good use – Crystal Garrett – Sun Journal

MRSA Bacteria From Borrowed Makeup Brush Paralyzes 27-Year-Old Woman – Lecia Bushak – Medical Daily

Science, publishing, and career

Virginia student earns admission to all eight Ivy League schools, and others – T. Rees Shapiro – Washington Post

China’s medical research integrity questioned – The Lancet

The seven sins of peer review – Technologist

Bik’s Picks

Review: Innovations in Health Value and Functional Food Development of Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) – Brittany L. Graf – Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety

In Hawaii, Chickens Gone Wild – Kenneth Chang – New York Times

Komodo dragon named Smaug gets a leg up from a new prosthetic – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

[hr]

April 10, 2015

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Maternal fucosyltransferase 2 status affects the gut bifidobacterial communities of breastfed infants – Zachery T Lewis – Microbiome

The Infant Nasopharyngeal Microbiome Impacts Severity of Lower Respiratory Infection and Risk of Asthma Development – Shu Mei Teo – Cell Host & Microbe

Mid-trimester amniotic fluid pro-inflammatory biomarkers predict the risk of spontaneous preterm delivery in twins: a retrospective cohort study – S M Lee – Journal of Perinatology

Risk for Preterm and Very Preterm Delivery in Women Who Were Born Preterm – Boivin, Ariane – Obstetrics & Gynecology

Human oral microbiome

Clinical and microbiological effects of probiotic lozenges in the treatment of chronic periodontitis: a 1-year follow-up study – Merve Tekce – Journal of Clinical Periodontology

Review: Beyond microbial community composition: Functional activities of the oral microbiome in health and disease – Ana E. Duran-Pinedo, Jorge Frias-Lopez – Microbes and Infection

Human gut microbiome

A randomized controlled trial to test the effect of multispecies probiotics on cognitive reactivity to sad mood – Laura Steenbergen – Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

Fungi inhabiting the healthy human gastrointestinal tract: a diverse and dynamic community – Heather E. Hallen-Adams – Fungal Ecology

Changes in human gut microbiota influenced by probiotic fermented milk ingestion – Tatsuya Unno – Journal of Dairy Science

Fecal Microbiota Transplantation Induces Remission in Patients with Active Ulcerative Colitis in a Randomized, Controlled Trial – Paul Moayyedi – Gastroenterology

Review: The Microbiota and Microbiome in Aging: Potential Implications in Health and Age-Related Diseases – Heidi J. Zapata – Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Review: Gastric cancer and the microbiome – Nivedita Arora – Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease

Review: The Role of Microbiota on the Gut Immunology – Yang Won Min – Clinical Therapeutics

Animal models of microbiome research

Editorial: Gut Microbiota: The Link to Your Second Brain – Vanessa Ridaura – Cell
Belongs to: Indigenous Bacteria from the Gut Microbiota Regulate Host Serotonin Biosynthesis – Jessica M. Yano – Cell

Inoculation of tannin-degrading bacteria into novel hosts increases performance on tannin-rich diets – Kevin D. Kohl – Environmental Microbiology

Crosstalk between Microbiota-Derived Short-Chain Fatty Acids and Intestinal Epithelial HIF Augments Tissue Barrier Function – Caleb J. Kelly – Cell Host & Microbe

Effect of a new recombinant Aeromonas hydrophila vaccine on the grass carp intestinal microbiota and correlations with immunological responses – Lei Liu – Fish & Shellfish Immunology

Colonization and induction of Th17 cells by segmented filamentous bacteria in the murine intestine – Adam M. Farkas – Journal of Immunological Methods

Animal microbiome

Microbiota and probiotics in canine and feline welfare – Łukasz Grześkowiak – Anaerobe

Isolation and use of beneficial microbiota from the digestive tract of lions-paw scallop Nodipecten subnodosus and winged pearl oyster Pteria sterna in oyster aquaculture – Fernando Abasolo-Pacheco – Aquaculture Research

Perspective: Does the Arthropod Microbiota Impact the Establishment of Vector-Borne Diseases in Mammalian Hosts? – Constance A. M. Finney – PLOS Pathogens

Plant and plant root microbiome

Seagrass biofilm communities at a naturally CO2-rich vent – Christiane Hassenrück – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Preferential Association of Endophytic Bradyrhizobia with Different Rice Cultivars and Its Implications for Rice Endophyte Evolution – Pongdet Piromyou – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Niche partitioning in arbuscular mycorrhizal communities in temperate grasslands: a lesson from adjacent serpentine and nonserpentine habitats – Petr Kohout – Molecular Ecology

Soil microbiome

Microbial community dynamics during the early stages of plant polymer breakdown in paddy soil – Carl-Eric Wegner andWerner Liesack – Environmental Microbiology

Depth-related responses of soil microbial communities to experimental warming in an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau – B. Zhang – European Journal of Soil Science

Red Soils Harbor Diverse Culturable Actinomycetes That Are Promising Sources of Novel Secondary Metabolites – Xiaoxuan Guo – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Water microbiome

Shifts in the meso- and bathypelagic archaea communities composition during recovery and short-term handling of decompressed deep-sea samples – Violetta La Cono –

Understanding diversity patterns in bacterioplankton communities from a sub-Antarctic peatland – María Victoria Quiroga – Environmental Microbiology Reports

The hidden seasonality of the rare biosphere in coastal marine bacterioplankton – Laura Alonso-Sáez- Environmental Microbiology

Bacterial community dynamics during polysaccharide degradation at contrasting sites in the Southern and Atlantic Oceans – Matthias Wietz – Environmental Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome

Nature special: Permafrost: overview articles and primary research from Nature papers, including role of microbes in permafrost soils

Metagenomic analysis of a high carbon dioxide subsurface microbial community populated by chemolithoautotrophs and bacteria and archaea from candidate phyla
Joanne B. Emerson – Environmental Microbiology

Food microbiology

Batch-to-batch uniformity of bacterial community succession and flavor formation in the fermentation of Zhenjiang aromatic vinegar – Zong-Min Wang – Food Microbiology

Microbial diversity and stability during primary cultivation and subcultivation processes of Tibetan kefir – Wei Gao – International Journal of Food Science & Technology

There is a serious problem with Figure 1: Tetragenococcus koreensis is part of the microbiota in a traditional Italian raw fermented sausage – C. Amadoro – Food Microbiology

Other  papers of interest

Development and utility of the FDA ‘GutProbe’ DNA microarray for identification, genotyping and metagenomic analysis of commercially available probiotics – J.N. Patro – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Increased Biodiversity in the Environment Improves the Humoral Response of Rats
Cinthia Pi – PLOS ONE

Microbes in the news

Bundle Of Joyful Microbes: Mom’s DNA Alters Baby’s Gut Bacteria – Michaeleen Doucleff – NPR Shots

Worms, germs lead to better immune function – Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150408145242.htm
What does the term microbiome mean? And where did it come from? A bit of a surprise .. – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBEnet

Leading expert on microbiome Rob Knight wins a 2015 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science – PR NewsWire

Congrats: You Are Officially a Superorganism – Max Lugavere – Huffington Post

Genetically-Engineered Bacteria Can Keep Mice From Getting Fat – Sarah Zhang – Gizmodo

Your microbiome may hold keys to cancer treatment – Alexandra Ossola – Popular Science

Cheese: The latest piece of the French paradox puzzle? – Niamh Michail – Food Navigator

#BacteriaHysteria #BacteriaArePlural: How much bacteria is in your kid’s lunchbox? You might be surprised (and grossed out) – Alex Perez – ABC 7online

Science, publishing, and career

Wanted: staff-scientist positions for postdocs – Kendall Powell – Nature

Book review: Speaking of science – Scientific Babel: How Science Was Done Before and After Global English – Lynn K. Nyhart – Science

Gender Disparity in Peer Review? – Andrew Harrison – Publons

Citations are not enough: Academic promotion panels must take into account a scholar’s presence in popular media – London School of Economics and Political Science

Bik’s Picks

Incredible imprinting – ‘are you my mummy?’ – Biodetectives

Sea Turtle Toddlers’ ‘Lost Years’ Spent Swimming, Not Drifting In Seaweed Matts – Rebekah Marcarelli – HNGN.com

New species of ‘terror bird’ discovered – Sid Perkins – Science

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April 9, 2015

Events and conferences

3rd Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Forum: USA – 10-11 September 2015, San Diego

Symposium ‘Women & Their Microbes’, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, May 8, 2015 in Micropia

Human gut microbiome

Associations between host gene expression, the mucosal microbiome, and clinical outcome in the pelvic pouch of patients with inflammatory bowel disease – Xochitl C Morgan – Genome Biology

Animal models of microbiome research

High-grain feeding causes strong shifts in ruminal epithelial bacterial community and expression of Toll-like receptor genes in goats – Jun-hua Liu – Frontiers in Microbiology

Site-specific programming of the host epithelial transcriptome by the gut microbiota – Felix Sommer – Genome Biology

Animal microbiome

Bats: Bacteria Isolated from Bats Inhibit the Growth of Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the Causative Agent of White-Nose Syndrome – Joseph R. Hoyt – PLOS ONE

Plant microbiome

Interactions of Methylotrophs with Plants and Other Heterotrophic Bacteria – Hiroyuki Iguchi – Microorganisms

Soil and sediment microbiome

Effects of 100 years wastewater irrigation on resistance genes, class 1 integrons and IncP-1 plasmids in Mexican soil – Sven Jechalke – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbial methane formation in deep aquifers of a coal-bearing sedimentary basin, Germany – Friederike Gründger – Frontiers in Microbiology

Farm management, not soil microbial diversity, controls nutrient loss from smallholder tropical agriculture – Stephen A. Wood – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water microbiome

Viruses and bacteria in floodplain lakes along a major Amazon tributary respond to distance to the Amazon River – Rafael M. Almeida – Frontiers in Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome

Permafrost thawing in organic Arctic soils accelerated by ground heat production – Jørgen Hollesen – Nature Climate Change
See also:
Bacteria warm up permafrost – Nature

Alternative lifestyle: The processes that allow life to thrive in deep-sea vents are happening all around us – Nick Higgs – New Scientist

Bacterial community structure across environmental gradients in permafrost thaw ponds: methanotroph-rich ecosystems – Sophie Crevecoeur – Frontiers in Microbiology

Influence of Martian regolith analogs on the activity and growth of methanogenic archaea, with special regard to long-term desiccation – Janosch Schirmack – Frontiers in Microbiology

Diversity and role of plasmids in adaptation of bacteria inhabiting the Lubin copper mine in Poland, an environment rich in heavy metals – Lukasz Dziewit – Frontiers in Microbiology

Active Microbial Communities Inhabit Sulphate-Methane Interphase in Deep Bedrock Fracture Fluids in Olkiluoto, Finland – Malin Bomberg – BioMed Research International

Food microbiology

Review: Recent trends in non-invasive in situ techniques to monitor bacterial colonies in solid (model) food – María M. Lobete – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bioreactor and wastewater microbiome

Bacteriophages as indicators of human and animal faecal contamination in raw and treated wastewaters from Tunisia – M. Yahya – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Microbial Ecology

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

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Phylogenomics and systematics in Pseudomonas – Margarita Gomila – Frontiers in Microbiology

Kraken: ultrafast metagenomic sequence classification using exact alignments – Derrick E Wood and Steven L Salzberg (HT: Tomer Altman)

Metabolomics

Exometabolomics and MSI: deconstructing how cells interact to transform their small molecule environment – Leslie P Silva – Current Opinion in Biotechnology

 

Microbes in the news

Life below Antarctic ice survives on ancient forests – Catherine Brahic – New Scientist

Eden Project’s ‘Human Biome’ is a gross, musical microbe showcase – Katie Collins – Wired

Company provides easy access to microbiome data – Mark Niu – CCTV America

 

Gates Foundation Issues Call for Application for Round 15 of Grand Challenges Initiative  – Philanthropy News Digest

Changes in Lung Microbiota May Help Predict Cystic Fibrosis Pulmonary Exacerbations – Patricia Silva – Cystic Fibrosis News today

Body maps reveal the bacteria and chemicals lurking on skin – Meera Senthilingam – CNN

 

Gut Bacteria May Be Associated with Parkinson’s Phenotype – Neurology Advisor

Microbes Engineered to Prevent Obesity – Katherine Bourzac – Technology Review
Cornell Researchers Identify Gut Microbes that May Help Some People Remain Thin; Findings Could Result in Clinical Laboratory Tests to Analyze the Microbiomes of Individuals
– Dark Daily

Silver linings: a personal memoir about Hurricane Katrina and fungal volatiles
Joan W. Bennett – Frontiers in Microbiology

 

Sequencing the intestinal microbiome to target therapies: Vanni Bucci looking for probiotic cocktails – Bryan Goodchild and Ellie Castano – University of Massachusetts Medical School Communications

Bacteria inhibit bat-killing fungus, could combat white-nose syndrome – Tim Stephens – University of California Santa Cruz

Turtle phage therapy might help develop alternative to antibiotic treatments for humans, Queensland researchers say – Nance Haxton – ABC Australia

9 Types Of Bacteria You Didn’t Know You’re Sharing Your House With – Esther Inglis-Arkell

 

Science, publishing, and career

Chris Butler: Wants to snuggle up to bacteria – BMJ Observations

‘Plagiarism, fraud, and predatory publishing’ are polluting science, says bioethicist Arthur Caplan – Susan Perry – MinnPost

Bik’s Picks

Hair Regrowth Discovery Suggests Skin Cells Communicate Like Bacteria – Dina Fine Maron – Scientific American

Genome sequencing mountain gorillas reveals the genetic impact of inbreeding – Aylwyn Scally – The Conversation

Gem lover donates $13M for Smithsonian’s science education – Brett Zongker  – Washington Post

[hr]

April 8, 2015

Events

#UMassMedChat on the microbiome is Thursday at 11:30 a.m.- UMass Center for Microbiome Research to answer questions on gut health

Microbes in the City: Mapping the Urban Genome, Friday, June 19, 2015 – The New York Academy of Sciences

Human respiratory microbiome

Analysis of microbiota in stable patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – Estefania Aguirre – APMIS

Human gut microbiome

Site-specific programming of the host epithelial transcriptome by the gut microbiota – Felix Sommer – Genome Biology

Animal microbiome

Horses and pigs: Lactobacillus ruminis strains cluster according to their mammalian gut source – Michelle M O’ Donnell1 – BMC Microbiology

Turkeys: Rye Affects Bacterial Translocation, Intestinal Viscosity, Microbiota Composition and Bone Mineralization in Turkey Poults – Guillermo Tellez – PLOS ONE

Amphibians: Larval exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl 126 (PCB-126) causes persistent alteration of the amphibian gut microbiota – Kevin D. Kohl – Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Tsetse fly: Paternal transmission of a secondary symbiont during mating in the viviparous tsetse fly – Linda De Vooght – Molecular Biology and Evolution

Squid and Vibrio fisheri: Signaling between two interacting sensor kinases promotes biofilms and colonization by a bacterial symbiont – Allison N. Norsworthy and Karen L. Visick – Molecular Microbiology
Sponges: Phylogenetic diversity of sulphate-reducing Desulfovibrio associated with three South China Sea sponges – D. Zhang – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Plant root and soil microbiome

Plant diversity increases soil microbial activity and soil carbon storage – Markus Lange – Nature Communications

Phylogenetic relatedness determined between antibiotic resistance and 16S rRNA
genes in actinobacteria – Marketa Sagova-Mareckova – BMC Microbiology

Water microbiome

Functional Gene Composition, Diversity and Redundancy in Microbial Stream Biofilm Communities – Andrew Dopheide – PLOS ONE

Metabolomics

Distributing a metabolic pathway among a microbial consortium enhances production of natural products – Kang Zhou – Nature Biotechnology

Metabolite-sensing receptors ​GPR43 and ​GPR109A facilitate dietary fibre-induced gut homeostasis through regulation of the inflammasome – Laurence Macia – Nature Communications

Molecular Signatures of Nicotinoid-Pathogen Synergy in the Termite Gut – Ruchira Sen – PLOS ONE

Unique Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Hive Component-Based Communities as Detected by a Hybrid of Phospholipid Fatty-Acid and Fatty-Acid Methyl Ester Analyses – Kirk J. Grubbs – PLOS ONE

Bioinformatics

A Robust ANOVA Approach to Estimating A Phylogeny from Multiple Genes – Ximing Xu – Molecular Biology and Evolution

More microbiology papers

Eighteenth-century genomes show that mixed infections were common at time of peak tuberculosis in Europe – Gemma L. Kay – Nature Communications

Microbes in the news

Beneficial bacteria – Ella Nonni – The Cornell Daily Sun

Mapping All The Chemicals And Tiny Bacteria Living On Our Skin – Adele Peters – FastCoExist

uBiome and HelloFlo are teaming up to explore how the vaginal microbiome changes during pregnancy and postpartum

Video: Gut Microbiome and Its Role in Allergy and Asthma – Christine Cole Johnson – JSPRQ.com

Colorado startup’s microbiome-modulating drug could improve metformin tolerability – Meghana Keshavan – MedCityNews

Race to stamp out animal plague begins – Ewen Callaway – Nature

Science, publishing, and career

The future of the postdoc: There is a growing number of postdocs and few places in academia for them to go. But change could be on the way – Kendall Powell – Nature

Opinion: Addressing systemic problems in the biomedical research enterprise – Bruce Alberts – PNAS USA

History: Women at the edge of science – Jennifer Rampling – Nature

Bik’s Picks

Efficacy of Commercial Weight-Loss Programs: An Updated Systematic Review
Kimberly A. Gudzune – Annals of Internal Medicine

Ecology: Recovering the potential of coral reefs – Nicholas K. Dulvy & Holly K. Kindsvater – Nature
Complex organic molecules discovered in infant star system: Hints that building blocks of chemistry of life are universal – Science Daily

[hr]

April 7, 2015

Lots of abstracts today that were published in the FASEB Journal. Although not clearly marked, these appear to be abstracts from an ASBMB meeting held in March 2015 in Boston, called “The Human Microbiome“. None of these have a link to a PDF.

Course: Frontiers in Host-Microbe Interactions – August 2015

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

The FASEB Journal Abstracts:

Review: Normal flora and bacterial vaginosis in pregnancy: an overview – Mathys Jacobus Redelinghuys – Critical Reviews in Microbiology

Review: The Infant Gut Microbiome: Evidence for Obesity Risk and Dietary Intervention – Petya T. Koleva – Nutrients

Human skin microbiome

The diversity and host interactions of Propionibacterium acnes bacteriophages on human skin – Jared Liu – The ISME Journal

Human oral microbiome

The Repertoire of Archaea Cultivated from Severe Periodontitis – Hong T. T. Huynh – PLOS ONE

Review: Filifactor alocis – a new emerging periodontal pathogen – A. Wilson Aruni – Microbes and Infection

Human gut microbiome

The FASEB Journal Abstracts:

Autism spectrum disorders and intestinal microbiota – Maria De Angelis – Gut Microbes

Review: Impacts of Gut Bacteria on Human Health and Diseases – Yu-Jie Zhang – International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Animal models of microbiome research

The FASEB Journal Abstracts:

Leaky intestine and impaired microbiome in an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mouse model – Shaoping Wu – Physiological Reports

Metabolomic Modeling To Monitor Host Responsiveness to Gut Microbiota Manipulation in the BTBRT+tf/j Mouse – Matthias S. Klein – Journal of Proteome Research

Animal microbiome

The FASEB Journal Abstract: The Extraordinary Evolution of the Great Ape Microbiome
Howard Ochman

Pigs: How host gender affects the bacterial community in pig feces and its correlation to skatole production – Zhenjin Zhou – Annals of Microbiology

Pigs: Analysis of swine fecal microbiota at various growth stages – Jungman Kim – Archives of Microbiology

Fish / Review: Disinfection of teleost eggs: a review – Evelien De Swaef – Reviews in Aquaculture

Ticks: Concordance of bacterial communities of two tick species and blood of their shared rodent host – Evelyn C. Rynkiewicz – Molecular Ecology

Soil microbiome

Over 150 Years of Long-Term Fertilization Alters Spatial Scaling of Microbial Biodiversity – Yuting Liang – mBio

Analysis of Bacterial and Archaeal Communities along a High-Molecular-Weight Polyacrylamide Transportation Pipeline System in an Oil Field – Cai-Yun Li – International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Effects of Functionalized and Raw Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes on Soil Bacterial Community Composition – Dorsaf Kerfahi – PLOS ONE

Review: Effective role of indigenous microorganisms for sustainable environment – Baduru Lakshman Kumar and D. V. R. Sai Gopal – 3 Biotech

Water microbiome

Size-fractionated diversity of eukaryotic microbial communities in the Eastern Tropical North Pacific oxygen minimum zone – M.T. Duret – FEMS Microbial Ecology

Seawater mesocosm experiments in the Arctic uncover differential transfer of marine bacteria to aerosols – Camilla Fahlgren – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Book: Microbiology of the Everglades Ecosystem – CRC Press

Extremophile microbiome

Physiochemical control of bacterial and protist community composition and diversity in Antarctic sea ice – Anders Torstensson – Environmental Microbiology

Whole-Genome Shotgun Sequence of the Keratinolytic Bacterium Lysobacter sp. A03, Isolated from the Antarctic Environment – Jamile Queiroz Pereira – Genome Announcements

Food microbiome

Microbial Ecology of Watery Kimchi – Kyu Hang Kyung – Journal of Food Science

Bioreactor and biofilter microbiome

Characterization of the microbial community structure and nitrosamine-reducing isolates in drinking water biofilters – Wanfeng Wang – Science of the Total Environment

Metagenomics, Metabolomics, and Transcriptomics

The FASEB Journal Abstracts:

Proficiency testing for bacterial whole genome sequencing: an end-user survey of current capabilities, requirements and priorities – Jacob Moran-Gilad – BMC Infectious Diseases

Utilizing de Bruijn graph of metagenome assembly for metatranscriptome analysis – Yuzhen Ye, Haixu Tang – ArXiv

Single-cell genomics-based analysis of virus–host interactions in marine surface bacterioplankton – Jessica M Labonté – The ISME Journal

Applying meta-pathway analyses through metagenomics to identify the functional properties of the major bacterial communities of a single spontaneous cocoa bean fermentation process sample – Koen Illeghems – Food Microbiology

Size-fraction partitioning of community gene transcription and nitrogen metabolism in a marine oxygen minimum zone – Sangita Ganesh – The ISME Journal

Transcriptomic evidence for microbial sulfur cycling in the eastern tropical North Pacific oxygen minimum zone – Molly Carolan and J Michael Beman – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Progress and Challenges in Developing Metabolic Footprints from Diet in Human Gut Microbial Cometabolism – Linda C Duffy – Journal of Nutrition

Microbial Ecology

Bacterial adaptation to sublethal antibiotic gradients can change the ecological properties of multitrophic microbial communities – Ville-Petri Friman – Proceedings B

Local–global overlap in diversity informs mechanisms of bacterial biogeography – Joshua A Livermore – The ISME Journal

Techniques

Assessing the performance of the Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION – T. Laver – Biomolecular Detection and Quantification

Next-generation sequencing data analysis on cloud computing – Taesoo Kwon – Genes & Genomics

Microbes in the news

It’s a microbe’s world…we’re just living and dying in it – Margaret Leigh Sinrod – SciTechNow

May deadline: 2015 MO BIO Microbiome Awards – MoBIO

After cancer diagnosis, MIT student 3-D prints tumor, has microbiome analyzed – Nidhi Subbaraman – BetaBoston

Most of the text appears stolen from an article by Lita Proctor:  Human Microbiome: Quiz – Target Health

Video: Why Your Beard Is Disgusting – Discovery News

Episode 4 of The Microbiome Podcast: What’s hot in the microbiome field with Kristina Campbell – American Microbiome Institute

Solving the complex problem of recurrent C. diff with a simple solution: 
Physician scientists are using fecal transplants to break the deadly cycle of a killer infection – Bryan Goodchild and Ellie Castano – University of Massachusetts Medical School

Gut Bacteria May Influence Parkinson’s Risk, Phenotype – Pauline Anderson – Medscape

Summing up: Bassis et al.’s take on the influence of the URT on other human-associated biogeographies – Fiona Whelan – Human Microbiome Journal Club:

Under the microscope, strong-swimming swamp bacteria spontaneously organize into crystals – Phys.org

Science, publishing, and career

Female peers in small work groups enhance women’s motivation, verbal participation, and career aspirations in engineering – Nilanjana Dasgupta – PNAS USA

Bik’s Picks

How California can survive the drought — State is not in complete control – Danielle Venton – Nature

The Brontosaurus Is Back, Baby – Rich Juzwiak – Gawker

Endangered Tortoises Feasting on Invasive Plants – Richard Farrell – Discovery
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March 31, 2015

For today’s digest, I screened over 500 papers, and thousands of Tweets for you. Here is my selection:

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

PhD thesis [PDF]: Dynamics of co-existing Escherichia coli lineages in situ of the infant gut – Heidi Kira Gumpert – Technical University of Denmark

Associations between Gut Microbial Colonization in Early Life and Respiratory Outcomes in Cystic Fibrosis – Anne G Hoen – The Journal of Pediatrics

ReviewProbiotics for Preterm Infants: A Premature or Overdue Necrotizing Enterocolitis Prevention Strategy? – Sharon Anderson – Neonatal Network

Review: Preterm infant nutrition, gut bacteria, and necrotizing enterocolitis – Josef Neu –  Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care

Human oral microbiome

Periodontal Therapy Effects on Nitrite Related to Oral Bacteria: A 6-Month Randomized Clinical Trial – Sheila C Cortelli – Journal of Periodontology

Perspective: Mouthguards: Does the indigenous microbiome play a role in maintaining oral health? – Purnima S. Kumar and Matthew R. Mason – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Human respiratory microbiome

Nasal Inoculation of the Commensal Neisseria lactamica Inhibits Carriage of Neisseria meningitidis by Young Adults: A Controlled Human Infection Study – Alice M. Deasy – Clinical Infectious Diseases

Human skin microbiome

Molecular cartography of the human skin surface in 3D – Amina Bouslimani – PNAS USA

Human gut microbiome

Dynamic changes in short- and long-term bacterial composition following fecal microbiota transplantation for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection – Alexa Weingarden – Microbiome Journal

Insight into alteration of gut microbiota in Clostridium difficile infection and asymptomatic C. difficile colonization – Zhang Lihua – Anaerobe

Review: The microbiota in inflammatory bowel disease – Donal Sheehan – Journal of Gastroenterology

Review: Promoting Health and Longevity through Diet: From Model Organisms to Humans – Luigi Fontana, Linda Partridge – Cell

Review: TLR4 at the crossroads of nutrients, gut microbiota and metabolic inflammation
Licio A. Velloso – Endocrine Reviews

Review: Cultivating Healthy Growth and Nutrition through the Gut Microbiota – Sathish Subramanian – Cell

Review: The human gut microbiome, a taxonomic conundrum – Senthil Alias Sankar – Systematic and Applied Microbiology

Review: The Role of Infectious Mediators and Gut Microbiome in the Pathogenesis of Celiac Disease – Mohammad Rostami-Nejad – Archives of Iranian Medicine

Review: Exercise and the microbiota – Orla O’Sullivan – Gut Microbes

Animal models of microbiome research

Abnormal Pregnancy Outcomes in Mice Using an Induced Periodontitis Model and the Haematogenous Migration of Fusobacterium nucleatum Sub-Species to the Murine Placenta – Sara Stockham – PLOS ONE

Lactobacillus rhamnosus lowers zebrafish lipid content by changing gut microbiota and host transcription of genes involved in lipid metabolism – Silvia Falcinelli – Scientific Reports

Interactive effects of oligofructose and obesity predisposition on gut hormones and microbiota in diet-induced obese rats – Nina L. Cluny – Obesity

Animal microbiome

Editorial to Baboon microbiome paper: Metagenomics: Social behavior and the microbiome – Jack A Gilbert – eLIFE

More baboons: Development, diet, and dynamism: longitudinal and cross-sectional predictors of gut microbial communities in wild baboons – Tiantian Ren – Environmental Microbiology

Spider monkey: Effect of preservation method on spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) fecal microbiota over 8 weeks – Vanessa L. Hale – Journal of Microbiological Methods

Cats: Molecular identification of black-pigmented bacteria from subgingival samples of cats suffering from periodontal disease – L. Pérez-Salcedo – Journal of Small Animal Practice

Desert wool rat: Validating the use of trap-collected feces for studying the gut microbiota of a small mammal (Neotoma lepida) – Journal of Mammalogy

Tortoise: Kinship, inbreeding, and fine-scale spatial structure influence gut microbiota in a hindgut-fermenting tortoise – Michael L. Yuan – Molecular Ecology

Trout: Bacterial community structure in the intestinal ecosystem of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) as revealed by pyrosequencing-based analysis of 16S rRNA genes
Miray Etyemez, José Luis Balcázar – Research in Veterinary Science

Fruit fly: Pyrosequencing reveals a shift in symbiotic bacteria populations across life stages of Bactrocera dorsalis – Awawing A. Andongma – Scientific Reports

Aphids: Bacterial Communities Associated with Host-Adapted Populations of Pea Aphids Revealed by Deep Sequencing of 16S Ribosomal DNA – Jean-Pierre Gauthier – PLOS ONE

Plant microbiome

A metagenome for lacustrine Cladophora (Cladophorales) reveals remarkable diversity of eukaryotic epibionts and genes relevant to materials cycling – Linda E. Graham – Journal of Phycology

Soil and plant root microbiome

A novel pathway producing ​dimethylsulphide in bacteria is widespread in soil environments – O. Carrión – Nature Communications

Metabolic characteristics of microbial communities of Aeolian sandy soils induced by saline water drip irrigation in shelter forests – Z. Jin – European Journal of Soil Science

Field experimental evidence that stochastic processes predominate in the initial assembly of bacterial communities – Yi-Qi Hao – Environmental Microbiology

Effects of monoculture and mixed culture of grass and legume forage species on soil microbial community structure under different levels of nitrogen fertilization – Jie Zhao – European Journal of Soil Biology

Soil microbial community variation correlates most strongly with plant species identity, followed by soil chemistry, spatial location and plant genus – Jean H. Burns – AoB Plants

Long-term oil contamination causes similar changes in microbial communities of two distinct soils – Jingqiu Liao – Frontiers in Environmental Science

Soil Microbial Community Structure and Target Organisms under Different Fumigation Treatments – Sadikshya R. Dangi – Applied and Environmental Soil Science

Water microbiome

Carbonate fabrics in the modern microbialites of Pavilion Lake: two suites of microfabrics that reflect variation in microbial community morphology, growth habit, and lithification – C. Harwood Theisen – Geobiology

The Unique Chemistry of Eastern Mediterranean Water Masses Selects for Distinct Microbial Communities by Depth – Stephen M. Techtmann – PLOS ONE

Planktonic eukaryote molecular diversity: discrimination of minerotrophic and ombrotrophic peatland pools in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) – Enrique Lara – J. Plankton Research

Extremophile microbiome

Ice cover extent drives phytoplankton and bacterial community structure in a large north-temperate lake: implications for a warming climate – B. F. N. Beall – Environmental Microbiology

Marine microbes rapidly adapt to consume ethane, propane, and butane within the dissolved hydrocarbon plume of a natural seep – Stephanie D. Mendes – Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans

Built environment microbiome

Are microbial communities in green roof substrates comparable to those in post-industrial sites?—a preliminary study – Chloe J. Molineux – Urban Ecosystems

Food microbiology

Some journals just have great titles: Microbial community changes in Makgeolli during brewing – Changhoon Chai – Journal of the Institute of Brewing

Review: Fermented Foods as Experimentally Tractable Microbial Ecosystems – Benjamin E. Wolfe, Rachel J. Dutton – Cell

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Assessing the limits of restraint-based 3D modeling of genomes and genomic domains
Marie Trussart – Nucleic Acids Research

CRISPR Detection from Short Reads Using Partial Overlap Graphs – Ilan Ben-Bassat, Benny Chor – Research in Computational Molecular Biology

CLARK: fast and accurate classification of metagenomic and genomic sequences using
discriminative k-mers – Rachid Ounit – BMC Genomics

FlowClus: efficiently filtering and denoising pyrosequenced amplicons – John M Gaspar and W Kelley Thomas – BMC Bioinformatics

Review: 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing data mining of microbial diversity and interactions – Feng Ju, Dr. Tong Zhang – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Book Chapter: Single-Cell Sequencing of Microorganisms – Ying Chen – Single Cell Sequencing and Systems Immunology

Metabolomics

Review: Rumen Nutrition Symposium How to use data on the rumen microbiome to improve our understanding of ruminant nutrition – J. L. Firkins and Z. Yu – Journal of Animal Science

Microbes in the news

Modeling microbial metabolism on indoor surfaces – Jack Gilbert – MicroBEnet

Body Maps Expose the Chemical Residue That Coats Our Skin – Marcus Woo – Wired.com
Crazy maps reveal colonies of bacteria and chemicals all over the human body – Kevin Loria – Business Insider
3D Human Skin Maps Aid Study of Relationships Between Molecules, Microbes and Environment – Heather Buschman – UC San Diego

Advancing the understanding of the dental microbiome – Maria Perno Goldie – Dentistry IQ

Who Let the Microbes Out: A Paw Print of Doggy Skin Bacteria – Daniella Lowenberg – PLOS blogs

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are not match for medieval potion – Alexandra Ossola – Popular Science

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria From Texan Cattle Yards Are Now Airborne, Study Finds
Kevin McSpadden – Time

Growing a Baby Microbiome – Kevin Bonham – Scientific American

Poop Transplants Can Treat Severe Infection In Patients – FPJ Bureau – The Free Press Journal

Poo transplants could save thousands – Geoff Egan – Range News
Healthy Microbiome Changes Last After Fecal Transplant in New Research – Elizabeth Gough-Gordon – MPR

With sample collection videos: GoViral – collecting nasal and saliva samples from sick people – Boston Children’s Hospital

Northwestern leads research on effects of long-term stay in space – Peter Kotecki – The Daily Northwestern
Conference paper: Research from the NASA Twins Study and Omics in Support of Mars Missions – NASA Technical Reports

Podcast (1min30): Donate Your Health Data To Medical Science – Cynthia Graber – Scientific American – American Gut, GoViral

You Act What You Eat: How Gut Microbes Modify Our Behavior – Monica Thunder – ResetMe

Meet The Bacteria That Make A Stink In Your Pits – Poncie Rutsch – NPR
Bacterial genetic pathway involved in body odor production discovered – Science Daily

Should Gut Bugs Influence the 2015 Dietary Guidelines? – Cameron Wells – US News

Glowing Tampons Help Detect Sewage Leaks – Gwen Pearson – Wired

Nearly half of hospital uniforms are washed in temperatures too cool to kill bacteria, says DMU research – De Montfort University
Egyptians Brewed Beer in Tel Aviv 5,000 Years Ago – Megan Gannon – Live Science

Conferences

#IHMC2015: 5th International Human Microbiome Congress, March 31-April 2, 2015, Luxembourg (6/23 plenary speakers are women)

The 2nd Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Forum Europe, May 07 – 08, 2015, London, UK (10/36 listed speakers are women)

1st Annual Translational Microbiome Conference, 13–14 May 2015, Boston, United States (5/11 speakers are women)

ASM General Meeting, May 30 – June 2, 2015, New Orleans, LA, USA

Symbiomes: Systems Biology of Host-Microbiome Interactions, 5-10 June 2015, Pultusk, Poland (5/17 speakers are women)

The Human Microbiome, 10-12 Jun 2015, EMBL Heidelberg, Germany (8/23 confirmed speakers are women)

Exploring Human Host-Microbiome Interactions in Health and Disease, June 29 – July 1, 2015 , Cambridge, UK (7/17 speakers are women)

Science, publishing, and career

How Articles Get Noticed and Advance the Scientific Conversation – Victoria Costello – PLOS Blogs

Writing a Good Peer Review to Improve Scholarship: What Editors Value and Authors Find Helpful – H. McLaughlin – Social Work Education: The International Journal

DiscussionMistake index as a surrogate of quality in scientific manuscripts – Antoni Margalida – PNAS USA

What if you could replace performance evaluations with four simple questions? – Jena McGregor – Washington Post

Bik’s Picks

What 60 Minutes Got Right And Wrong On Duke’s Polio Virus Trial Against Glioblastoma – David Kroll – Forbes.com

The Astonishing beauty of Ordinary Sand magnified 250X – Aetherforce

What Elephants and Whales Look Like From Space – Robinson Meyer – The Atlantic

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March 28, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-03-28 at 1.00.33 AMFeatured video

I had hoped that this would have been a better video. The opening text/visuals are very confusing, and the cartoon human looks like a sad penguin. Is it supposed to be a human? Or human cells inside the human? Or a bacterium? And why is it looking so sad? #SadPenguin

Video (2014): Microbes: The Residents Living On And Inside You – Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology

 

Human oral microbiome

Acetaldehyde production by major oral microbes – Keisuke Moritani – Oral Diseases

Prelude to oral microbes and chronic diseases: Past, present and future – Kalina R. Atanasova – Microbes and Infection

Effect of dental cements on peri-implant microbial community: comparison of the microbial communities inhabiting the peri-implant tissue when using different luting cements – Michael Korsch – Clinical Oral Implants Research

Human gut microbiome

Common occurrence of antibacterial agents in human intestinal microbiota – Fatima Drissi – Frontiers in Microbiology

Maintaining gut ecosystems for health: Are transitory food bugs stowaways or part of the crew? – Coline Plé – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Size does not matter: commensal microorganisms forge tumorpromoting inflammation and anti-tumor immunity – Melanie R. Rutkowski – Oncoscience

Review: Time for Food: The Intimate Interplay between Nutrition, Metabolism, and the Circadian Clock – Gad Asher – Cell

Animal microbiome

Horses: Characterization and comparison of the bacterial microbiota in different gastrointestinal tract compartments in horses – M.C. Costa – The Veterinary Journal

Fish: Declining diversity of egg-associated bacteria during development of naturally spawned whitefish embryos (Coregonus spp.) – Laetitia G. E. Wilkins – Aquatic Sciences

Bees (see also under “Other microbiology” below): Characterization of gut bacteria at different developmental stages of Asian honey bees, Apis cerana – Jun Guo – Journal of Invertebrate Pathology

Soil, rock, and marble microbiome

Biofouling of marbles by oxygenic photosynthetic microorganisms – Zeki Karaca – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Water microbiome

Bacterial diversity of polluted surface sediments in the northern Adriatic Sea determined by pyrosequencing – Marino Korlević – Systematic and Applied Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome

Genomics in a changing Arctic: Critical questions await the molecular ecologist – Stan D. Wullschleger – Molecular Ecology

Microbial diversity on Icelandic glaciers and ice caps – Stefanie Lutz – Frontiers in Microbiology

Other microbiology

Antimicrobial-Induced DNA Damage and Genomic Instability in Microbial Pathogens –
Rebecca S. Shapiro – PLOS Pathogens

Parallel Epigenomic and Transcriptomic Responses to Viral Infection in Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) – David A. Galbraith – PLOS Pathogens

News

Planetary Protection Workshop (Forward Contamination) – Jenna Lang – MicroBEnet

How to keep up with microbial ecology and the built environment: microBEnet is your place – Jonathan Eisen – The Tree of Life

Italian Researchers Publish Array Method to Profile Vaginal Microbiome, Gauge Treatment Response – Molika Ashford – Genome Web

Social constructs and behaviors can predict microbiome composition – American Microbiome Institute

Not a good title: Hunter-Gatherers Have Better Guts Than We Do – Cody Brooks – Clapway

The tiny intruders in YOUR home: Researchers reveal the average house has 8,000 different types of bacteria and bugs – Mark Prigg

Drug metabolism: manipulating the microbiome – Sarah DeWeerdt – Pharmaceutical Journal

A High-Fat Diet May Alter Your Behavior and Your Brain with Changed Gut Bacteria – Catherine Griffin – Science World Report

Surfwear founder’s charity backs UQ researcher in superbug war – University of Queensland

Paywalled: Bacteria: Master Microbial Colonizers – Marcia Stone – BioScience

A Farmer Drilled For Water, But What Came Up Turned This Desert Into An Oasis! – OffGridQuest

Science, publishing and career

BioMed Central retracting 43 papers for fake peer review – Cat Ferguson – Retraction Watch

Bik’s Picks

Crossing fingers can reduce feelings of pain – Science Daily

Giant pandas’ secret social life revealed – Bob Holmes – New Scientist

Watch Scientists Try Everything to Put a Camera on a Manatee – Jane J. Lee – National Geographic

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March 27, 2015

Science Direct is down today, and all links to their papers did not work. Hopefully they can fix that soon.

Pregnancy and birth

Does Breastfeeding Help to Reduce the Risk of Childhood Overweight and Obesity? A Propensity Score Analysis of Data from the KiGGS Study – Maike Miriam Grube – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

An n=1 case report of a child with autism improving on antibiotics and a father’s quest to understand what it may mean – John Rodakis – Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease

Soil and sediment microbiome

SIP metagenomics identifies uncultivated Methylophilaceae as dimethylsulphide degrading bacteria in soil and lake sediment – Özge Eyice – The ISME Journal

Water microbiome

Polar freshwater cyanophage S-EIV1 represents a new widespread evolutionary lineage of phages – C Chénard – The ISME Journal

Transcriptomics

Metatranscriptomic census of active protists in soils – Stefan Geisen – The ISME Journal

Bioinformatics

Speeding Up Ecological and Evolutionary Computations in R; Essentials of High Performance Computing for Biologists – Marco D. Visser – PLOS Computational Biology

Large-Scale Search of Transcriptomic Read Sets with Sequence Bloom Trees – Brad Solomon, Carleton Kingsford – BioRxiv

Techniques

Evaluation of four methods of assigning species and genus to medically important bacteria using 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis – Geon Park – Microbiology and Immunology

Microbes in the news

Surprises Emerge As More Hunter-Gatherer Microbiomes Come In – Ed Yong – National Geographic

Poo’s clues: what sewage can tell us about public health – Roger Pickup – Quartz

Our Plan to Combat and Prevent Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria – Sylvia Mathews Burwell et al. – White House

Different takes on justice – Larry Forney’s microbial ecology work on the vaginal microbiome has given him a unique perspective on biological diversity and justice – UI Argonaut

On terroir, and the vine’s microbiome – Steve Heimoff

Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT2015) conference Roundup – Dale Yuzuki – Behind the Bench

Give Breast Milk Some women are computer programmers or impressive cooks. I’m good at producing breast milk. – Elizabeth Currid-Halkett – New York Times.

Science, publishing, and education

From start to finish: A guide to informational interviewing – Prital Patel – Nature Jobs

Stanford is investigating an ‘unusually high number’ of student cheating allegations – Business Insider

Bik’s Picks

30 Previously-Unknown Species of Fly Discovered in Los Angeles – Annalee Newitz – Gizmodo

Official Report: Nuclear Waste Accident Caused By Wrong Cat Litter – Geoff Brumfiel – NPR

The mysterious deaths of all but one bluefin tuna in Tokyo Sea Life Park – Lindsey Bever – Washington Post

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March 26, 2015

General microbiome

Note: not about metagenomics but 16S rRNA gene: The truth about metagenomics: quantifying and counteracting bias in 16S rRNA studies – J Paul Brooks – BMC Microbiology

Human respiratory microbiome

Spatial Variation in the Healthy Human Lung Microbiome and the Adapted Island Model of Lung Biogeography – Robert P. Dickson – Annals ATS

A metagenomic approach to characterize temperate bacteriophage populations from Cystic Fibrosis and non-Cystic Fibrosis bronchiectasis patients – Mohammad A. Tariq – Frontiers in Microbiology

Perspective: Meningitis in adolescents: the role of commensal microbiota – James W.B. Moir – Trends in Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

An n=1 case report of a child with autism improving on antibiotics and a father’s quest to understand what it may mean – John Rodakis – Microbial Ecology of Health and Disease

Animal microbiome

Sponges: Culturable associated-bacteria of the sponge Theonella swinhoei show tolerance to high arsenic concentrations – Ray Keren – Frontiers in Microbiology

Soil, sediment, and plant root microbiome

Community Dynamics of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in High-Input and Intensively Irrigated Rice Cultivation Systems – Yutao Wang – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Analysis of methane-producing and metabolizing archaeal and bacterial communities in sediments of the northern South China Sea and coastal Mai Po Nature Reserve revealed by PCR amplification of mcrA and pmoA genes – Zhichao Zhou – Frontiers in Microbiology

Isolation and characterization of culturable bacteria from bulk soil samples and the rhizosphere of arid-adapted Tylosema esculentum (Burchell). A. Schreiber (Marama bean) in Namibia – Olaf S. Kandjimi – African Journal of Biotechnology

Water microbiome

Prokaryotic assemblages and metagenomes in pelagic zones of the South China Sea – Ching-Hung Tseng – BMC Genomics

Spatial distribution of bacterial communities driven by multiple environmental factors in a beach wetland of the largest freshwater lake in China – Xia Ding- Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Advancing the science of microbial symbiosis to support invasive species management: a case study on Phragmites in the Great Lakes – Kurt P. Kowalski – Frontiers in Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome (by special request!)

Colonization of plant substrates at hydrothermal vents and cold seeps in the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean and occurrence of symbiont-related bacteria – Kamil M. Szafranski – Frontiers in Microbiology

Out of the dark: transitional subsurface-to-surface microbial diversity in a terrestrial serpentinizing seep (Manleluag, Pangasinan, the Philippines) – Kristin M. Woycheese – Frontiers in Microbiology

Isolation of diverse members of the Aquificales from geothermal springs in Tengchong, China – Brian P. Hedlund – Frontiers in Microbiology

Fatty Acids Profile of Microbial Populations in a Mining Reclaimed Region Contaminated with Metals: Relation with Ecological Characteristics and Soil Respiration – Ramya Narendrula and Kabwe K. Nkongolo – Journal of Bioremediation & Biodegradation

Bioreactor microbiome

Nitrogen addition, not initial phylogenetic diversity, increases litter decomposition by fungal communities – Anthony S. Amend – Frontiers in Microbiology

Food microbiology

Lipidomics as an important key for identification of beer-spoilage bacteria – Tomáš Řezanka – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Metabolomics

Combining reverse genetics and NMR-based metabolomics unravels trypanosome-specific metabolic pathways – Frédéric Bringaud – Molecular Microbiology

Resource niche overlap promotes stability of bacterial community metabolism in experimental microcosms – Ellard R. Hunting – Frontiers in Microbiology

Techniques

Enriching distinctive microbial communities from marine sediments via an electrochemical-sulfide-oxidizing process on carbon electrodes – Shiue-Lin Li and Kenneth H. Nealson – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbes in presentations

Video: Dissertation seminar for Suzanne Ishaq – comparative analysis of the moose rumen microbiota

Video: Vance Kramer of Syngenta discussing microbiome research and comparing soil microbe communities across the US, Europe, and Brazil.

Video: Dr. Jan Jones from AgBiome discussing the plant-soil microbiome

Microbes in the news
Hidden Life Forms: Investigating Microbial Diversity on Our Bodies and in Our Homes – Jennifer Cutraro – New York Times

My uBiome Sleep Hacking Update – Alexandra Carmichael – uBiome

Antimicrobial CRISPR-Cas systems may be better weapons against bacteria than antibiotics – The Conversation

Secret Science Club Post-Lecture Recap: Big Data, Genomics and Urban Microbiomes – Big Bad Bald Bastard

Antibiotics For Gut Bacteria Show Surprising Results In Treating Autism – Dianne Depra – Tech Times

Harmless bacteria may be helpful against meningococcal outbreaks – Eureka Alert

New Software Offers Improved Read-based Identification in Metagenome Studies – Andrew P. Han – Genome Web

Not sure which one, but here it is: I am the bacterium that lives in your intestine – MicrobeWorld

FMTUpdate on OpenBiome – Paul Levy – Not Running A Hospital

Workshop on Planetary Protection Knowledge Gaps for Human Extraterrestrial Missions (Intro) – Jenna Lang – Microbe.net

Microbes and art

A Dress Made From Beer And Bacteria: C’est Chic Or C’est Ick? – Charles Poladian – IB Times

Science, publishing, and career

Developing microbiological learning materials for schools: best practice – James Redfern – FEMS Microbiology Letters

Sequencing and characterizing the genome of Estrella lausannensis as an undergraduate project: training students and biological insights – Claire Bertelli – Frontiers in Microbiology

Calling attention to poor speaker gender ratio – even when it hurts – Jonathan Eisen – The Tree of Life

The 5 Biases Pushing Women Out of STEM – Joan C. Williams – Harvard Business Review

Bik’s Picks

Jurrassic Park, but then with more furWoolly mammoth could be revived after scientists paste DNA into elephant’s genetic code – Andrew Griffin – The Independent

The Fitness Guru of the Trucking Industry – The Atlantic

On Friday, half a pair of twins leaves for a year in space. Here’s why that’s awesome. – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

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