August 1st, 2022

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God morgon!

Good morning from Sweden.

Today’s digest has studies from diverse topics but the one that caught my attention is a preprint that addresses the controversial question of presence of a ‘normal blood microbiota’ in humans. The authors of this preprint analysed about 10,000 humans samples and provide evidence that there is no core blood microbiota.

A new preprint describes a unique Taleocin (a bacteriocin) from Pseudomonas syringae which defies the convention that bacteriocins have a narrow spectrum. The bacteriocin has a broad range killing activity against agriculturally important pathogens like Erwinia amylovora and Xanthomonas perforans as well as against the clinical human pathogen Salmonella choleraesuis.

Another preprint reports metabolic interactions responsible for unusually high Iron and lipid content in Geobacter sulfurreducens, a bacterium known iron reducing bacterium in the soil. Another environmental study found that human pathogens are the major carriers of antibiotic resistance genes in the Yangtze river – one of the longest in the world. This is in contrast to prevalent belief that conventional supercarriers are Enterococcus spp. and other fecal indicator bacteria.

Elsewhere in the digest is a preprint from my previous lab where my old colleagues have reported a small RNA and metal dependent mechanism that regulates the survival of Acinetobacter baumannii under oxidative stress.

As a bonus, there is a super intriguing preprint where the authors have actually provided evidence that coming up with creative and funny titles for your papers can help them gain more visibility and citations! So, all of you writing an article or planning to write one soon, this is a great tip!

I hope you will enjoy reading today’s digest and have a great week ahead!

Human gut

Microbiota responses to different prebiotics are conserved within individuals and associated with habitual fiber intake – Zachary C. Holmes, et al., Microbiome

Near-sterile sites

Preprint: No evidence for a common blood microbiome based on a population study of 9,770 healthy humans – Cedric C.S. Tan, et al.

Water microbiome

Supercarriers of antibiotic resistome in a world’s large river – Jiawen Wang, et al., Microbiome

Oceanospirillales containing the DMSP lyase DddD are key utilisers of carbon from DMSP in coastal seawater – Jingli Liu, et al., Microbiome

Community structure of coral microbiomes is dependent on host morphology – Kathleen M. Morrow, et al., Microbiome

Preprint: The impact of primary colonizers on the community composition of river biofilm – Roshan Angoshtari, et al.

Soil microbiome

Long-term nitrogen deposition enhances microbial capacities in soil carbon stabilization but reduces network complexity – Xingyu Ma, et al., Microbiome

Animal microbiome

Host-microbiota interaction-mediated resistance to inflammatory bowel disease in pigs – Xuan Zhao, et al., Microbiome

Preprint: The differing roles of flavins and quinones in extracellular electron transfer in Lactiplantibacillus plantarum – Joe Gregory Tolar, et al.

Bacteria Hysteria

Preprint: Interspecies Killing Activity of Pseudomonas syringae Tailocins – Savannah L Weaver, et al.

Preprint: Enhanced production of natural shiga toxin by overexpressing A subunit of Stx2e in Stx2e-producing Escherichia coli isolated in South Korea – Jin Hur, et al.

Preprint: Geobacter sulfurreducens′ unique metabolism results in cells with a high iron and lipid content – Ethan T Howley, et al.

Preprint: Cloning, heterologous expression and characterization of o-phthalyl-CoA decarboxylase from phthalate degrading denitrifying bacterium – Madan Junghare

Preprint: Acinetobacter baumannii defends against oxidative stress through a Mn2+-dependent small RNA-mediated suppression of type VI secretion system – Somok Bhowmik, et al.

Techniques

Preprint: Programmable acetylation modification of bacterial proteins by a Cas12a-guided acetyltransferase – Liu yanqiang, et al.

Fun

Preprint: If this title is funny, will you cite me? Citation impacts of humour and other features of article titles in ecology and evolution – Stephen B Heard, et al.

July 30, 2022

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Have a nice weekend! Today, the Digest contains several reviews.

Highlights!

Microbiota responses to different prebiotics are conserved within individuals and associated with habitual fiber intake – Zachary C Holmes – Microbiome → A three-way crossover study showed that prebiotic personalization regimens can be beneficial in different manners to different people; this study showed that people with low fiber intake received more effect from those interventions.

Human and General Microbiome

Differential Gut Microbiota Compositions Related With the Severity of Major Depressive Disorder – Qi Zhong – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Phospholipid metabolites of the gut microbiota promote hypoxia-induced intestinal injury via CD1d-dependent γδ T cells – Yuyu Li – Gut Microbes

Gut bacteria interact directly with colonic mast cells in a humanized mouse model of IBS – Chiko Shimbori – Gut Microbes

Asthma and Wheeze Severity and the Oropharyngeal Microbiota in Children and Adolescents – Jonathan Thorsen – Annals of the American Thoracic Society

Minireview: Role of microbial secreted proteins in gut microbiota-host interactions – Boris Vidal-Veuthey – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology 

Review: A Bibliometric Analysis of Research on the Links Between Gut Microbiota and Atherosclerosis – Ya Wang – Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine

Review: Microbiota-derived metabolites as drivers of gut-brain communication – Hany Ahmed – Gut Microbes

Review: Female reproductive dysfunctions and the gut microbiota – Sangappa B Chadchan – Journal of Molecular Endocrinology

Systematic Review: A Bibliometric Review on Gut Microbiome and Alzheimer’s Disease Between 2012 and 2021 – Alejandro I Trejo-Castro – Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

Systematic Review: Disturbances of Vaginal Microbiome Composition in Human Papillomavirus Infection and Cervical Carcinogenesis: A Qualitative Systematic Review – Ming Wu – Frontiers in Oncology

Beneficial Microbes and Compounds

Review: Bacterial-fungal metabolic interactions within the microbiota and their potential relevance in human health and disease: a short review – Alexia Lapiere – Gut Microbes

Animal Model Microbiome

Intestinal Inflammation Reversibly Alters the Microbiota to Drive Susceptibility to Clostridioides difficile Colonization in a Mouse Model of Colitis – Madeline R Barron – mBio

Non-Model Animal Microbiome

Comparative and functional analyses of fecal microbiome in Asian elephants – Guiding Li – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Bioinformatics and Microbiome Analysis Techniques

Tourmaline: A containerized workflow for rapid and iterable amplicon sequence analysis using QIIME 2 and Snakemake – Luke R Thompson – GigaScience

July 28, 2022

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Today’s digest includes research on the gut microbiome of infants, ruminants, and sand flies! There is also a preprint about sewage microbiomes as well as a research article about photosynthetic bacterial communities in crop fields.

Happy reading!

Human skin microbiome

Lichen Planopilaris: The first biopsy layer microbiota inspection – Pinto et al. – PLOS One

Human gut microbiome

Adaptation of the infant gut microbiome during the complementary feeding transition – McKeen et al. – PLOS One

Animal microbiome

Metagenomic insights into the microbe-mediated B and K2 vitamin biosynthesis in the gastrointestinal microbiome of ruminants – Jiang et al. – Microbiome

Comparative analysis of the gut microbiota of sand fly vectors of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL) in Iran; host-environment interplay shapes diversity – Karimian et al. – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Metagenomic analysis of the dynamical conversion of photosynthetic bacterial communities in different crop fields over different growth periods – Cheng et al. – PLOS One

Built environment

Preprint: A metagenomic investigation of spatial and temporal changes in sewage microbiomes across a university campus – Fierer et al. – bioRxiv

July 26, 2022

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Highlights!

Microbial determinants of effective donors in faecal microbiota transplantation for UC – Craig Haifer – Gut → Metagenomic and metabolomic data analysis showed that donor microbiota stability and increased species evenness were identified novel markers associated with donor sample therapeutic efficacy in Ulcerative Colitis.

A gut microbial peptide and molecular mimicry in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes – Khyati Girdhar – PNAS → A peptide sequence from Parabacteroides distasonis mimics an important insulin epitope, making it susceptible to generating type I diabetes in a mouse model. 

Human and General Microbiome

Gut microbiome changes in anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis patients – Jingya Wei – BMC Neurology

Effect of a bacteriocin-producing Streptococcus salivarius on the pathogen Fusobacterium nucleatum in a model of the human distal colon – Garreth W Lawrence – Gut Microbes

Identification of Gut Microbiome Metabolites via Network Pharmacology Analysis in Treating Alcoholic Liver Disease – Ki-Kwang Oh – Current Issues in Molecular Biology

Review: The Gut Microbiota: A Double Edge Sword in Endometriosis – Chandni Talwar – Biology of Reproduction

Non-Model Animal Microbiome

Hair Microbiome Diversity within and across Primate Species – Catherine Kitrinos – mSystems

Seasonal variations in the composition and diversity of gut microbiota in white-lipped deer (Cervus albirostris) – Zhangqiang You – PeerJ

Plant Microbiome

Effects of Domestication on Plant-Microbiome Interactions – Andres Gutierrez – Plant & Cell Physiology

Evaluation of protein extraction methods for metaproteomic analyses of root-associated microbes – Fernanda Salvato – Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions

Environmental Microbiome

Absence of stress-promoted facilitation coupled with a competition decrease in the microbiome of ephemeral saline lakes – Mateu Menéndez-Serra – Ecology

Insights into the Antimicrobial Activities and Metabolomes of Aquimarina (Flavobacteriaceae, Bacteroidetes) Species from the Rare Marine Biosphere – Sandra Godinho Silva – Marine Drugs

More microbes

Correspondence: International travel, the gut microbiome, and ESBL-E coli carriage – Ye Peng – The Lancet. Microbe

An Engineered λ Phage Enables Enhanced and Strain-Specific Killing of Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli – Menglu Jin – Microbiology Spectrum

Bioinformatics and Microbiome Analysis Techniques

MOCHI, a comprehensive cross-platform tool for amplicon-based microbiota analysis – Jun-Jie Zheng – Bioinformatics

July 23, 2022

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Greetings from Chile! Today, in this Digest, a variety of papers covering different subjects, such as the relationships between microbiome and C. difficile infection, new skin microbiome sampling techniques, FMT donor-recipient microbiome interplay, microbiome and biodiversity conservation, microbiome and vitamin metabolism, etc.; also, take a look at the papers from the “Bioinformatics and Microbiome Analysis Techniques” section.  

Human and General Microbiome

A 3D-printed transepidermal microprojection array for human skin microbiome sampling – Kun Liang – PNAS

Analysis of Intestinal Mycobiota of Patients with Clostridioides difficile Infection among a Prospective Inpatient Cohort – Yangchun Cao – Microbiology Spectrum

Role of gastrointestinal microbial populations, a terra incognita of the human body in the management of intestinal bowel disease and metabolic disorders – J E Vazquez Bucheli – Beneficial Microbes

The Gut Bacterial Community Potentiates Clostridioides difficile Infection Severity – Nicholas A Lesniak – mBio

The interplay of gut microbiota between donors and recipients determines the efficacy of fecal microbiota transplantation – Ruiqiao He – Gut Microbes

Gut commensals expand vitamin A metabolic capacity of the mammalian host – Maryam Bonakdar – Cell Host & Microbe

A reappraisal of microbiome dysbiosis during experimental periodontitis – Marion Arce – Molecular Oral Microbiology

Activity-based protein profiling identifies alternating activation of enzymes involved in the bifidobacterium shunt pathway or mucin degradation in the gut microbiome response to soluble dietary fiber – Bryan J Killinger – NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes

Cooperative action of gut-microbiota-accessible carbohydrates improves host metabolic function – Sawako Tomioka – Cell Reports

Model Animal Microbiome

Key features of the genetic architecture and evolution of host-microbe interactions revealed by high-resolution genetic mapping of the mucosa-associated gut microbiome in hybrid mice – Shauni Doms – eLife

Non-Model Animal Microbiome

Metagenomic insights into the microbe-mediated B and K(2) vitamin biosynthesis in the gastrointestinal microbiome of ruminants – Qian Jiang – Microbiome

Exploring the Transient Microbe Population on Citrus Butterfly Wings – P D Kamala Jayanthi – Microbiology Spectrum

Review: Methods and Strategies to Uncover Coral-Associated Microbial Dark Matter – Júnia Schultz – mSystems

Plant Microbiome

Plant genetic effects on microbial hubs impact host fitness in repeated field trials – Benjamin Brachi – PNAS

Review: Beneficial and pathogenic plant-microbe interactions during flooding stress – Clara Martínez-Arias – Plant, Cell & Environment

Environmental Microbiome

Review: Harnessing the microbiome to prevent global biodiversity loss – Raquel S Peixoto – Nature Microbiology

More Microbes

Proteome Exploration of Legionella pneumophila To Identify Novel Therapeutics: a Hierarchical Subtractive Genomics and Reverse Vaccinology Approach – Md Tahsin Khan – Microbiology Spectrum

Bioinformatics and Microbiome Analysis Techniques

LOCOM: A logistic regression model for testing differential abundance in compositional microbiome data with false discovery rate control – Yingtian Hu – PNAS

A metagenomic DNA sequencing assay that is robust against environmental DNA contamination – Omary Mzava – Nature Communications

Bioinformatic Analysis to Investigate Metaproteome Composition Using Trans-Proteomic Pipeline – Steven He – Current Protocols

July 19, 2022

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Have a nice Tuesday! Today in this short digest, interesting reviews about “psychobiotics” (useful probiotics for mental health), the use of several tools for analyzing microbiota, and a systematic review analyzing the role of the oral microbiome in autoimmune diseases. 

Human and General Microbiome

The relationship between the gut microbiome and the risk of respiratory infections among newborns – Yuka Moroishi – Communications Medicine

Review: Psychobiotics: the Influence of Gut Microbiota on the Gut-Brain Axis in Neurological Disorders – Parvin Oroojzadeh – Journal of Molecular Neuroscience

Review: Ecosystem-specific microbiota and microbiome databases in the era of big data – Victor Lobanov – Environmental Microbiome

Systematic Review: The Oral Microbiome and Its Role in Systemic Autoimmune Diseases: A Systematic Review of Big Data Analysis – Lu Gao – Frontiers in Big Data

Animal Model Microbiome

Microplastics-perturbed gut microbiota triggered the testicular disorder in male mice: Via fecal microbiota transplantation – Siyue Wen – Environmental Pollution

Plant Microbiome

Flavonoid-attracted Aeromonas sp. from the Arabidopsis root microbiome enhances plant dehydration resistance – Danxia He – The ISME Journal

Bioinformatics and Microbiome Analysis Techniques

ProBioQuest: a database and semantic analysis engine for literature, clinical trials and patents related to probiotics – Po Lam Chan – Database

A structural metagenomics pipeline for examining the gut microbiome – Morgan E. Walker – Current Opinion in Structural Biology 

The Mini Colon Model: a benchtop multi-bioreactor system to investigate the gut microbiome – Zijie Jin – Gut Microbes

July 18th, 2020

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God morgon! Good morning from Sweden. Today’s digest features only three articles but I am sure everyone will enjoy reading it, especially a super interesting article highlighting the importance of older siblings on development of an individual’s airway and gut microbiota. The study asserts that having a closely aged older sibling has more impact on one’s microbiota as compared to having more than one older sibling. Another featured article demonstrates how gut microbiota can improve the quality of chicken by preventing intestinal inflammation. From animal farming we go over to plant farming. Another article in today’s digest shows how monocropping (growing the same crop over and over) negatively impacts the diversity of soil bacteria which eventually shows up as poor yield. This makes it imperative to consider the soil microbiota while taking decisions on crop cycle. I hope you will enjoy reading today’s digest and have a great week!

Human microbiome

The developing airway and gut microbiota in early life is influenced by age of older siblings – Emil Dalgaard Christensen, et al., Microbiome

Animal microbiome

Chicken jejunal microbiota improves growth performance by mitigating intestinal inflammation – Xiaolong Zhang, et al., Microbiome

Plant root and soil microbiome

Reduced chemodiversity suppresses rhizosphere microbiome functioning in the mono-cropped agroecosystems – Pengfa Li, et al., Microbiome

July 16, 2022

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Human and General Microbiome

Advances and challenges in cataloging the human gut virome – Junhua Li – Cell Host & Microbe

Genomic diversity of genus Limosilactobacillus – Magdalena Ksiezarek – Microbial Genomics

Comparison of the respiratory tract microbiome in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with different disease severity – Jiali Chen – Journal of Medical Virology

An international report on bacterial communities in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma – Jason Nomburg – International Journal of Cancer

Beneficial Microbes and Compounds

Phenolic-rich beverages reduce bacterial TMA formation in an ex vivo-in vitro colonic fermentation model – Lisard Iglesias-Carres – Food & Function

Lactobacillus paragasseri OLL2809 Improves Depression-Like Behavior and Increases Beneficial Gut Microbes in Mice – Narumi Hashikawa-Hobara – Frontiers in Neuroscience

In silico identification of two peptides with antibacterial activity against multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus – Linda B Oyama – NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes

Review: How Dietary Fibre, Acting via the Gut Microbiome, Lowers Blood Pressure – Chudan Xu – Current Hypertension Reports

Review: Low FODMAP diet in irritable bowel syndrome: a review of recent clinical trials and meta-analyses – Kevin Whelan – Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care

Review: Prebiotic effects of plant-derived (poly)phenols on host metabolism: Is there a role for short-chain fatty acids? – Perla Lopes de Freitas – Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition

Animal Microbiome

Unveiling biogeographic patterns in the worldwide distributed Ceratitis capitata (medfly) using populations genomics and microbiome composition – María Belén Arias – Molecular Ecology

Differential oral microbiome in nonhuman primates from periodontitis susceptible and resistant matrilines – Jeffrey L Ebersole – Molecular Oral Microbiology

Chicken jejunal microbiota improves growth performance by mitigating intestinal inflammation – Xiaolong Zhang – Microbiome

Bioinformatics and Microbiome Analysis

Comparison Analysis of Different DNA Extraction Methods on Suitability for Long-Read Metagenomic Nanopore Sequencing – Lei Zhang – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

KOMB: K-core based de novo characterization of copy number variation in microbiomes – Advait Balaji – Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

CASPER: An Integrated Software Platform for Rapid Development of CRISPR Tools – Brian Mendoza – The CRISPR Journal

Integrating Choline and Specific Intestinal Microbiota to Classify Type 2 Diabetes in Adults: A Machine Learning Based Metagenomics Study – Qiang Zeng – Frontiers in Endocrinology

July 14, 2022

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Today’s digest has multiple articles on statistical and bioinformatic techniques! Also included is a job ad from my research team, so check it out if you’re interested in gaining geomicrobiology research experience at a national laboratory.

Events and jobs

Our geomicrobiology research group at the National Energy Technology Lab – Pittsburgh is looking for a technician/researcher. Exact responsibilities are somewhat flexible depending on interest and education-level; we are accepting applications from current students at all levels as well as postdocs.

General microbiome

Mycobacteriophages: From Petri dish to patient – Hatfull – PLOS Pathogens

Animal microbiome

Reconstructing the ecosystem context of a species: Honey-borne DNA reveals the roles of the honeybee – Wirta et al. – PLOS One

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Patterns of microbial communities were shaped by bioavailable P along the elevation gradient of Shergyla Mountain, as determined by analysis of phospholipid fatty acids – Ba et al. – PLOS One

Preprint: Soil chemistry and soil history significantly structure oomycete communities in Brassicaceae crop rotations – Blakney et al. – bioRxiv

Community succession and straw degradation characteristics using a microbial decomposer at low temperature – Zhang et al. – PLOS One

Built Environment

Indoor air microbial load, antibiotic susceptibility profiles of bacteria, and associated factors in different wards of Arba Minch General Hospital, southern Ethiopia – Kayta et al. – PLOS One

Techniques

moreThanANOVA: A user-friendly Shiny/R application for exploring and comparing data with interactive visualization – Jiang et al. – PLOS One

Preparation of biological monolayers for producing high-resolution scanning electron micrographs – Mentor et al. – PLOS One

The accuracy of absolute differential abundance analysis from relative count data – Roche & Mukherjee – PLOS Computational Biology

AC-PCoA: Adjustment for confounding factors using principal coordinate analysis – Wang et al. – PLOS Computational Biology

Microbes in the news

The Art of Science: Students Participate in University’s First-Ever Bio-Art Class – Bernardi – Syracuse University News

July 13, 2022

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Today’s digest features studies on the leaf-microbiome of 🍅 and 🍓 plants (+ bumblebees and mites), human gut and wastewater resistome, and more. Happy reading!

Reproductive tract

Female reproductive tract microbiota and recurrent pregnancy loss: a nested case-control study – Pirkko Peuranpää – Reproductive BioMedicine Online

Gut microbiome

Dynamic metabolic interactions and trophic roles of human gut microbes identified using a minimal microbiome exhibiting ecological properties – Sudarshan A. Shetty – Journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology

*Within-patient evolution of plasmid-mediated antimicrobial resistance – Javier DelaFuente – bioRxiv

An expanded reference map of the human gut microbiome reveals hundreds of previously unknown species – Sigal Leviatan – Nature Communications

Animal microbiome

Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa) Harbor a Distinctive Gut Microbiome Related to That of Honey Bees and Bumble Bees – Jo-anne C. Holley – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Animal experiments

Gardnerella Exposures Alter Bladder Gene Expression and Augment Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Urinary Tract Infection in Mice – Nicole M. Gilbert – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Plant microbiome

*The Greenhouse Phyllosphere Microbiome and Associations with Introduced Bumblebees and Predatory Mites – Marie Legein – Microbiology Spectrum

Food microbiome

Longitudinal, multi-platform metagenomics yields a high-quality genomic catalog and guides an in vitro model for cheese communities – Christina C. Saak – bioRxiv

New insights of bacterial communities in fermented vegetables from shotgun metagenomics and identification of antibiotic resistance genes and probiotic bacteria – Muhammad Yasir – Food Research International

Water microbiome

*High-resolution characterisation of short-term temporal variability in the taxonomic and resistome composition of wastewater influent – Kevin Kaibond Chau – bioRxiv

Pilot investigation on biostability of drinking water distribution systems under water source switching – Kejia Zhang – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Bioinformatics

*BinaRena: a dedicated interactive platform for human-guided exploration and binning of metagenomes – Michael J. Pavia – bioRxiv

getSequenceInfo: a suite of tools allowing to get genome sequence information from public repositories – Vincent Moco – BMC Bioinformatics

baseLess: Lightweight detection of sequences in raw MinION data – Ben Noordijk – bioRxiv