Tag Archives: ethics and misconduct

General microbiology and science, July 16

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Comparison of 1700 metagenomes,  $125,000 to study 100 trillion bacteria, arsenic speciation, and the Seinfeld “double dipping” videoclip.

General microbiome and metagenome

Metagenome exploringExploring Neighborhoods in the Metagenome Universe – Kathrin P. Aßhauer – International Journal of Molecular Sciences

“Our evaluation on more than 1700 publicly available metagenomes indicates that for a query metagenome from a particular habitat on average nine out of ten nearest neighbors represent the same habitat category independent of the utilized profiling method or distance measure. “

UMass Cancer Avatar Institute, Center for Microbiome Research backed by UMass president

“Beth McCormick, PhD, professor of microbiology & physiological systems, was also awarded $125,000 to develop the Center for Microbiome Research, envisioned as a center of research and education for the microbiome, the ecosystem of the 100 trillion bacteria in the human body.”

Dengue virus

Endothelial Cells in Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever – Anon Srikiatkhachorn – Antiviral Research

“In this review we summarize dengue viruses and the spectrum of human disease and highlight evidence of endothelial cell dysfunction in DHF based on studies in patients and mouse and tissue culture models. “

Dengue fever and bone marrow myelofibrosis – Xin Qing – Experimental and Molecular Pathology

“We report the first case to our knowledge of myelofibrosis associated with dengue fever. We briefly describe dengue infections and hypothesize the causes of myelofibrosis in this condition.”

African genetic ancestry is associated with a protective effect on Dengue severity in colombian populations – Juan C. Chacón-Duque – Infection, Genetics and Evolution

“We found that African ancestry has a protective effect against severe outcomes under several systems of clinical classification”

Conference abstract: Longitudinal Analysis Of Dengue Fever Infections Reported In The Uk Betwen 2002 – 2013 Using The Health Improvement Network (Thin) Primary Care Database – D Ansell – Value in Health

Polio virus

Comment: Infectious disease: Polio eradication hinges on child health in Pakistan – Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta – Nature

“Last year, only 406 cases were reported, with 160 of them in just a few areas of the three countries where polio remains endemic”

Microbes in the news

Gut feeling: How intestinal bacteria may influence our moods – Sharon Oosthoek – CBC News

“Dr. Emeran Mayer, a gastroenterologist at University of California, Los Angeles, is a self-described sceptic, but admits “there is enough there to make me think some of the findings from animal studies can be extrapolated to humans.””

#BacteriaHysteria: Double-dipping spreads bacteria. But does it get people sick? (with the famous Seinfeld clip) – Joseph Stromberg – Vox.com

“Many people believe that dipping a chip into a shared bowl of drip, taking a bite, and dipping again — termed “double-dipping” in a 1993 episode of Seinfeld — is an abhorrently unsanitary practice. Others, like George Costanza, think this aversion is unscientific, and there’s actually no harm in double-dipping at all.”

Sizing up bacteria – Peter Reuell – Harvard Gazette

“A new theoretical framework outlined by a Harvard scientist could help solve the mystery of how bacterial cells coordinate processes that are critical to cellular division, such as DNA replication, and how bacteria know when to divide.”

Chilling new details on cold-storage smallpox – Hoai-Tran Bui and Alison Young, USA TODAY

Arsenic metabolism

arsenicComplementary Arsenic Speciation Methods: A Review – Michelle M. Nearing – Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy

“The toxicity of arsenic greatly depends on its chemical form and oxidation state (speciation) and therefore accurate determination of arsenic speciation is a crucial step in understanding its chemistry and potential risk.”

Science, ethics and publishing

Should Research Fraud be a Crime? A Reader Poll – Ed Silverman – Wall Street Journal

“A researcher may lose a job or stature, but should there be more serious consequences, such as criminal liability? A debate between two academics in BMJ, the British Medical Journal, explores the yin and yang surrounding this question.“

Dr. Bik’s Picks

Great title! IgG walkingIgGs are made for walking on bacterial and viral surfaces – Johannes Preiner – Nature Communications

“Here we utilize high-speed atomic force microscopy to examine the dynamics of antibody recognition and uncover a principle; antibodies do not remain stationary on surfaces of regularly spaced epitopes; they rather exhibit ‘bipedal’ stochastic walking”

General microbiology and science, July 15

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Dengue virus replication, poliovirus transmission, marine viral communities, primer choice, and CRISPRs systems and antibiotic resistance.

Dengue virus

Letter: Are viral small RNA regulating Dengue virus replication beyond serotype 2? – Esteban Finol – PNAS

Letter: Reply to Finol: Viral small RNA from Dengue virus and its egulatory role in different serotypes – Mazhar Hussain and Sassan Asgari – PNAS

Poliovirus

Screen shot 2014-07-15 at 06.00PM, Jul 15The role of older children and adults in wild poliovirus transmission – Isobel M. Blake – PNAS

“We fit a mathematical model of poliovirus transmission to time series data from two large outbreaks that affected adults (Tajikistan 2010, Republic of Congo 2010) using maximum-likelihood estimation based on iterated particle-filtering methods. “

Phages and viruses

Screen shot 2014-07-15 at 06.01PM, Jul 15Modeling ecological drivers in marine viral communities using comparative metagenomics and network analyses – Bonnie L. Hurwitz – PNAS

“Here we combine advances in bioinformatics (shared k-mer analyses) and social networking (regression modeling) to develop an annotation- and assembly-free visualization and analytical strategy for comparative metagenomics that uses all the data in a unified statistical framework. “

Screen shot 2014-07-15 at 06.02PM, Jul 15Contrasted coevolutionary dynamics between a bacterial pathogen and its bacteriophages – Alex Betts – PNAS

“We used experimental evolution between Pseudomonas aeruginosa and a panel of its lytic phages and found the full known range of coevolutionary dynamics.”

CRISPRs and antibiotic resistance

Screen shot 2014-07-15 at 06.03PM, Jul 15A CRISPR-Cas system enhances envelope integrity mediating antibiotic resistance and inflammasome evasion – Timothy R. Sampson – PNAS

“We demonstrate that components of a clustered, regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeats–CRISPR associated (CRISPR-Cas) system, a prokaryotic defense against viruses and foreign nucleic acid, act to regulate the permeability of the bacterial envelope, ultimately providing these cells with the capability to resist membrane damage caused by antibiotics. “

Extraction and amplification techniques

The Influence of DNA Extraction Procedure and Primer Set on the Bacterial Community Analysis by Pyrosequencing of Barcoded 16S rRNA Gene Amplicons – Ingo C. Starke – Molecular Biology International

“In this study, the effect of different DNA extraction procedures and primer sets on pyrosequencing results regarding the composition of bacterial communities in the ileum of piglets was investigated. “

Metagenomics general

Interpreting 16S metagenomic data without clustering to achieve sub-OTU resolution – Mikhail Tikhonov – ISME Journal

“We present a clustering-free approach to multi-sample Illumina data sets that can identify independent bacterial subpopulations regardless of the similarity of their 16S tag sequences. “

 

General Microbiology

Screen shot 2014-07-15 at 06.04PM, Jul 15Recovery of a Medieval Brucella melitensis Genome Using Shotgun Metagenomics – Gemma L. Kay – mBio

“We sequenced the metagenome of a calcified nodule from the skeleton of a 14th-century middle-aged male excavated from the medieval Sardinian settlement of Geridu. We obtained 6.5-fold coverage of a Brucella melitensis genome”

Screen shot 2014-07-15 at 06.05PM, Jul 15Review: The Ins and Outs of Bacterial Iron Metabolism – Elaine R. Frawley and Ferric C. Fang – Molecular Microbiology

“The recent discovery of putative iron efflux transporters in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is discussed in the context of cellular iron homeostasis.”

Screen shot 2014-07-15 at 06.05PM, Jul 15 1Genetic information transfer promotes cooperation in bacteria – Tatiana Dimitriu – PNAS

“Our experiments and models converge to show that when both cheating and cooperative genes are transferred, cooperators win against cheaters because transfer increases assortment among alleles, favoring cooperation.”

Challenges and Opportunities of Integrative Taxonomy for Research and Society – Taxonomic Research in the Era of OMICS Technologies (PDF)  (Herausforderungen und Chancen der integrativen Taxonomie für Forschung und Gesellschaft) – Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina e.V.

Microbiomes and metagenomes in need of professional classification – Rudolf Amann
The intestinal microbiome and human health: a new challenge for taxonomy of metagenomic data – Bärbel Stecher
Characterizing species boundaries and species histories in closely related fungi using comparative population genomic approaches – Eva H. Stukenbrock

Coming of ageThe coming of age of microbial ecology – Ana E. Escalante and Silvia Pajares – Chapter in Open Access book: Frontiers in Ecology, Evolution and Complexity

“Despite major challenges, new technological advances in genomic sciences have prompted microbial ecology into a revolution in data generation that has allowed us to move beyond studies of single isolates to the study of entire microbial communities without reliance on culture-dependent methods.”

Review: The Dynamic Interactions between Salmonella and the Microbiota, within the Challenging Niche of the Gastrointestinal Tract – C. M. Anjam Khan – International Scholarly Research Notices

“This gastrointestinal pathogen not only faces the hostile defenses of the host’s immune system, but also faces fierce competition from the large and diverse community of microbiota for space and nutrients.”

 

Science and publishing

Screen shot 2014-07-15 at 05.59PM, Jul 15Is Social Media Saving Science? – Michael White – Pacific Standard

“Why do editors and expert reviewers, whose primary job is to vet manuscripts, miss major flaws that are so obvious to readers after the papers are published?”

Dr. Bik’s Picks

Screen shot 2014-07-15 at 06.07PM, Jul 15Effect of sleep deprivation on the human metabolome – Sarah K. Davies – PNAS

“Clear daily rhythms were observed in most metabolites, with 24 h wakefulness mainly reducing the amplitude of these rhythms.”

Screen shot 2014-07-15 at 06.06PM, Jul 15Comparison of five different RNA sources to examine the lactating bovine mammary gland transcriptome using RNA-Sequencing – Angela Cánovas – Nature Scientific Reports

“Our results provide a comparison between different sampling methods (invasive and non-invasive) to define the transcriptome of mammary gland tissue and milk cells.’

Screen shot 2014-07-15 at 06.07PM, Jul 15 1Superior time perception for lower musical pitch explains why bass-ranged instruments lay down musical rhythms – Michael J. Hove – PNAS

“Here, we show that, when two streams of tones are presented simultaneously, the brain better detects timing deviations in the lower-pitched than in the higher-pitched stream and that tapping synchronization to the tones is more influenced by the lower-pitched stream. “

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General microbiology and science, July 14

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Rectal swabs instead of stool samples, faster way of finding orthologs, and intelligence in bacteria.

Bioinformatics

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 06.24PM, Jul 14Quickly Finding Orthologs as Reciprocal Best Hits with BLAT, LAST, and UBLAST: How Much Do We Miss? – Natalie Ward, Gabriel Moreno-Hagelsieb – PLOS ONE

“Since sequence comparison can be time consuming, we decided to compare the number and quality of RBHs detected using algorithms that run in a fraction of the time as BLAST. We tested BLAT, LAST and UBLAST.”

Sampling techniques

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 06.24PM, Jul 14ectal Swabs for Analysis of the Intestinal Microbiota – Andries E. Budding – PLOS ONE

“In this study we investigated the characteristics and applicability of rectal swabs for gut microbiota profiling in a clinical routine setting in patients presenting with various gastro-intestinal disorders. We found that rectal swabs appeared to be a convenient means of sampling the human gut microbiota.”

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 06.25PM, Jul 14Some Are More Equal – A Comparative Study on Swab Uptake and Release of Bacterial Suspensions – Philipp Warnke – PLOS ONE

“Highest amount of CFU release was detected for the MWE Dryswab in the unrestricted setting for both S. aureus and S. epidermidis with 1544 CFU and 553 CFU, respectively, lowest release for the Sarstedt neutral swab with 32 CFU and 17 CFU, respectively (p<0.001).”

Antibiotics, resistance, biofilms

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 06.26PM, Jul 14Beta-Lactam Antibiotics Stimulate Biofilm Formation in Non-Typeable Haemophilus influenzae by Up-Regulating Carbohydrate Metabolism – Siva Wu – PLOS ONE

“When exposed to sub-inhibitory concentrations of beta-lactam antibiotics NTHi strains produced tightly packed biofilms with decreased numbers of culturable bacteria but increased biomass.”

General microbiology

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 12.23PM, Jul 14Macromolecular networks and intelligence in microorganisms – Hans V. Westerhoff – Frontiers in Microbiology

“Here, we explore how macromolecular networks in microbes confer intelligent characteristics, such as memory, anticipation, adaptation and reflection and we review current understanding of how network organization reflects the type of intelligence required for the environments in which they were selected.”

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 06.26PM, Jul 14 1The syndemics of childhood diarrhoea: A biosocial perspective on efforts to combat global inequities in diarrhoea-related morbidity and mortality – Nicola Bulled – Global Public Health

“Drawing from available literature, this paper uses syndemic theory to explore the role of adverse biosocial interactions in increasing the total disease burden of enteric infections in low-resources populations and assesses the limitations of recent global calls to action.”

Bacteria in the news

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 06.19PM, Jul 14We Are Our Bacteria – Jane E. Brody – New York Times (illustration by Ken Orvidas)

“We may think of ourselves as just human, but we’re really a mass of microorganisms housed in a human shell.”

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 06.27PM, Jul 14#BacteriaHysteria : Gross! Lots of bacteria found on new swimsuits – Jane Weaver – Today Health

“The removable liner in women’s swimsuits that is meant to protect the fabric from our cooties isn’t really protective after all, according to a microbe researcher. “

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 06.28PM, Jul 14Milford hospital enlists robots in war against infections – Mary MacDonald – Boston Globe

“The robots, made by Xenex Disinfection Services, use an intense flash of ultraviolet light to fight the bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other micro-organisms that traditional cleaning methods can miss, according to the hospital’s infection control staff.”

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 06.29PM, Jul 14CDC Cracks Down on Labs After Anthrax, Bird Flu Scares – Jonel Aleccia – NBC News

“Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Friday announced an immediate moratorium on all shipments of biological materials from CDC biosecurity level 3 and level 4 labs until problems are addressed.”

Marine Mammals

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 06.29PM, Jul 14 1How Dolphins’ Genetics Could Help Find Answers Into Mysterious Animal Die-Off – Sascha Cordner – WFSU

“A discovery into dolphin genetics may have brought research scientists one step closer to finding out the source of a mysterious animal die-off last year in the troubled Indian River Lagoon.”

Science and publishing

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 12.45PM, Jul 14Retractions are coming thick and fast: it’s time for publishers to act – Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky – The Guardian

“Another encouraging development is the rise of post-publication peer review, which has been made possible in recent years by the availability of papers online. Contributors to PubPeer, for example, have found signs of flawed or falsified results, leading to papers being retracted.”

Dr. Bik’s Picks

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 06.34PM, Jul 14Whole genome and exome sequencing of monozygotic twins discordant for Crohn’s disease – Britt-Sabina Petersen – BMC Genomics

“We present a thorough genetic characterization of the sequenced individuals but detected no consistent differences within the twin pairs. “

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 06.32PM, Jul 14How much science is there in new Planet of the Apes film? – Paul Rincon – BBC Science

“The latest instalment in the Planet of the Apes film franchise opens in the US on Friday. The rubber masks of the 60s and 70s films have been discarded in favour of motion capture suits and CGI. But how much did science inform the new movie’s portrayal of our close relatives?”

Screen shot 2014-07-14 at 06.31PM, Jul 14Domestication syndrome: White patches, baby faces and tameness explained by mild neural crest deficits – Science Daily

“Compared to their wild ancestors, domestic species are more tame, and they also tend to display a suite of other characteristic features, including floppier ears, patches of white fur, and more juvenile faces with smaller jaws.”

 

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General microbiology and science, July 9

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Transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of Dengue infection,  bacteria that can tolerate arsenate, and -shocking!- bacteria on elevator buttons.

Dengue

Monocyte-Plasmablast Crosstalk during Dengue – Angela M. Green, Eva Harris – Cell Host & Microbe

“In this issue, Kwissa et al. (2014) begin with transcriptomic analysis and then integrate studies in human clinical samples, nonhuman primates, and coculture of primary human cells to identify a role for CD14+CD16+ monocytes in generating plasmablast responses during dengue virus infection.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 10.24.23 PMBelongs to: Dengue Virus Infection Induces Expansion of a CD14+CD16+ Monocyte Population that Stimulates Plasmablast Differentiation – Marcin Kwissa – Cell Host & Microbe

“Transcriptomic analysis of whole blood revealed that genes encoding proinflammatory mediators and type I interferon-related proteins were associated with high DENV levels during initial symptomatic disease.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 10.25.06 PMQuantitative proteomic analysis of Huh-7 cells infected with Dengue virus by label-free LC–MS – Victoria Pando-Robles – Journal of Proteomics

“In order to gain a better reading of the cross talk between virus and host cell proteins, we used a proteomics approach to analyze the host response to DENV infection in a hepatic cell line Huh-7.”

Dengue hemorrhagic fever: Comparison of patients with primary and secondary infections – Muhammad Khurram – Journal of Infection and Public Health

“The two Groups were compared for statistically significant association in terms of age, gender, laboratory parameter (at admission hematocrit [HCT], platelet, white blood cell [WBC] counts, alanine aminotransferase [ALT] value), severity (DHF or dengue shock syndrome), and outcome (recovered or expired).”

Comments on the clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with dengue hemorrhagic fever manifestations and their transfusion profile – Romélia Pinheiro Gonçalves Lemes – Revista Brasileira de Hematologia e Hemoterapia

Belongs to: Clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with dengue hemorrhagic fever manifestations and their transfusion profile – Denys Eiti Fujimoto – Revista Brasileira de Hematologia e Hemoterapia

“A retrospective descriptive study was performed to analyze the distribution of relative frequencies of clinical and laboratory variables. The study was carried out in Rio Branco with confirmed dengue fever cases.”

Viruses and phages

Viruses as new agentsViruses as new agents of organomineralization in the geological record – Muriel Pacton – Nature Communications

“Here we use contextual metagenomic data and microscopic analyses to show that viruses occur in high diversity within a modern lacustrine microbial mat, and vastly outnumber prokaryotes and other components of the microbial mat.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 10.30.33 PMReview: Exploiting gut bacteriophages for human health – Marion Dalmasso – Trends in Microbiology

“Individual phageomes vary depending on age and health, thus providing a useful biomarker of human health as well as suggesting potential interventions targeted at the gut microbiota.”

Through the looking glass: witnessing host–virus interplay in zebrafish – Jean-Pierre Levraud – Trends in Microbiology

“Besides traditional host models such as mice, the zebrafish offers an attractive cocktail of optical accessibility and genetic tractability, blended with a vertebrate-type immunity, where innate responses can easily be separated from adaptive ones.”

Antibiotics and resistance

Variable recombination dynamics during the emergence, transmission and ‘disarming’ of a multidrug-resistant pneumococcal clone – Nicholas J Croucher – BMC Biology

“Whole genome sequencing of an international collection of 189 isolates estimated that PMEN2 emerged around the late 1960s, developing resistance through multiple homologous recombinations and the acquisition of a Tn5253-type integrative and conjugative element (ICE). “

Arsenate metabolism

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 10.27.05 PMInfluence of an arsenate-reducing and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons-degrading Pseudomonas isolate on growth and arsenic accumulation in Pteris vittata L. and removal of phenanthrene – Tiancai Feng – International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation

“In this study, the effect of bacterial inoculation on plant growth and arsenic uptake by Pteris vittata and phenanthrene dissipation was investigated hydroponically using an arsenate-reducing and PAH-degrading Pseudomonas isolate. “

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 10.28.17 PMBrevibacillus sp. KUMAs2, a bacterial isolate for possible bioremediation of arsenic in rhizosphere – Ivy Mallick – Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

“As resistant property in KUMAs2 was found to be plasmid-borne, which carried both As oxidizing and reducing genes. The strain could promote chilli plant growth under As contaminated soil environment by decreasing As accumulation in plant upon successful colonization in the rhizosphere, which suggests the possibility of using this isolate for successful bioremediation of As in the crop field.”

Infection and host response

Influenza Promotes Pneumococcal Growth during Coinfection by Providing Host Sialylated Substrates as a Nutrient Source – Steven J. Siegel – Cell Host & Microbe

“We find that prior influenza infection enhances pneumococcal colonization of the murine nasopharynx, which in turn promotes bacterial spread to the lungs. “

Microbes in the news

Bacteria Could Provide A Powerful New Way To Fight Fat And Depression – Lauren F. Friedman – Business Insider

“With increased understanding of these tiny organisms, we might just be able to coax them to do our bidding, giving us unprecedented control over human health.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 10.28.38 PMHospital elevator buttons coated with more bacteria than bathroom surfaces – Helen Branswell – Canadian Press

“You might want to use an elbow to push the elevator button the next time you are in a hospital.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 10.27.35 PMBelongs to: Elevator buttons as unrecognized sources of bacterial colonization in hospitals – Christopher E Kandel – Open Medicine

“Elevator buttons had a higher prevalence of colonization than toilet surfaces (61% v. 43%, p = 0.008).”

Science and Art

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 10.26.17 PMIntricate bacteria sculptures painstakingly hand-cut from paper – Chris Higgins – Wired

“Among the microbes Brown studied in preparation for the undertaking, which took four months overall (one to draw, two to hand cut and one to piece them together) are proteus bacteria, Escherichia coli, salmonella, hyphae, Spirillum volutans and Vibrio cholerae.”

Science, publishing and ethics

Not all plagiarism requires a retraction – Praveen Chaddah – Nature

“The ease with which large chunks of text can be digitally scanned and compared with what has previously been published has produced a new breed of academic watchdog”

Dr. Bik’s Picks

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 10.35.00 PMAncient arachnid brought ‘back to life’: Video recreates 410-million-year-old animal walking – Science Daily

“Scientists have recreated the walking gait of a 410-million-year-old arachnid, one of the first predators on land, based on fossil evidence. The scientists used the fossils — thin slices of rock showing the animal’s cross-section — to work out the range of motion in the limbs of this ancient, extinct early relative of the spiders.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 10.25.41 PM

Venus, the Chimera Cat: Venus the cat appears to have 2 faces – WSAV

“The left side of Venus’ face is black with a green eye, the right side of her face has orange tabby cat markings with a striking blue eye. “

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General microbiome and science, July 8

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Metabolic networks, CRISPR induced immunity, and influence of extraction methods and primers on microbiome analysis. Plus some smallpox in the Lost&Found, and a big citation scandal in SAGE journals.

Microbial ecology / metabolomics

Screen Shot 2014-07-08 at 10.07.56 PMIdentifying All Moiety Conservation Laws in Genome-Scale Metabolic Networks – Andrea De Martino – PLOS ONE

“ Our method is deployed for the analysis of moiety conservation relationships in two large-scale reconstructions of the metabolism of the bacterium E. coli, in six tissue-specific human metabolic networks, and, finally, in the human reactome as a whole, revealing that bacterial metabolism could be evolutionarily designed to cover broader production spectra than human metabolism.”

Emergent

Emergent Biosynthetic Capacity in Simple Microbial Communities – Hsuan-Chao Chiu – PLOS Computational Biology

“We specifically focus on detecting emergent biosynthetic capacity – instances in which a community growing on some medium produces and secretes metabolites that are not secreted by any member species when growing in isolation on that same medium. “

DIET ArchaeaDirect Interspecies Electron Transfer between Geobacter metallireducens and Methanosarcina barkeri – Amelia-Elena Rotaru – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

“M. barkeri is the second methanogen found to accept electrons via DIET and the first methanogen known to be capable of using either H2 or electrons derived from DIET for CO2 reduction. “

Optimal defenseOptimal Defense Strategies in an Idealized Microbial Food Web under Trade-Off between Competition and Defense – Selina Våge – PLOS ONE

“ Under coexistence with a competition specialist, a balance of competitive and defensive ability of the defense strategist was found to be evolutionarily stable, whereas stronger defense was optimal under increased nutrient levels in the absence of the pure competition specialist.”

Microbial detection

Screen Shot 2014-07-08 at 10.13.13 PMHuman Herpes Viruses Are Associated with Classic Fever of Unknown Origin (FUO) in Beijing Patients – Weimin Zhou – PLOS ONE

“HHVs are associated with Chinese patients (especially for children) with classic FUO. Our study adds perspective to the aetiological and clinical characteristics of classic FUO in beijing patients.”

Phages and viruses

Screen Shot 2014-07-08 at 10.13.31 PMCRISPR-Induced Distributed Immunity in Microbial Populations – Lauren M. Childs – PLOS ONE

“We analyze sequence diversity of experimentally coevolving populations of Streptococcus thermophilus and their viruses where CRISPR-Cas is active, and find the rapid emergence of distributed immunity in the host population, demonstrating the importance of this emergent phenomenon in evolving microbial communities.”

Techniques

Influence of DNA Extraction Method, 16S rRNA Targeted Hypervariable Regions, and Sample Origin on Microbial Diversity Detected by 454 Pyrosequencing in Marine Chemosynthetic Ecosystems – Perrine Cruaud – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

“Thanks to statistical and diversity analyses as well as inference of operational taxonomic unit (OTU) networks, we show that (i) while DNA extraction methods do not seem to affect the results for some samples, they can lead to dramatic changes for others; and (ii) the choice of amplification and sequencing primers also considerably affects the microbial community detected in the samples.”

Dengue

Sanofi’s dengue vaccine first to complete phase 3 – Gunjan Sinha – Nature Biotechnology

“Banking on approval, Sanofi has already started production, a move some have described as a “huge gamble” in light of the vaccine’s disappointing results from earlier studies, says Mark Clark, a pharmaceuticals analyst at Deutsche Bank in London.”

Microbes in the News

Found: Forgotten Vials of Smallpox – Maryn McKenna – Wired.com (also see CDC Media Statement)

“Workers clearing out an old storage room on the Bethesda, Md. campus of the National Institutes of Health have found a forgotten box of vials that contain smallpox.”

The Bacteria That Got Spread Throughout The US By Military Testing – Esther Inglis-Arkell – IO9

“Have you ever heard of serratia marcescens bacteria? Today they are a cause of hospital infections. In the 1960s, they were secretly sprayed across Washington, San Francisco, and New York.”

Manage Your Microbes – Laura Stec – Palo Alto Online

“I’ve been researching this wonderful advance in science for Manage Your Microbes, a cook class at Belmont Library on July 29th. “

Science, Publishing, and Career

SAGE Publications busts “peer review and citation ring,” 60 papers retracted – Retraction Watch

“SAGE announces the retraction of 60 articles implicated in a peer review and citation ring at the Journal of Vibration and Control (JVC). “

13 Subtle Ways Women Are Treated Differently At Work – Jenna Goudreau – Business Insider

“Both men and women hold these views but often don’t even realize it. “It’s hard to fight this,” says Rivers, but awareness is key.

Dr. Bik’s Picks

Combining colour and temperature: A blue object is more likely to be judged as warm than a red object – Hsin-Ni Ho – Nature Scientific Reports

“It is commonly believed that reddish colour induces warm feelings while bluish colour induces cold feelings. We, however, demonstrate an opposite effect when the temperature information is acquired by direct touch.”

MandarinSequencing of diverse mandarin, pummelo and orange genomes reveals complex history of admixture during citrus domestication – G Albert Wu – Nature Biotechnology

“Here we sequence and compare citrus genomes—a high-quality reference haploid clementine genome and mandarin, pummelo, sweet-orange and sour-orange genomes—and show that cultivated types derive from two progenitor species. “

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General microbiology and science, July 7

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Metagenomics binning based on co-abundance, bias in Illumina sequencing, and lots of metabolomics.

Phages and viruses

Bacteriophage-based synthetic biology for the study of infectious diseases – Robert J Citorik – Current Opinion in Microbiology

“Here, we discuss bacteriophage-based technologies and their application to the study of infectious diseases. “

Sequencing and Metagenomics

Identification and assembly of genomes and genetic elements in complex metagenomic samples without using reference genomes – H Bjørn Nielsen (and 142 other authors) – Nature Biotechnology

“Here we present a method, based on binning co-abundant genes across a series of metagenomic samples, that enables comprehensive discovery of new microbial organisms, viruses and co-inherited genetic entities and aids assembly of microbial genomes without the need for reference sequences.”

Evaluating bias of Illumina-based bacterial 16S rRNA gene profiles – Katherine Kennedy – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

“In this study, we tested the effects of template concentration, pooling of PCR amplicons, and sample preparation/inter-lane sequencing on the reproducibility associated with paired-end Illumina sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes.”

Next generation sequencing technology: Advances and applications – HPJ Buermans, JT den Dunnen – Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – Molecular Basis of Disease

“In this chapter we review the technical background of the different commercially available NGS platforms with respect to template generation and the sequencing reaction and take a small step towards what the upcoming NGS technologies will bring.”

Systems biology as an approach for deciphering microbial interactions – Puneet Kumar Singh – Briefings in Functional Genomics

“Here, we endeavor to summarize, epigrammatic description of sophisticated techniques and software that provides an enhanced understanding of metagenomics data analysis. “

Metabolomics

Stronger findings for metabolomics through Bayesian modeling of multiple peaks and compound correlations – Tommi Suvitaival – Bioinformatics

“We propose a hierarchical Bayesian model for inferring
differences between groups of samples more accurately in
metabolomic studies, where the observed compounds are collinear.”

Emergent Biosynthetic Capacity in Simple Microbial Communities – Hsuan-Chao Chiu – PLOS Computational Biology

“Here we present a comprehensive computational framework, integrating high-quality metabolic models of multiple species, temporal dynamics, and flux variability analysis, to study the metabolic capacity and dynamics of simple two-species microbial ecosystems.”

Metabolomics Analysis Identifies Intestinal Microbiota-Derived Biomarkers of Colonization Resistance in Clindamycin-Treated Mice – Robin L. P. Jump – PLOS ONE

“Clindamycin treatment caused marked changes in metabolites present in fecal specimens. Of 484 compounds analyzed, 146 (30%) exhibited a significant increase or decrease in concentration during clindamycin treatment followed by recovery to baseline that coincided with restoration of in vivo colonization resistance.”

Volatile Organic Compounds as Novel Markers for the Detection of Bacterial
Infections – Mohsen Sohrabi – Clinical Microbiology

“The possibility of using VOCs markers as one of the largest groups of bacterial metabolites would open a new frontier for developing more efficient techniques in the diagnosis of bacterial infections.”

The importance of sulfur-containing metabolites in discriminating fecal extracts between normal and type 2 diabetic mice – Alesia Walker – Journal of Proteome Research

“We demonstrate that a metabolic disorder such as T2DM affects the gastrointestinal tract environment thereby influencing different metabolic pathways and their respective metabolites in diabetic mice. “

Microarrrays

Applications of Phylogenetic Microarrays to Profiling of Human Microbiomes (PDF) -Oleg Paliy and Vijay Shankar – Book chapter

“This chapter will focus on currently available phylogenetic microarrays for the inter- rogation of human-associated microbiota, the technologies used to construct the arrays, as well as several key features that distinguish them from other approaches. “

Arsenic metabolism

Infant toenails as a biomarker of in utero arsenic exposure – Matthew A Davis – Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology

“In a sample of 170 mother–infant pairs from New Hampshire, we determined infant exposure to in utero arsenic by evaluating infant toenails as a biomarker using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. “

Chromosomal organization

Spatial confinement is a major determinant of the folding landscape of human chromosomes – Gamze Gürsoy – Nucleic Acids Research

“Here we describe a model called constrained self-avoiding chromatin (C-SAC) for studying spatial structures of chromosomes, as the available space is a key determinant of chromosome folding. “

Bacteria in the news

The bacteria has been decimated: how much should we care what words used to mean? – By Tom Chivers – Telegraph

“Much amusement this morning on the Today programme, as John Humphrys shamefacedly confessed to having said “a bacteria” on the previous day’s episode.”

Yoghurt industry blamed for encouraging bacteria – The Daily Mash

“One day massive cow-sized bacteria will rule the world and they will kill everyone who doesn’t like special yoghurts.”

When Scientists Experiment on Themselves: H. pylori and Ulcers – By Hanno Charisius – Scientific American

“With his famous self-experiment, Marshall was able to demonstrate that Helicobacter pylori bacteria can cause acute gastritis which in turn may cause ulcers. He had asked neither an ethics commission nor his wife for permission to conduct this experiment. “

In rental cars, dangerous bacteria may come along for the ride – Jeff Rossen and Josh Davis, Today

“Armed with gloves and goggles, they swabbed every car from top to bottom: the steering wheels, gearshifts, door handles, even the GPS units.”

Bacteria that ‘eats’ odour could bring end to smelly toilets in China – Stephen Chen – South China Morning Post

“Mainland scientists have developed a “bioweapon” that can wipe out the notorious bad smell in public toilets. Up to 75 per cent of the odour can be removed, with the rest suppressed by a natural, pleasant fragrance, according to researchers with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.”

Marine Mammals

Some SeaWorld mammals survive longer in captivity – Mike Schneider – Associated Press

“Breakthroughs in training and medicine that allow the parks’ medical staffs to perform far fewer stressful or invasive procedures are partly responsible for those successes, SeaWorld officials said.”

Science and publishing

Highly cited Researchers 2014 – Thomson Reuters

“Over three thousand researchers earned the distinction by writing the greatest numbers of reports officially designated by Essential Science Indicators℠ as Highly Cited Papers—ranking among the top 1% most cited for their subject field and year of publication, earning them the mark of exceptional impact.”

Dr. Bik’s Picks

Rats use their whiskers in a similar way to how humans use their hands and fingers – Science Daily

“Rats deliberately change how they sense their environment using their facial whiskers depending on whether the environment is novel, if there is a risk of collision and whether or not they can see where they are going.”

Giraffe legs’ strong, skinny secret – Victoria Gill – BBC Science

“Scientists have worked out the anatomical secret to giraffes’ long and spindly – but strong – legs.”

Environmentalists Almost Killed My Friend – Josh Bloom – Science 2.0

“It is hysteria-producing nonsense like this that leads any non-scientist to conclude that we are systematically being poisoned every day. “

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General digest, July 3

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CRISPRs, the yearly NAR Web Server issue, dengue, arsenic, and The Picks.

CRISPRs

Screen shot 2014-07-03 at 03.59PM, Jul 03 1Detection and characterization of spacer integration intermediates in type I-E CRISPR–Cas system – Zihni Arslan – Nucleic Acids Research

“We identified and characterized in Escherichia coli intermediate states of spacer integration and mapped the integration site at the chromosomal CRISPR array in vivo. “

Bioinformatics

Screen shot 2014-07-03 at 03.59PM, Jul 03Nucleic Acids Research published their yearly Web Server issue. The names of some tools alone are very entertaining (CHOPCHOP, Coffee, COGNAC, just to lists some C’s), but here are some resources that sound interesting:

Alignment-Annotator web server: rendering and annotating sequence alignments
Christoph Gille

Spaced words and kmacs: fast alignment-free sequence comparison based on inexact word matches – Sebastian Horwege

EvoCor: a platform for predicting functionally related genes using phylogenetic and expression profiles – W. James Dittmar

CFM-ID: a web server for annotation, spectrum prediction and metabolite identification from tandem mass spectra – Felicity Allen

PIQMIe: a web server for semi-quantitative proteomics data management and analysis – Arnold Kuzniar

PTHGRN: unraveling post-translational hierarchical gene regulatory networks using PPI, ChIP-seq and gene expression data – Daogang Guan

BioMet Toolbox 2.0: genome-wide analysis of metabolism and omics data – Manuel Garcia-Albornoz

deepTools: a flexible platform for exploring deep-sequencing data – Fidel Ramírez

PrecisePrimer: an easy-to-use web server for designing PCR primers for DNA library cloning and DNA shuffling – Cyrille Pauthenier

PubServer: literature searches by homology – Lukasz Jaroszewski

Arsenic metabolism

Arsenic color toolSediment color tool for targeting arsenic-safe aquifers for the installation of shallow drinking water tubewells – Mohammed Hossain – Science of the Total Environment

“Laboratory analysis of 521 groundwater samples collected from 144 wells during 2009 to 2011 indicate that As concentrations in groundwater were generally higher in the black colored sediments with an average of 239 μg/L.”

Screen shot 2014-07-03 at 03.55PM, Jul 03Arsenite stimulates glutathione export and glycolytic flux in viable primary rat brain astrocytes – Nimesha Tadepalle – Neurochemistry International

“The strong stimulation of GSH export by arsenite was prevented by MK571, an inhibitor of the multidrug resistance protein 1, suggesting that this transporter mediates the accelerated GSH export.”

Screen shot 2014-07-03 at 03.55PM, Jul 03 1Trichoderma spp. alleviate phytotoxicity in lettuce plants (Lactuca sativa L.) irrigated with arsenic-contaminated water – Antonio G. Caporale – Journal of Plant Physiology

“Plant Growth-Promoting Fungi (PGPF) of both Trichoderma species alleviated, at least in part, the phytotoxicity of As, essentially by decreasing its accumulation in the tissues and enhancing plant growth, P status and net photosynthesis rate.”

Dengue

Kwissa DengueDengue Virus Infection Induces Expansion of a CD14+CD16+ Monocyte Population that Stimulates Plasmablast Differentiation – Marcin Kwissa – Cell Host & Microbe

“Transcriptomic analysis of whole blood revealed that genes encoding proinflammatory mediators and type I interferon-related proteins were associated with high DENV levels during initial symptomatic disease. “

dengue bidetG3BP1, G3BP2 and CAPRIN1 Are Required for Translation of Interferon Stimulated mRNAs and Are Targeted by a Dengue Virus Non-coding RNA – Katell Bidet – PLOS Pathogens

“We examined three conserved host RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) G3BP1, G3BP2 and CAPRIN1 in dengue virus (DENV-2) infection and found them to be novel regulators of the interferon (IFN) response against DENV-2. “

Dengue Virus Persists in Stored Platelets and Red Blood Cells – Michael R. Sutherland – Transfusion Medicine Reviews

“…we investigated the persistence of DENV (serotypes 1-4) in stored platelet (PC) and red blood cell concentrates (RCC) under standard blood bank conditions. “

2013: Rise of the deadly dengue fever in Pakistan – Anum Wasim – Journal of Infection and Public Health

“Last year saw more than 17000 dengue cases being reported from all over the country, the highest number ever in the country’s history.”

Women in Science 

Gender: Perception differences – Nature

“Female leaders underrate how their bosses and colleagues perceive their performance, find US researchers”

Screen shot 2014-07-03 at 03.57PM, Jul 03Leader self-awareness: An examination and implications of women’s under-prediction –
Rachel E. Sturm – Journal of Organizational Behavior

“…women under-predict their bosses’ ratings of their leadership compared with men, even though they self-rate the same and are rated by their bosses similarly to men”

 

10 Words Every Girl Should Learn – Soraya Chemaly – Huffington Post

Yes! This! “A woman, speaking clearly and out loud, can say something that no one appears to hear, only to have a man repeat it minutes, maybe seconds later, to accolades and group discussion.”

Science, Publishing, and Ethics

Science Editorial: Raising the bar – Marcia McNutt – Science

“For that reason, with much help from the American Statistical Association, Science has established, effective 1 July 2014, a Statistical Board of Reviewing Editors (SBoRE), consisting of experts in various aspects of statistics and data analysis, to provide better oversight of the interpretation of observational data.”

Science ethics: Young scientists speak – Shelly Benjaminy – Science

“What is the most challenging ethical question facing young investigators in your field? How should it be addressed? In April, we asked young scientists to tell us their thoughts.“

Science and Art

Screen shot 2014-07-03 at 03.57PM, Jul 03 1Can You Guess What These Cute Pink Tiles Are Made Of? – Francie Diep – Popular Science

“These images are from research into new techniques for medical diagnoses and biometrics.”

Dr. Bik’s Picks

Screen shot 2014-07-03 at 03.51PM, Jul 03Multiple evidence strands suggest that there may be as few as 19 000 human protein-coding genes – Iakes Ezkurdia – Human Molecular Genetics

“Here, we mapped peptides detected in seven large-scale proteomics studies to almost 60% of the protein-coding genes in the GENCODE annotation of the human genome. “

Screen shot 2014-07-03 at 03.50PM, Jul 03With Help From Extinct Humans, Tibetans Adapted To High Altitude – Rae Ellen Bichell – NPR

“According to Nielsen and a bunch of geneticists writing in the journal Nature, the Tibetans appear to have benefited from a genetic gift from the Denisovans, an extinct human ancestor known primarily from a little girl’s tooth and pinkie bone.”

Screen shot 2014-07-03 at 03.49PM, Jul 03NSF to decide all future grant proposals by penalty shoot-out – The Allium

““We feel that this will be a much less random way of giving out funding”, said Dr. France Cordóva, Director of the NSF.”

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General microbiology and science digest, July 2

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Genome assembly, metabolomics of Salmonella infection, a brief history of women in science (but in Nature!), and Nature’s retraction of the STAP papers.

Metagenomics

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 10.13.28 PMBayesian Genome Assembly and Assessment by Markov Chain Monte Carlo Sampling – Mark Howison – PLOS ONE

“We present a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach to sequence assembly that instead generates distributions of assembly hypotheses with posterior probabilities, providing an explicit statistical framework for evaluating alternative hypotheses and assessing assembly uncertainty. “

Infection and host response

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 10.14.12 PMSalmonella Typhi and Salmonella Paratyphi – A elaborate distinct systemic metabolite signatures during enteric fever – Elin Näsström – eLife

“To investigate metabolite signals associated with enteric fever we performed two dimensional gas chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC/TOFMS) on plasma from patients with S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi A infections and asymptomatic controls, identifying 695 individual metabolite peaks.”

and: Host-pathogen interactions: Honing in on enteric fever – Lyle R McKinnon, Quarraisha Abdool Karim – eLife

“The use of metabolomics could lead to improved diagnostics for enteric fever. “

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 10.14.58 PMHuman Genetic Variation and Yellow Fever Mortality during 19th Century U.S. Epidemics – Lauren E Blake, Mariano A Garcia-Blanco – mBio

“Caucasians diagnosed with YF were 6.8 times more likely to succumb than non-Caucasians with the disease. No other major causes of death during the 19th century demonstrated a similar mortality skew toward Caucasians. “

Bacterial and viral detection in clinical samples

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 10.15.58 PMThe Microbial Detection Array for Detection of Emerging Viruses in Clinical Samples – A Useful Panmicrobial Diagnostic Tool – Maiken W. Rosenstierne – PLOS ONE

“We report a modified Whole Transcriptome Amplification (WTA) method that increases unbiased amplification, particular of RNA viruses.”

The Sooner, The Better – Nicholette Zeliadt – The Scientist

“New approaches to diagnosing bacterial infections may one day allow the identification of pathogens and their antibiotic susceptibility in a matter of hours or minutes.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 10.16.45 PMReview: Biosensors for Whole-Cell Bacterial Detection – Asif Ahmed – Clinical Microbiology Reviews

” In this review, we discuss recent progress in the use of biosensors for the detection of whole bacterial cells for sensitive and earlier identification of bacteria without the need for sample processing.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 10.17.23 PMIsolation of Microorganisms Using Sub-Micrometer Constrictions – Nil Tandogan – PLOS ONE

“We present an automated method for isolating pure bacterial cultures from samples containing multiple species that exploits the cell’s own physiology to perform the separation.”

Phages and viruses

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 10.18.17 PMFour Escherichia coli O157:H7 Phages: A New Bacteriophage Genus and Taxonomic Classification of T1-Like Phages – Yan D. Niu – PLOS ONE

“Comparative genomic, proteomic and phylogenetic analysis suggested that the four phages along with 17 T1-like phage genomes from database of National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) can be assigned into a proposed subfamily “Tunavirinae” with further classification into five genera”

Dengue

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 10.18.45 PMClinical and Virological Descriptive Study in the 2011 Outbreak of Dengue in the Amazonas, Brazil – Valquiria do Carmo Alves Martins – PLOS ONE

“The aim of the study was to describe the clinical epidemiology of dengue in Manaus, the capital city of the state of the Amazonas, where all the four DENV serotypes were co-circulating simultaneously.”

Phylogeny and taxonomy

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 10.12.14 PMComparative Genomics of the Bacterial Genus Streptococcus Illuminates Evolutionary Implications of Species Groups – Xiao-Yang Gao – PLOS ONE

“We use comparative genomic approaches to yield a better understanding of the evolution of Streptococcus through genome dynamics, population structure, phylogenies and virulence factor distribution of species groups. “

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 10.12.46 PMLivestock-Associated MRSA Carriage in Patients without Direct Contact with Livestock – Miranda M. L. van Rijen – PLOS ONE

“Fifty-six individuals (20.7%) without animal contact carried MC398. In hospitals with high pig-densities in the adherence area, the proportion of MC398 of all MUO was higher than this proportion in hospitals without pigs in the surroundings.”

 Arsenic metabolism

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 10.02.56 PMMichigan’s arsenic problem is among the worst in the nation. Here’s why that matters – Rebecca Williams – Michigan Radio

“If you’re on city water, your drinking water has to comply with a federal regulation that limits the amount of arsenic in it, but if you’re on a private well, the federal and state governments do not limit the amount of arsenic in your well.”

Women in Science

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 9.59.45 PMWomen in science: A temporary liberation – Patricia Fara – Nature

“The First World War ushered women into laboratories and factories. In Britain, it may have won them the vote, argues Patricia Fara, but not the battle for equality.”

Science and Ethics

Nature Editorial: STAP retracted – Nature

“This week, Nature publishes retractions of two high-profile papers that claimed a major advance in the field of stem cells… We — research funders, research practitioners, institutions and journals — need to put quality assurance and laboratory professionalism ever higher on our agendas, to ensure that the money entrusted by governments is not squandered, and that citizens’ trust in science is not betrayed.”

Dr. Bik’s Picks

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 10.11.31 PMPLOS ONE Publishes its 100,000th Article – Damian Pattinson – PLOS Blogs

“PLOS ONE publishes its 100,000th article – a pretty major milestone for a journal that has seen its fair share of momentous events, and a perfect opportunity to reflect on this journey.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 10.08.37 PMLeprosy, Still Claiming Victims – Natalie Angier, New York Times

““I’m absolutely convinced that leprosy must be thought of as a genetic disease as well as an infectious one,” Dr. Schurr said. In the end, he added wryly, “understanding it may help cure diseases of rich people, too.””

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General microbiology and science, June 19

Posted on by

How to store your sputum samples, how LPS gets inserted into the outer membrane, and why pigs have an even number of toes.

Techniques in microbiome research

Screen Shot 2014-06-19 at 11.16.59 PMTime between sputum sample collection and storage significantly influences bacterial sequence composition from Cystic Fibrosis respiratory infections – Leah Cuthbertson – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

“Aliquots were stored at room temperature before freezing at -80°C for increasing intervals up to 72 hour period. Samples were treated with propidium monoazide, to distinguish live from dead cells, prior to DNA extraction, and 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing was used to characterise the bacterial composition.”

General microbiology

Screen Shot 2014-06-19 at 11.26.58 PMStructural basis for outer membrane lipopolysaccharide insertion – Haohao Dong – Nature

“Here we report the first crystal structure of the unique integral membrane LPS translocon LptD–LptE complex….These findings not only help us to understand important aspects of bacterial outer membrane biogenesis, but also have significant potential for the development of novel drugs against multi-drug resistant pathogenic bacteria.”

Immunology

Screen Shot 2014-06-19 at 11.13.17 PMTeaching the immune system “self” respect and tolerance – Lucienne Chatenoud – Science

“Tolerance is what we would like to restore to cure such disabling diseases. Kasagi et al. (2) indicate that it may be possible to teach the immune system to tolerate “self” again.”

Screen Shot 2014-06-19 at 11.15.42 PMIn Vivo–Generated Antigen-Specific Regulatory T Cells Treat Autoimmunity Without Compromising Antibacterial Immune Response – Shimpei Kasagi – Science

“These antigen-specific Treg cells specifically ameliorated autoimmunity without compromising immune responses to bacterial antigen. We have thus successfully generated antigen-specific Treg cells with therapeutic activity toward autoimmunity”

Phages, viruses, CRISPRs

Screen Shot 2014-06-19 at 11.18.44 PMHaloarcula hispanica CRISPR authenticates PAM of a target sequence to prime discriminative adaptation – Ming Li – Nucleic Acids Research

Science and ethics

Cheating common, say Brazil’s students – Jack Grove – Times Higher Education

“Of a sample of 47 papers published last year, 29 showed signs of word-by-word plagiarism, seven contained self-plagiarism, three had “mosaic plagiarism” (otherwise known as “synonym substitution”) and one exhibited signs of collusion.”

Dr. Bik’s Picks

Screen Shot 2014-06-19 at 11.23.10 PMThe Dangers Of Data Mining – Tommaso Dorigo – Science 2.0

“On my first day at the Erice School of Science Journalism this past week I attended a lecture by Alessio Cimarelli, who discussed “When Data Journalism meets Science: a “Hackathon””.”

Screen Shot 2014-06-19 at 11.32.23 PMEvolutionary biology: Why cattle, pigs are even-toed – Science Daily

“During their evolution, the basic limb skeletal structure was significantly modified such that today’s hippopotami have four toes, while the second and fifth toe face backwards in pigs.”

 

U.S. Says 75 Government Scientists Possibly Exposed To Live Anthrax – Reuters – Huffington Post

“The potential exposure occurred after researchers working in a high-level biosecurity laboratory at the agency’s Atlanta campus failed to follow proper procedures to inactivate the bacteria.”

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General microbiology and science, June 16

Posted on by

It’s late and I got lots for you, so no pictures today. Dengue, phages, ecology, techniques, and lots more.

Antibiotic resistance

Review: Microbiological effects of sublethal levels of antibiotics – Dan I. Andersson & Diarmaid Hughes – Nature Reviews Microbiology

“In this Review, we discuss the ecology of antibiotics and the ability of subinhibitory concentrations to select for bacterial resistance. “

A Bacterial Battle  – Lisa M. Jarvis – Chemical and Engineering News

“The regulatory path to approving new antibiotics has been cleared, but work still remains to rebuild a healthy drug pipeline”

Bacteria are everywhere
How safe is your kitchen? – Lyxan Toledanes – The Daily News Online

“Despite a spacious kitchen, Parker sat on the counter next to Masters’ prep area, where she was chopping vegetables and chicken on separate cutting mats. ”

Adventures in the microbiome (part 2) – Mike Edmund

“There’s an intriguing case report that was just published in Clinical Microbiology and Infection”

Stafford students find bacteria on tainted tablets – Amanda Oglesby

“Four sixth-graders huddled over a table inside All Saints Regional Catholic School as they took turns swabbing bacteria from the surfaces of an iPhone and iPad.”

Bioslime: new sensor to detect harmful bacteria on food industry surfaces – BarfBlog

“The Biolisme project is using research from the University to develop a sensor capable of collecting and detecting Listeria monocytogenes on food industry surfaces, thereby preventing contaminated products from entering the market.”

Viruses and phages

Functional long-range RNA–RNA interactions in positive-strand RNA viruses – Beth L. Nicholson & K. Andrew White – Nature Reviews Microbiology

“In this Review, we discuss recent insights into the structure and function of these intriguing genomic features and highlight their diverse roles in the gene expression and genome replication of positive-strand RNA viruses.”

Unravelling the structural and mechanistic basis of CRISPR–Cas systems – John van der Oost – Nature Reviews Microbiology

“In this Review, we summarize the recent structural and biochemical insights that have been gained for the three major types of CRISPR–Cas systems, which together provide a detailed molecular understanding of the unique and conserved mechanisms of RNA-guided adaptive immunity in bacteria and archaea.”

The elemental composition of virus particles: implications for marine biogeochemical cycles – Luis F. Jover – Nature Reviews Microbiology

“In this Analysis article, we use a biophysical scaling model of intact virus particles that has been validated using sequence and structural information to quantify differences in the elemental stoichiometry of marine viruses compared with their microbial hosts. “

Phage therapies for plants and people – Michael Gross – Current Biology

Dengue

NEA to explore biological control methods to tackle dengue

“One of the techniques involves the use of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are infected with a certain bacteria, to control their population.”

Techniques general

Storage of Human Biospecimens: Selection of the Optimal Storage Temperature – Allison Hubel – Biopreservation and Biobanking

“The overall objective of this article is to describe the scientific basis for selecting a storage temperature for a biospecimen based on current scientific understanding. To that end, this article reviews some physical basics of the temperature, nucleation, and ice crystal growth present in biological samples stored at low temperatures (−20°C to −196°C), and our current understanding of the role of temperature on the activity of degradative molecules present in biospecimens.”

DNA polymerase hybrids derived from the family-B enzymes of Pyrococcus furiosus and Thermococcus kodakarensis: improving performance in the polymerase chain reaction – Ashraf M. Elshawadfy – Frontiers Microbiology

“The significance of this work is the observation that improvements in PCR performance are easily attainable by blending elements from closely related archaeal polymerases, an approach that may, in future, be extended by using more polymerases from these organisms.”

Metabolomics, Proteomics, Mass spectrometry

Bruker Announces Powerful New Mass Spectrometry Systems and Solutions for Life-Science Research, Clinical Research, Biopharma and Applied Markets – Wall Street Journal

“At the 62(nd) ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics today, Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR) today announced mass spectrometry-based product introductions for life-science research and proteomics, for clinical research, for pharma/biopharma/CRO customers, as well as for applied and industrial markets. “

Medically, Proteomics Advances Will Rival the Genetics Advances of the Last Ten Years – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News

“..in explaining why proteomics is likely to have such a major impact, Dr. Anderson starts with a major difference between the genetic testing common today, and the proteomic testing that is fast coming on the scene. “

Metagenomics and informatics

Detecting concerted demographic response across community assemblages using hierarchical approximate Bayesian computation – Yvonne L. Chan – Molecular Biology and Evolution

“Here we present a statistical framework for such an analysis based on hierarchical approximate Bayesian computation (hABC) with the goal of detecting concerted demographic histories across an ecological assemblage.”

An Experimentally Determined Evolutionary Model Dramatically Improves Phylogenetic Fit – Jesse D. Bloom – Molecular Biology and Evolution

“Experimental determination of a parameter-free evolutionary model via mutagenesis, functional selection, and deep sequencing.”

Ecology

Trait-based approaches for understanding microbial biodiversity and ecosystem functioning – Sascha Krause – Frontiers in Microbiology

“We argue that combining eco-physiological studies with contemporary molecular tools in a trait-based framework can reinforce our ability to link microbial diversity to ecosystem processes. “

The importance of the viable but non-culturable state in human bacterial pathogens – Laam Li – Frontiers in Microbiology

“The conditions that trigger the induction of the VBNC state and resuscitation from it are summarized and the mechanisms underlying these two processes are discussed. “

Deciphering microbial interactions and detecting keystone species with co-occurrence networks – David Berry – Frontiers in Microbiology

“Here, we simulate multi-species microbial communities with known interaction patterns using generalized Lotka-Volterra dynamics. We then construct co-occurrence networks and evaluate how well networks reveal the underlying interactions and how experimental and ecological parameters can affect network inference and interpretation.”

Scientific writing and publishing

Sources of error in the retracted scientific literature – Arturo Casadevall, R. Grant Steen and Ferric C. Fang – The FASEB Journal

“Analysis of the retraction notices for 423 articles indexed in PubMed revealed that the most common causes of error-related retraction are laboratory errors, analytical errors, and irreproducible results.”

Dr. Bik’s Picks

Magnets: Artificial Magnetic Bacteria: Living Magnets at Room Temperature – Miguel Martín – Adv. Funct. Mater

“After grafting the magnetic nanoparticles, the artificial magnetic bacteria remain alive. In fact they are converted into living magnets at room temperature.”

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