The journal Immunity has a special with several great papers on (gut) microbiome and diet. And even Martha Stewart is writing about the microbiome! In style, of course.

Oral microbiome

Mining the Mouth’s Many Microbes – Tracy Vence – The Scientist

““The whole world passes through the oral cavity,” said Purnima Kumar, an assistant professor of periodontology at the Ohio State University College of Dentistry. This makes investigating the microbial communities present in the mouth a challenge.”

Gut microbiome

Finding the Missing Links among Metabolites, Microbes, and the Host – Pieter C. Dorrestein – Immunity

“Here, we provide our perspective on these connections and outline a systematic research program that could turn these individual links into a broader network that allows us to understand how these components interact. “

Mining the Human Gut Microbiota for Effector Strains that Shape the Immune System – Philip P. Ahern – Immunity

“Here, we discuss a scalable, less biased approach for identifying effector strains in complex microbial communities that impact immune function. The approach begins by identifying uncultured human fecal microbiota samples that transmit immune phenotypes to germ-free mice.”

Diet, Metabolites, and “Western-Lifestyle” Inflammatory Diseases – Alison N. Thorburn – Immunity

“This review highlights what is currently known about diet, metabolites, and their associated immune pathways in relation to the development of inflammatory disease.”

Inflammatory Bowel Disease as a Model for Translating the Microbiome – Curtis Huttenhower – Immunity

“IBD thus represents perhaps the most comprehensive current model for understanding the human microbiome’s role in complex inflammatory disease. Here, we review the influences of the microbiota on IBD and its potential for translational medicine.”

Culturomics and pyrosequencing evidence of the reduction in gut microbiota diversity in patients with broad-spectrum antibiotics – Grégory Dubourg – International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents

“Culturomics was performed on four stool samples from patients treated with large-scale antibiotics to assess the diversity of their gut flora in comparison with other culture-dependent studies. Pyrosequencing of the V6 region was also performed and was compared with a control group.”

Long-term monitoring of the human intestinal microbiota from the 2nd week to 13 years of age – Akihito Endo – Anaerobe

“Few long term follow-up studies have been reported and we therefore characterized the development of intestinal microbiota of ten subjects from the 2nd week of life to 13 years of age. PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis combined with several bacterial group-specific primer sets demonstrated the colonization steps of defined bacterial groups in the microbiota”

Respiratory microbiome

Time 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.”

Human Pharyngeal Microbiome May Play a Protective Role in Respiratory Tract Infections – Zhancheng Gao – Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics

“Recent studies have demonstrated that the pharyngeal microbiome comprises an abundance of bacterial species that interact with the local epithelial and immune cells, and together, they form a unique micro-ecological system.”

Skin and wounds microbiology

Microbial profiling of combat wound infection through detection microarray and next-generation sequencing – Nicholas A. Be – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

“We employed a microarray capable of detecting all sequenced pathogens for interrogation of 124 wound samples from extremity injuries in combat-injured U.S. service members. A subset of samples was also processed via next-generation sequencing and metagenomic analysis. “

Press coverage:

Healing warriors by making a census of combat wounds’ microbiota – Melissa Healy – LA Times

“New research suggests that physicians treating future U.S. troops (and perhaps those treating some of today’s wounded warriors) may be able to take a fast and thorough census of the microorganisms living in a combat wound and tailor their treatment accordingly.”

Human microbiome in the news

4 habits for a healthy gut – Martha Stewart – CNN

“Studies also suggest that diabetic and obese patients tend to lack a diversity of bacteria, and the Cleveland Clinic found that some bacteria metabolize components of egg and meat to produce a compound that aids in the clogging of arteries.”

Webinar: The Promise of the Microbiome: Function and Dysfunction in Humans and Beyond – Science Magazine, featuring David Relman, Rob Knight, and Jack Gilbert

“During this webinar, the speakers will:

• Provide a brief introduction to microbiomes and how they may fundamentally impact our study of the natural world
• Share their research data on human and nonhuman microbiota, including microbe-associated environmental impacts on human health
• Discuss the role of microbiomes in obesity and malnutrition
• Answer your questions live during the webinar!”

Bacterial detection in blood and other sites

Massive Parallel Sequencing Provides New Perspectives on Bacterial Brain Abscesses – Øyvind Kommedal – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

“Bacterial 16S rRNA genes were amplified directly from the specimens and sequenced using Ion Torrent technology, with an average of 500,000 reads per sample. The results were compared to those from culture- and Sanger sequencing-based diagnostics.”

Animal models of microbiota

Diet-Induced Alterations in Gut Microflora Contribute to Lethal Pulmonary Damage in TLR2/TLR4-Deficient Mice – Yewei Ji – Cell Reports

“Here, we show that chronic intake of a high-fat diet (HFD), not a low-fat diet, leads to severe pulmonary damage and mortality in mice deficient in Toll-like receptors 2 and 4 (DKO).”

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