Tag Archives: soil

December 30, 2022

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Happy New Year from the Microbiome Digest Team!

Human and General Microbiome

Microbiome Characteristics in Early Threatened Miscarriage Study (MCETMS): a study protocol for a prospective cohort investigation in China – Xiaofeng Chen – BMJ Open

Mapping the early life gut microbiome in neonates with critical congenital heart disease: multiomics insights and implications for host metabolic and immunological health – Yuan Huang – Microbiome

Metagenomic analysis reveals unexplored diversity of archaeal virome in the human gut – Ran Li – Nature Communications

Fecal level of butyric acid, a microbiome-derived metabolite, is increased in patients with severe carotid atherosclerosis – Kristine Stø – Scientific Reports

Transition in vaginal Lactobacillus species during pregnancy and prediction of preterm birth in Korean women – Young-Ah You – Scientific Reports

Evaluating the ecological hypothesis: early life salivary microbiome assembly predicts dental caries in a longitudinal case-control study – Freida Blostein – Microbiome

Systematic Review: The effects of microbiota abundance on symptom severity in Parkinson’s disease: A systematic review – Eliša Papić – Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

Systematic Review: A systematic review of microbiome-derived biomarkers for early colorectal cancer detection – Florine H Zwezerijnen-Jiwa – Neoplasia

Review: Current insights into skin lipids and their roles in cutaneous health and disease – Anna Nicolaou – Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care

Beneficial Microbes and Compounds

Akkermansia supplementation reverses the tumor-promoting effect of the fecal microbiota transplantation in ovarian cancer – Zizhuo Wang – Cell Reports

Review: A novel approach to Lactiplantibacillus plantarum: From probiotic properties to the omics insights – Noemí Echegaray – Microbiological Research

Animal Microbiome

Prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbial communities associated with coral species have high host specificity in the South China Sea – Keke Cheng – The Science of the Total Environment

Assessing the causes and consequences of gut mycobiome variation in a wild population of the Seychelles warbler – Sarah F Worsley – Microbiome

Gut microbe Lactiplantibacillus plantarum undergoes different evolutionary trajectories between insects and mammals – Elisa Maritan – BMC Biology

Environmental Microbiome

Permafrost in the Cretaceous supergreenhouse – Juan Pedro Rodríguez-López – Nature Communications

Degradation pathways for organic matter of terrestrial origin are widespread and expressed in Arctic Ocean microbiomes – Thomas Grevesse – Microbiome

Temporary establishment of bacteria from indoor plant leaves and soil on human skin – Gwynne Á Mhuireach – Environmental Microbiome

Microbiome Analysis

Stochastic variational variable selection for high-dimensional microbiome data – Tung Dang – Microbiome

December 2, 2022

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Human and General Microbiome

Different Characteristics in Gut Microbiome between Advanced Adenoma Patients and Colorectal Cancer Patients by Metagenomic Analysis – Shuwen Han – Microbiology Spectrum

The Spatial Features and Temporal Changes in the Gut Microbiota of a Healthy Chinese Population – Wen Zhang – Microbiology Spectrum

The Gut Microbiota is Important for the Maintenance of Blood-Cerebrospinal Fluid Barrier Integrity – Emily G Knox – The European Journal of Neuroscience

Evaluation of co-circulating pathogens and microbiome from COVID-19 infections – James B Thissen – PloS One

A Clinical Study Provides the First Direct Evidence That Interindividual Variations in Fecal β-Lactamase Activity Affect the Gut Mycobiota Dynamics in Response to β-Lactam Antibiotics – Margot Delavy – mBio

Clostridia isolated from helminth-colonized humans promote the life cycle of Trichuris species – Shushan Sargsian – Cell Reports

Genome Watch: Zooming into the structure of the microbiome – Gemma G R Murray – Nature Reviews. Microbiology

Beneficial Microbes and Compounds

Saussurea involucrata oral liquid regulates gut microbiota and serum metabolism during alleviation of collagen-induced arthritis in rats – Shan Cong – Phytotherapy Research

Prebiotic oligofructose protects against high-fat diet-induced obesity by changing the gut microbiota, intestinal mucus production, glycosylation and secretion – Paola Paone – Gut Microbes

Review: Predicting Personalized Responses to Dietary Fiber Interventions: Opportunities for Modulation of the Gut Microbiome to Improve Health – Car Reen Kok – Annual Review of Food Science and Technology

Animal Microbiome

Gut dysbiosis induces the development of mastitis through a reduction in host anti-inflammatory enzyme activity by endotoxemia – Caijun Zhao – Microbiome

Chronic clinical signs of upper respiratory tract disease associate with gut and respiratory microbiomes in a cohort of domestic felines – Holly Kristin Arnold – PloS One

Plant and Soil Microbiome

Bio-Organic Fertilizer Promotes Pear Yield by Shaping the Rhizosphere Microbiome Composition and Functions – Zhonghua Wang – Microbiology Spectrum

Impacts of maize hybrids with different nitrogen use efficiency on root-associated microbiota based on distinct rhizosphere soil metabolites – Keke Li – Environmental Microbiology

Environmental Microbiome

Coupled C, H, N, S and Fe biogeochemical cycles operating in the continental deep subsurface of the Iberian Pyrite Belt – Ricardo Amils – Environmental Microbiology

Long-Read Sequencing Improves Recovery of Picoeukaryotic Genomes and Zooplankton Marker Genes from Marine Metagenomes – N V Patin – mSystems

Bioinformatics and Microbiome Analysis

The Application of Spearman Partial Correlation for Screening Predictors of Weight Loss in a Multiomics Dataset – Joel Correa da Rosa – Omics

Sampling of Human Microbiomes to Screen for Antibiotic-Producing Commensals – Benjamin Torres Salazar – Methods in Molecular Biology

September 24, 2022

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Human and General Microbiome

Systemic antibody responses against human microbiota flagellins are overrepresented in chronic fatigue syndrome patients – Thomas Vogl – Science Advances

Strain-level resolution and pneumococcal carriage dynamics by single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing of the plyNCR marker: a longitudinal study in Swiss infants – Oluwaseun Rume-Abiola Oyewole – Microbiome

Longitudinal disease-associated gut microbiome differences in infants with food protein-induced allergic proctocolitis – Victoria M Martin – Microbiome

Host and gut bacteria share metabolic pathways for anti-cancer drug metabolism – Peter Spanogiannopoulos – Nature Microbiology

Diet-driven microbial ecology underpins associations between cancer immunotherapy outcomes and the gut microbiome – Rebecca C Simpson – Nature Medicine

Advances in the gut microbiome and mood disorders – Sabrina Mörkl – Current Opinion in Psychiatry

Review: Modulation of the intestinal microbiota impacts the efficacy of immunotherapy in cancer patients – A recent literature survey – Stella Ziegler – European Journal of Microbiology & Immunology

Animal Microbiome

Metagenomics-resolved genomics provides novel insights into chitin turnover, metabolic specialization, and niche partitioning in the octocoral microbiome – Tina Keller-Costa – Microbiome

Intestinal microbiome-mediated resistance against vibriosis for Cynoglossus semilaevis – Qian Zhou – Microbiome

Plant Microbiome

Response of soil microecology to different cropping practice under Bupleurum chinense cultivation – Li Liu – BMC Microbiology

Community Assembly of Fungi and Bacteria along Soil-Plant Continuum Differs in a Zoige Wetland – Jie Li – Microbiology Spectrum

Review: Investigating plant-microbe interactions within the root – Yuniar Devi Utami – Archives of Microbiology

Food Microbiome

Geographically Associated Fungus-Bacterium Interactions Contribute to the Formation of Geography-Dependent Flavor during High-Complexity Spontaneous Fermentation – Yuwei Tan – Microbiology Spectrum

More Microbes

A meta-analysis of acetogenic and methanogenic microbiomes in microbial electrosynthesis – Simon Mills – NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes

Bioinformatics and Microbiome Analysis

MicrobiomeCensus estimates human population sizes from wastewater samples based on inter-individual variability in gut microbiomes – Lin Zhang – PLoS Computational Biology

January 18, 2022

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Today’s digest contains interesting gut-brain axis articles, developments in bioinformatic multi-omic analyses, and some recent developments in long COVID research highlighted under non microbiome picks below. 

General microbiome

Substantial overlap between symptomatic and asymptomatic genitourinary microbiota states – Adu oppong et al. – Microbiome 

Human gut microbiome

Gut Ruminococcaceae levels at baseline correlate with risk of antibiotic-associated diarrhea – Gu et al. – iScience

Home or hospital birth: the neonatal microbiota perspective – Stojanov et al. – The Lancet Microbe

A pilot exploration of multi-omics research of gut microbiome in major depressive disorders – Zhao et al – Translational Psychiatry

Post-ischemic protein restriction induces sustained neuroprotection, neurological recovery, brain remodeling, and gut microbiota rebalancing – de Carvalho et al. – Brain Behavior and Immunity

Bifidobacterium breve CCFM1025 attenuates major depression disorder via regulating gut microbiome and tryptophan metabolism: A randomized clinical trial – Tian et al.  – Brain Behavior and Immunity

Gestational insulin resistance is mediated by the gut microbiome-indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase axis – Priyadarshini et al. – Gastroenterology

A natural polyphenol exerts antitumor activity and circumvents anti-PD-1 resistance through effects on the gut microbiota – Messaoudene et al. – Cancer Discovery

Virome

[Research Highlight] Virome holds back a vaccine – York – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Plant & Soil microbiome

Genome-Resolved Metagenomics Reveals Distinct Phosphorus Acquisition Strategies between Soil Microbiomes – Wu et al. – mSystems

Bioinformatics

M&Ms: a versatile software for building microbial mock communities – García-García et al. – Bioinformatics

GraphOmics: an interactive platform to explore and integrate multi-omics data – Wandy & Daly – BMC Bioinformatics

Aristotle: stratified causal discovery for omics data – Mansouri et al.  – BMC Bioinformatics

Non Microbiome Picks

The last few weeks has seen several big studies of ‘long COVID’ published, as well as a letter in The Guardian, which I wanted to highlight

Immunological dysfunction persists for 8 months following initial mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection – Phetsouphanh et al. – Nature Immunology

Long-term perturbation of the peripheral immune system months after SARS-CoV-2 infection – Ryan et al. BMC Medicine

Post-acute neurological consequences of COVID-19: an unequal burden – Nolen et al. – Nature Medicine 

Long COVID in children – Gurdasani et al. – The Lancet Child Adolescent Health
I’m leading a long Covid trial – it’s clear Britain has underestimated its impact – Amitava Banerjee – The Guardian

September 15, 2021

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Today’s digest is fairly light. It includes an article focused on the protective role of bacterial endosymbionts on soil fungus, a preprint on the indoor environment as a source for human-associated anaerobes, and work demonstrating how protein biosensors can be used to track the effects osmotic stress on cells.

Happy reading!

General microbiome

Preprint: Comprehensive comparative genomics analysis for the emerging human pathogen Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis (SDSE): A case study and Pan-subspecies genomic analysis – Saeb & Tayeb – bioRxiv

Preprint: The model arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis harbours endosymbiotic bacteria with a highly reduce genome – Savary et al. – bioRxiv

Preprint: A Campylobacter integrative and conjugative element with a CRISPR-Cas9 system targeting competing plasmids: a history of plasmid warfare? – van Vilet et al. – bioRxiv

Animal microbiome (for animals in the wild)

Differences in gut microbiome composition between sympatric wild and allopatric laboratory populations of omnivorous cockroaches – Tinker et al. – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Bacterial endosymbionts protect beneficial soil fungus from nematode attack – Büttner et al. – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Built environment

Preprint: The indoor environment – A potential source for intact human-associated anaerobes – Pausan et al. – bioRxiv

Techniques

Intrinsically disordered protein biosensor tracks the physical-chemical effects of osmotic stress on cells – Cuevas-Velazquez et al. – Nature Communications

July 24, 2020

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Good afternoon all!

Today’s digest is a bit on the lighter side, nevertheless, there are some great papers to sink your teeth into.

Those with an interest in tropical diseases will want to read an investigation into the three-way relationship between humans, their microbiotas and the protozoan cause of Chagas disease.

History buffs, and fans of the epic novel ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ may be interested by an analysis of the soil microbiome of the Jinsha relic, which is found at the site of the former Chinese Shu state capital.

For those more philosophically inclined, there is an interesting discussion on the impact of human space activity on the search for extra-terrestrial life. So that’s ancient history and space-age wizardry all covered in today’s rather modest digest. What more could you want?!

COVID-19

Preprint: Rapid in vitro assays for screening neutralizing antibodies and antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 – Oark et al.

Preprint: The D614G mutation in the SARS-CoV2 Spike protein increases infectivity in an ACE2 receptor dependent manner – Ogawa et al.

Preprint: Escape from neutralizing antibodies by SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variants – Weisblum et al.

General microbiome

Mapping of host-parasite-microbiome interactions reveals metabolic determinants of tropism and tolerance in Chagas disease – Hossain et al. – Science Advances

Animal experiments

Host immunity and the colon microbiota of mice infected with Citrobacter rodentium are beneficially modulated by lipid-soluble extract from late-cutting alfalfa in the early stages of infection – Fries-Craft et al. – PLOS One

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Diversity and structure of soil microbiota of the Jinsha earthen relic – Yang et al. – PLOS One

Quantitative detection of economically important Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense strains in Africa in plants, soil and water – Matthews et al. – PLOS One

Fungi, bacteria and oomycota opportunistically isolated from the seagrass, Zostera marina – Ettinger and Eisen – PLOS One

Techniques

Majority sensing in synthetic microbial consortia – Alnahhas et al. – Nature Communications

Microbes in the news

Should we disinfect outer space?: Jenna Sutela and Sophia Roosth in conversation – Sutela and Roosth – Art in America

April 16, 2019

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Good morning everyone! Today’s digest will deal a lot of disturbance in various ecosystems- starvation of the oral microbiota, forest fires, elevated CO2 levels and rising temperatures and more. Additionally, interesting pieces about science communication and education are recommended (bottom of the post).

Animal microbiome

Effects of diet on gut microbiota of soil collembolans– Qian Xiang- Science of the Total Environment

Diel population and functional synchrony of microbial communities on coral reefs– Winda Wegley-Kelly- Nature Communications

Human microbiome

Klebsiella and Providencia emerge as lone survivors following long-term starvation of oral microbiota– Jonathon L. Baker- PNAS

Horizontal gene transfer in human-associated microorganisms inferred by phylogenetic reconstruction and reconciliation– Hyeonsoo Jeong- Scientific Reports

Dysbiosis patterns during re-induction/salvage versus induction chemotherapy for acute leukemia– Armin Rashidi- Scientific Reports

The personalized temporal dynamics of microbiome in the airways of cystic fibrosis patients– Giovanni Baci- bioRxiv

Plant, root and soil microbiome

Maize synthesized benzoxazinoids affect the host associated microbiome- Enoch Narh Kodjordjie- Microbiome

Utilization of carbon sources in the rice rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soils with different long-term fertilization management– Tang H- J of Basic Microbiology

Effect of forest fire prevention treatments on bacterial communities associated with productive Boletus edulis sites- Olaya Mediavilla- Microbial Biotechnology

Effects of elevated temperature and elevated CO2 on soil nitrification and ammonia-oxidizing microbial communities in field-grown crop– Linh T.T Nguyen- Science of the Total Environment

Phyllosphere epiphytic and endophytic fungal community and network structures differ in a tropical mangrove ecosystem– Hui Yao- Microbiome

Changes in fungal communities across a forest disturbance gradient– Lingling Shi- AEM

Water microbiome

Wetland sediments host diverse microbial taxa capable of cycling alchohols- Paula Dalcin Martins- AEM

Review- The microbiomes of deep-sea hydrothermal vents: distributed globally, shaped locally– Gregory J. Dick- N. Reviews Microbiology

Bioinformatics

DeeplyEssential: A Deep Neural Network for Predicting Essential Genes in Microbes- Md Abid Hassan- bioRxiv

Microbiome news and science communication

Biotech company launches animal models with custom microbiome profiles

Microbial biotechnology for water treatment- A collection of high-quality websites (from Microbial Biotechnology)

Thematic series on scholarly communications in the digital age

The urgent need for microbiology literacy in society

Microbiome digest, November 11, 2014

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Human oral microbiome

Physiological Adaptations of Key Oral Bacteria – C. W. Ian Douglas – Advances in Microbial Physiology

Human gut microbiome

Development and Survival of Th17 Cells within the Intestines: The Influence of Microbiome- and Diet-Derived Signals – Joseph H. Chewning – The Journal of Immunology

Gut Inflammation and Immunity: What Is the Role of the Human Gut Virome? – Alfredo Focà – Mediators of Inflammation

Animal microbiome

Faecal Microbiota of Forage-Fed Horses in New Zealand and the Population Dynamics of Microbial Communities following Dietary Change – Karlette A. Fernandes – PLOS ONE

The Effect of Phytochemical Tannins-Containing Diet on Rumen Fermentation Characteristics and Microbial Diversity Dynamics in Goats Using 16S rDNA Amplicon Pyrosequencing – B. R. Min – Agriculture, Food & Analytical Bacteriology

Microbial diversity in forestomach and caecum contents of the greater long-tailed hamster Tscherskia triton (Rodentia: Cricetidae) – Akio Shinohara – Mammalian Biology – Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde

The pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis disturbs the frog skin microbiome during a natural epidemic and experimental infection – Andrea J. Jani – PNAS USA

Gill bacteria enable a novel digestive strategy in a wood-feeding mollusk – Roberta M. O’Connor – PNAS USA

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi communities in a coral cay system (Morrocoy, Venezuela) and their relationships with environmental variables – M.M. Alguacil – Science of the Total Environment

Soil microbiome

Short-term parasite-infection alters already the biomass, activity and functional diversity of soil microbial communities – Jun-Min Li – Scientific Reports

Impact of short-term storage temperature on determination of microbial community composition and abundance in aerated forest soil and anoxic pond sediment samples – Franziska B. Brandt – Systematic and Applied Microbiology

Seasonal influence of climate manipulation on microbial community structure and function in mountain soils – Jérémy Puissant – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Effect of organic and conventional practices on carbon-substrate utilisation by the soil microbial community in a ‘Cripps Pink’/M7 apple orchard – Andre H Meyer – South African Journal of Plant and Soil

* The Soil Biota Composition along a Progressive Succession of Secondary Vegetation in a Karst Area – Jie Zhao – PLOS ONE

Effects of salinization and crude oil contamination on soil bacterial community structure in the Yellow River Delta region, China – Yong-chao Gao – Applied Soil Ecology

Water microbiome

Community dynamics of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbes in an estuary reservoir – Zhen Sun – Scientific Reports

Microbial diversity and community structure across environmental gradients in Bransfield Strait, Western Antarctic Peninsula – Camila N. Signori – Frontiers in Microbiology

Metagenomics

Assessment of quality control approaches for metagenomic data analysis – Qian Zhou – Scientific Reports

PaperClip: rapid multi-part DNA assembly from existing libraries – Maryia Trubitsyna – Nucleic Acids Research

Microbial phylogeny

* Assessing the global phylum level diversity within the bacterial domain: A review – Noha H. Youssef – Journal of Advanced Research

Science, publishing, career

Crosspost: Using Google Scholar in Scholarly Workflows – Jonathan Eisen – microBEnet

Hilarious: Overly honest references: “Should we cite the crappy Gabor paper here?” – RetractionWatch – (Note: paper has been removed – see a screenshot here)

Microbes in the news

* Bacteria Hysteria? Deadly bacteria normally found in toilets was discovered in the microwave of these students – The Journal.ie

Bik’s Picks

Comparative analysis of the domestic cat genome reveals genetic signatures underlying feline biology and domestication – Michael J. Montague – PNAS USA

UCSF develops site to make sense out of sugar science – Erin Allday – SFGate

Found: The Ideal Fatness for Elephant Seals – Elizabeth Preston – Discover

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Microbiome Digest, November 4, 2014

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Tomorrow, Wednesday November 5, at 1:00pm USA-EST : Upcoming AMA (Ask Me Anything) in reddit/r/science: “Microbiota of the human gut” with my co-worker Les Dethlefsen. Ask him anything! You can submit questions, vote for the best questions, and the top questions will be answered by Les.

Human gut microbiome

* Rapid changes in the gut microbiome during human evolution – Andrew H. Moeller – PNAS USA

“To establish how the gut microbiome has changed since the diversification of human and ape species, we characterized the microbial assemblages residing within hundreds of wild chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas.”

and: Human Gut Bacteria Much Different Than Apes – Science 2.0

* Blastocystis Is Associated with Decrease of Fecal Microbiota Protective Bacteria: Comparative Analysis between Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Control Subjects – Céline Nourrisson – PLOS ONE

“Here, we first compared the prevalence of Blastocystis among 56 IBS patients (40 IBS with constipation (IBS-C), 9 IBS with diarrhea (IBS-D), 4 mixed IBS (IBS-M) and 3 unsubtyped IBS (IBS-U) according to the Rome III criteria) and 56 control (i.e. without any diagnosed chronic or acute gastrointestinal disorder) subjects. “

Animal models of microbiome research

* Bone Marrow Dendritic Cells from Mice with an Altered Microbiota Provide Interleukin 17A-Dependent Protection against Entamoeba histolytica Colitis – Stacey L. Burgess – mBio

“In studies utilizing a murine model, we demonstrated that colonization of the gut with the commensal Clostridia-related bacteria known as segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB) is protective during E. histolytica infection.”

Animal microbiome

Effect of Copper Treatment on the Composition and Function of the Bacterial Community in the Sponge Haliclona cymaeformis – Ren-Mao Tian – mBio

“16S rRNA gene sequencing results showed that the sponge Haliclona cymaeformis harbored symbiotic sulfur-oxidizing Ectothiorhodospiraceae and photosynthetic Cyanobacteria as dominant species. “

Bioinformatics tools

Massive fungal biodiversity data re-annotation with multi-level clustering – Duong Vu – Scientific Reports

“An implementation of the algorithm allowed clustering of all 344,239 ITS (Internal Transcribed Spacer) fungal sequences from GenBank”

Viruses and phages

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry applied to virus identification – Adriana Calderaro – Scientific Reports

“The results revealed MALDI-TOF MS to be an effective and inexpensive tool for the identification of the three poliovirus serotypes. “

More microbiology

Occurrence and expression of bacterial human virulence gene homologues in natural soil bacteria – Ditte A. Søborg – FEMS Microbial Ecology

“About 25% of the bacterial isolates contained virulence gene homologues representing toxin (hblA, cytK2), adhesin (fimH), regulator (phoQ) and resistance (yfbI) determinants in pathogenic bacteria.”

Science, publishing, and career

* Don’t Worry Your Pretty Little Heads – Rebecca Schuman – Slate

“I don’t understand how they wrote the paper or the op-ed they did while looking at the same results I see in their paper. … Where I come from,” she concludes, “we call that institutional bias.”

Bik’s Picks

Birds found using human musical scales for the first time – Virginia Morell – Science Blog

“The flutelike songs of the male hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus) are some of the most beautiful in the animal kingdom.”

Vaccine-resistant polio strain discovered – Science Daily

“The DNA sequence shows two mutations, unknown until now, of the proteins that form the “shell” (capsid) of the virus.”

The appliance of science: home experiments with your kids – Louise Holden – Irish Times

“Next week is Science Week, and one of the messages that McCarthy is hoping to put out there is that science is for everybody, not just those hoping to work in the sector. Helping your child to become science-literate is a great gift.”

The top 20 catchiest songs of all time, according to science – Michelle Starr – CNET

“A year-long survey by the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester has revealed the top 10 most persistent earworms — with the Spice Girls topping the list.”

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Microbiome digest, November 3, 2014

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Human oral and vaginal microbiomes, rumen microbiome of impalas, sample handling and sponges, and two remarkable pieces in the New York Times.

Human oral microbiome

The association between the upper digestive tract microbiota by HOMIM and oral health in a population-based study in Linxian, China – Guoqin Yu – BMC Public Health

“Human Oral Microbe Identification Microarrays were used to test for the presence of 272 human oral bacterial species (97 genera) in upper digestive tract (UDT) samples collected from 659 participants. “

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Poster: Comparison of the Vaginal Microbiomes of Pregnant Women of Four Ethnicities
and Identification of Taxa Associated with Urogenital Disease – Mendz GL – ECCMID Poster

“Principal component analysis suggested differences in the bacterial populations of healthy women and those with genital infections, with clustering of the latter along the Protobacteria axis “

Animal microbiome

Examination of the Rumen Bacteria and Methanogenic Archaea of Wild Impalas (Aepyceros melampus melampus) from Pongola, South Africa – Laura M. Cersosimo – Microbial Ecology

“In the present study, next-generation sequencing and real-time polymerase chain reaction were used to investigate the diversity and density of the bacteria and methanogenic archaea residing in the rumen of five adult male impalas”

Effects of sample handling and cultivation bias on the specificity of bacterial communities in keratose marine sponges – Cristiane C. Hardoim – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bacterial community profiling of the sympatric keratose species Sarcotragus spinosulus and Ircinia variabilis (Dictyoceratida, Irciniidae) was performed by polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and 454-pyrosequecing of 16S rRNA gene fragments. “

Plant microbiome

Soil type-dependent effects of a potential biocontrol inoculant on indigenous bacterial communities in the rhizosphere of field-grown lettuce – Susanne Schreiter – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

“16S rRNA gene fragments amplified from total community DNA were analyzed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and pyrosequencing. “

Are heterotrophic and silica-rich eukaryotic microbes an important part of the lichen symbiosis? – David M Wilkinson – Mycology: An International Journal on Fungal Biology

“In this necessarily speculative paper we highlight areas for future research and how newer technologies may be useful for understanding the full suite of organisms involved in the lichen symbiosis.”

Soil microbiome

Selection on soil microbiomes reveals reproducible impacts on plant function – Kevin Panke-Buisse – ISME Journal

“Analysis of the soil microbial community using 16 S rRNA gene sequencing showed distinct microbiota profiles assembling by flowering time treatment.”

Chemolithotrophy in the continental deep subsurface: Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), USA – Magdalena R. Osburn – Frontiers in Microbiology

“Geochemical data, energetic modeling, and DNA sequencing were combined with principle component analysis to describe this deep (down to 8100 ft below surface), terrestrial environment.”

Bioinformatic tools

* Seeing the forest for the genes: Using metagenomics to infer the aggregated traits of microbial communities – Noah Fierer – Frontiers in Microbiology

“Microbial ecologists could benefit by borrowing the concept of community-aggregated traits (CATs) from plant ecologists to glean more insight from the ever-increasing amount of metagenomic data being generated.”

Metabolomics

Fructan supplementation of senior cats affects stool metabolite concentrations and fecal microbiota concentrations, but not nitrogen partitioning in excreta – K.A. Barry – Journal of Animal Science

“Fructan supplementation may benefit senior cats as it modulates stool odor-forming compounds and decreases some protein catabolites and pathogenic gut microbiota concentrations without affecting N retention.”

Proteomics

From the Banfield lab: Development of an enhanced metaproteomic approach for deepening the microbiome characterization in the human infant gut – Weili Xiong – Journal of Proteome Research

“….we have designed a novel metaproteomic strategy based on double filtering (DF) the raw samples, a method that fractionates microbial from human cells to enhance microbial protein identification and characterization in complex fecal samples from healthy premature infants. “

More microbiology

Complementarity between targeted real-time specific PCR and conventional broad-range 16S rDNA PCR in the syndrome-driven diagnosis of infectious diseases – A.-S. Morel – European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases

“Herein, we report our experience in the diagnosis of infectious diseases over two years, during which 32,948 clinical samples from 18,056 patients were received from France and abroad.”

Microbes in the news

* There Is No ‘Healthy’ Microbiome – Ed Yong – New York Times

“The microbiome is complex, varied, ever changing and context-dependent — qualities that are the enemies of easy categorization.”

Study: Ice Man has traces of bacteria that undermined his health – BetaWired

“…they found evidence of the presence of Treponema denticola, an opportunistic pathogen implicated in the development of periodontal diseases. “

Science, publishing, and career

How Do Small Things Make a Big Difference? Activities to Teach about Human–Microbe Interactions – Chandana Jasti – The American Biology Teacher

“In these guided inquiry activities, students investigate human–microbe interactions as they work together to interpret and analyze authentic data from published articles and develop scientific models.”

2014 Life Sciences Salary Survey – Jyoti Madhusoodanan – The Scientist

“This year’s data reveal notable variation in compensation for life scientists working in different fields, sectors, and regions of the world.”

Academic Science Isn’t Sexist – Wendy M. Williams and Stephen J. Ceci – New York Times

“Our analyses show that women can and do prosper in math-based fields of science, if they choose to enter these fields in the first place.”

and two rebuttals:
Academic science is sexist: We do have a problem here – Emily Willingham
* The flawed and offensive logic of “Academic Science Isn’t Sexist” in the @nytimes – Jonathan Eisen – The Tree of Life

Bik’s Picks

Standing time and all-cause mortality in a large cohort of Australian adults – Hidde P. van der Ploeg – Preventive Medicine

“Increasing standing may hold promise for alleviating the health risks of prolonged sitting.”

A Face to Remember – Kerry Grens – The Scientist

“Once dominated by correlational studies, face-perception research is moving into the realm of experimentation—and gaining tremendous insight.”

* With a very cute picture: Rovers Disguised as Baby Penguins Can Quietly Infiltrate Penguin Colonies – Rachel Nuwer – Smithsonian

“Pursuing this hunch, they outfitted the rover with a big ball of fluff and a little penguin head and arms. ”

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