Feature Channels: Microbiome

• share
• favorite_border

New study uncovers links between hormones, gut microbes, and social behavior in cohabitating cats.

• share
• favorite_border

The study findings suggest possibilities for developing new drugs that replicate or build on A. muciniphila’s immuno-modulatory activity. The work provides a model for using traditional techniques to pinpoint how other members of the gut microbiome act on the body.

• share
• favorite_border

A new approach that uses artificial intelligence shows how to use microorganisms in the body and molecules in cells to predict human health outcomes, according to Penn State College of Medicine and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center researchers.

• share
• favorite_border

The latest research news in Climate Science on Newswise.

• share
• favorite_border

Of all the fungi that live in the human body, the most infamous is probably the yeast Candida.

• share
• favorite_border

They are bluish-green, stinky and yucky. We’re talking algae blooms, that phenomenon that happens in waterways around Florida. And since 2019, researchers at Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) Halmos College of Arts and Sciences have been studying them with the primary goal to find out why they occur. Their research may lead to new ways of helping address blooms when they occur or help prevent them in the first place.

• share
• favorite_border

UC San Diego researchers describe a new method to identify all of the unidentified molecules derived from food, providing a direct way to link molecules in diet to health outcomes.

• share
• favorite_border

Lactobacilli that live in the human female urinary tract’s microbiome are competitive and kill nearby pathogenic bacteria, says the first study of its kind done at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). Greater understanding of the processes involved could lead to new therapies.

• share
• favorite_border

UC San Diego researchers found that in mice how much they ate and when altered the nature of their gut microbiome: too much food too frequently resulted in poorer microbial and metabolic health.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Snake fungal disease is a relatively recent but growing concern among scientists, who are making comparisons to the devastating white-nose syndrome in bats. NAU professor Jason Ladner conducted a genetic study of the pathogen in the hopes of discovering how SFD emerged and how to best manage the disease in the wild.

• share
• favorite_border

Using artificial intelligence, UT Southwestern researchers have discovered a new family of sensing genes in enteric bacteria that are linked by structure and probably function, but not genetic sequence. The findings, published in PNAS, offer a new way of identifying the role of genes in unrelated species and could lead to new ways to fight intestinal bacterial infections.

• share
• favorite_border

Although the microbiome—the collection of all microbes that live in the body—in the fecal matter of dogs has been investigated extensively, those studies have mostly been limited to domesticated dogs. In a new study, researchers have sampled the fecal microbiomes across diverse geographical populations to better understand what they look like around the world.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have identified a specific bacterial microbe that, when fed to honey bee larvae, can reduce the effects of nutritional stress on developing bees.

• share
• favorite_border

In Science, researchers describe a “’macro’ microbe” – a giant filamentous bacterium composed of a single cell discovered in the mangroves of Guadeloupe. Using various microscopy techniques, the team also observed novel, membrane-bound compartments that contain DNA clusters dubbed “pepins.”

• share
• favorite_border

The rhizosphere, the underground ecological zone between and around plant roots, is difficult to study. Scientists have now developed a rhizosphere-on-a-chip with a transparent simulated soil structure that allows researchers to view how roots grow over time through the pores in the soil. Paired with specialized mass spectrometry techniques, scientist can also use the rhizosphere-on-a-chip to map the location of root-exuded molecules, like amino acids, without hurting the plant.

• share
• favorite_border

The local environment plays a pivotal role in the health and diversity of the gut microbiome of wild bees which could help detect invisible stressors and early indicators of potential threats, say York University scientists in a new study.

• share
• favorite_border

Viruses play an essential role in regulating microbiomes. However, the use of metagenomics and metatranscriptomics have produced taxonomies of only a tiny proportion of the world’s viruses. In this study, researchers used a novel algorithm to compare and incorporate 715,672 metagenome viruses from environmental samples around the world. This expands the viral taxa available to researchers from about 8,000 to 723,672. The scientists then used the data to examine samples from two Populus tree genotypes.

• share
• favorite_border

In a pilot study, researchers in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry report that compared to their pre-trial microbiome, men who drank either one alcoholic or non-alcoholic lager daily had a more diverse set of gut microbes, which can reduce the risk for some diseases.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma have found that the warming climate is decreasing microbial diversity, which is essential for soil health

• share
• favorite_border

Here are some of the latest articles that have been added to the Aging channel on Newswise, a free source for journalists.

• share
• favorite_border

Probiotic bacteria may enhance anti-cancer activities of the breast cancer drug tamoxifen and other endocrine-targeted therapies, which could help reduce the risk of estrogen receptive positive (ER+) breast cancer, suggests a new study presented Monday at ENDO 2022, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Queensland have found a species of worm with an appetite for polystyrene could be the key to plastic recycling on a mass scale.

• share
• favorite_border

Two studies led by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center that shed new light on the potential of the gut microbiome as a targetable biomarker to improve responses to immunotherapy were presented today at the 2022 American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

The June 2022 issue of Toxicological Sciences contains cutting-edge toxicology research in topics such as biomarkers; DART; and emerging technologies, methods, and models.

• share
• favorite_border

New research demonstrates that by killing essential gut bacteria, antibiotics ravage athletes’ motivation and endurance. The UC Riverside-led mouse study suggests the microbiome is a big factor separating athletes from couch potatoes.

• share
• favorite_border

The aboveground portions of plants release particles such as fungal spores, pollen, bacteria, viruses, algae, and cell debris that can act as the nuclei of cloud droplets and ice crystals. A multi-institutional team of researchers has reported the first characterization of biological particles produced over the life cycle of Brachypodium distachyon, a wild but commonly used model grass.

• share
• favorite_border

Young children who grow up with a dog or in a large family may have some protection later in life from a common inflammatory bowel disease known as Crohn’s disease, according to a study to be presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2022.

• share
• favorite_border

New research in rats finds specific bacteria populations in the mouth and on the skin may be beneficial in blood pressure regulation. The first-of-its-kind study is published ahead of print in Physiological Genomics.

• share
• favorite_border

A human rights activist and a group of anthropologists and human biologists are casting a critical lens on the way that microbiome research is conducted with Indigenous peoples. While not the first time a call for more ethical research engagement in the biological sciences has been sounded, this approach, published in the May 16 issue of Nature Microbiology, is the first to engage the microbiome sciences from an interdisciplinary perspective.

• share
• favorite_border

New research from scientists at UC Davis Health provides clues for how friendly bacteria in the gut — probiotics — may help eradicate bacterial pathogens like Salmonella by being able to compete with them for needed resources.

• share
• favorite_border

Microbial communities shape our health and the health of our planet. Some are familiar to humans, like the microbes that reside in the gut, known as our microbiome. Others keep fermenting along mostly under the radar.

• share
• favorite_border

Much of what scientists think about soil metabolism may be wrong. New evidence from NAU published in Plant and Soil suggests that microbes in different soils use different biochemical pathways to process nutrients, respire and grow. The study upends long-held assumptions in the field of soil ecology and calls for more investigation and higher-resolution methods to be applied to what has been a black box for the field.

• share
• favorite_border

A new software tool makes it easier to study relationships between a host, its microbiome and pathogens like HIV or SARS-CoV-2.

• share
• favorite_border

Using second-long electrical shocks, UC San Diego scientists discovered they could control the types of cells in a community of bacteria. Being able to direct the ratio of cells holds implications for settings spanning agriculture to health care, where antibiotic resistance is a significant threat.

• share
• favorite_border

The Arizona COVID-19 Genomics Union, led by Paul Keim and others throughout the state, is positioning Arizona to play a role in the planned U.S. Pathogen Genomics Centers of Excellence, a national network funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that would expand and deepen infectious disease collaborations between U.S. public health agencies and universities.

• share
• favorite_border

A study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard suggests that women who get recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) may be caught in a vicious cycle in which antibiotics given to eradicate one infection predispose them to develop another.

• share
• favorite_border

When it comes to fixing carbon, plants have nothing on soil bacteria that can do it 20 times faster. The secret is an enzyme that “juggles” reaction ingredients. Scientists hope to optimize this process for producing fuels, antibiotics and other products from CO2.