Latest Articles
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceGenetic Determinants Enabling Medium-Dependent Adaptation to Nafcillin in Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureusThe ability of pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus to evolve resistance to antibiotics used in the treatment of infections has been an important concern in the last decades. Resistant acquisition usually translates into treatment failure and puts patients at risk of unfavorable outcomes. Furthermore, the laboratory testing of antibiotic resistance does not account...
Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyGenome-Scale Investigation of the Metabolic Determinants Generating Bacterial Fastidious GrowthXylella fastidiosa is one of the most important threats to plant health worldwide, causing disease in the Americas on a range of agricultural crops and trees, and recently associated with a critical epidemic affecting olive trees in Europe. A main challenge for the detection of the pathogen and the development of physiological studies is its fastidious growth, as the...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceLinking Light-Dependent Life History Traits with Population Dynamics for Prochlorococcus and CyanophageThe cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus is an essential member of global ocean ecosystems. Light rhythms drive Prochlorococcus photosynthesis, ecology, and interactions with potentially lethal viruses. At present, the impact of light on Prochlorococcus-virus interactions is not well understood. Here, we analyzed Prochlorococcus and virus population dynamics with a light-driven population model and compared...
Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyThe Gut Microbial Diversity of Newly Diagnosed Diabetics but Not of Prediabetics Is Significantly Different from That of Healthy NondiabeticsGut microbiota is considered to play a role in disease progression, and previous studies have reported an association of microbiome dysbiosis with T2D. In this study, we have attempted to investigate gut microbiota of ND, PreDMs, NewDMs, and KnownDMs. We found that the genera Akkermansia and Blautia decreased significantly (P < 0.05) in treatment-naive diabetics and were restored in KnownDMs on antidiabetic...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceSex Bias in Gut Microbiome Transmission in Newly Paired Marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)In this controlled study, we collected longitudinal fecal samples from 16 male and female marmoset monkeys for 2 weeks prior to and for 8 weeks after pairing in male-female dyads. We report for the first time that marmoset monkeys undergo significant changes to the gut microbiome following pairing and that these changes are sex-biased; i.e., females transmit more microbes to their social partners than males do. Marmosets exhibit pair...
Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyDepletion of Blautia Species in the Microbiota of Obese Children Relates to Intestinal Inflammation and Metabolic Phenotype WorseningChild obesity constitutes a risk factor for developing insulin resistance which, if sustained, could lead to more severe conditions like type 2 diabetes (T2D) in adulthood. Our study identified previously unknown species whose depletion (Blautia luti and Blautia wexlerae) is associated with insulin...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceStructural and Functional Changes in Prokaryotic Communities in Artificial Pit Mud during Chinese Baijiu ProductionStrong-flavor baijiu (SFB) accounts for more than 70% of all Chinese liquor production. In the Chinese baijiu brewing industry, artificial pit mud (APM) has been widely used since the 1960s to construct fermentation cellars for production of high-quality SFB. To gain insights at the systems level into the mechanisms driving APM prokaryotic taxonomic and functional dynamics and into how this variation is connected with high-quality SFB...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyA Front Line on Klebsiella pneumoniae Capsular Polysaccharide Knowledge: Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy as an Accurate and Fast Typing ToolKlebsiella pneumoniae is nowadays recognized as one of the most defiant human pathogens, whose infections are increasingly more challenging to treat and control. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has been key for clarifying the population structure of K. pneumoniae, and it is still instrumental to...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyShotgun Metagenomics of Gut Microbiota in Humans with up to Extreme Longevity and the Increasing Role of Xenobiotic DegradationThe study of longevity may help us understand how human beings can delay or survive the most frequent age-related diseases and morbidities. In this scenario, the gut microbiome has been proposed as one of the variables to monitor and possibly support healthy aging. Indeed, the disruption of host-gut microbiome homeostasis has been associated with inflammation and intestinal permeability as well as a general decline in bone and cognitive...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyGestational Diabetes Mellitus Is Associated with Reduced Dynamics of Gut Microbiota during the First Half of PregnancyGDM is one of the most common metabolic disorders during pregnancy and is associated with adverse short-term and long-term maternal and fetal outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine the connection between dynamic variations in gut microbiota and development of GDM. Whereas shifts in gut microbiota composition and function have been previously reported to be associated with GDM, very little is known regarding the early microbial...