Latest Articles
Research ArticleGenomes of Gut Bacteria from Nasonia Wasps Shed Light on Phylosymbiosis and Microbe-Assisted Hybrid BreakdownAnimal and plant hosts often establish intimate relationships with their microbiomes. In varied environments, closely related host species share more similar microbiomes, a pattern termed phylosymbiosis.
Research ArticleTargeted Manipulation of Abundant and Rare Taxa in the Daphnia magna Microbiota with Antibiotics Impacts Host Fitness DifferentiallyUnderstanding the contributions of rare and abundant taxa to host fitness is an outstanding question in host microbial ecology. In this study, we use the model zooplankton Daphnia magna and its relatively simple cohort of bacterial taxa to disentangle the roles of distinct taxa in host life history metrics, using a suite of antibiotics to selectively reduce the abundance of functionally important taxa.
Research ArticleThe Gut Microbiome in Autism: Study-Site Effects and Longitudinal Analysis of Behavior ChangeAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a brain developmental disorder with varying behavioral symptom severity both across individuals and within individuals over time. There have been promising but also inconsistent literature results regarding how the gut microbiota (microbiome) may be involved.
CommentaryFinding Needles in Haystacks and Inferring Their Function: Challenges and Successes in Beneficial Symbiosis ResearchSymbioses between hosts and beneficial microbes are key drivers of biological innovation and diversity. While a range of systems have emerged that provide foundational insights into how symbioses function and evolve, we still have a limited understanding of the vast diversity of organisms that engage in such interactions.
CommentaryThe Role of the Microbiome in Autism: All That We Know about All That We Don’t KnowAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an overly complex disorder influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Numerous microbial diversity surveys conducted over the past decade have attempted to link specific ASD biomarkers to gastrointestinal tract disturbances, but results generated across cohorts and studies remain inconsistent.
Research ArticleChildren with Autism and Their Typically Developing Siblings Differ in Amplicon Sequence Variants and Predicted Functions of Stool-Associated MicrobesAutism spectrum disorder (ASD), which now affects 1 in 59 children in the United States, is known to have comorbidity with gut disorders of a variety of types; however, the link to the microbiome remains poorly characterized. Recent work has provided compelling evidence to link the gut microbiome to the autism phenotype in mouse models, but identification of specific taxa associated with autism has suffered replicability issues in...
Methods and ProtocolsBEExact: a Metataxonomic Database Tool for High-Resolution Inference of Bee-Associated Microbial CommunitiesThe failure of current universal taxonomic databases to support the rapidly expanding field of bee microbiota research has led to many investigators relying on “in-house” reference sets or manual classification of sequence reads (usually based on BLAST searches), often with vague identity thresholds and subjective taxonomy choices. This time expensive, error- and bias-prone process lacks standardization, cripples the potential for...
Research ArticleBridging Rare and Abundant Bacteria with Ecosystem Multifunctionality in Salinized Agricultural Soils: from Community Diversity to Environmental AdaptationSoil salinization is a worldwide environmental problem and threatens plant productivity and microbial diversity. Understanding the generation and maintenance of microbial diversity is essential to estimate soil tillage potential via investigating ecosystem multifunctionality.
Methods and ProtocolsDynamic Bayesian Networks for Integrating Multi-omics Time Series Microbiome DataWhile a number of large consortia collect and profile several different types of microbiome and genomic time series data, very few methods exist for joint modeling of multi-omics data sets. We developed a new computational pipeline, PALM, which uses dynamic Bayesian networks (DBNs) and is designed to integrate multi-omics data from longitudinal microbiome studies.
Research ArticleSystems Biology behind Immunoprotection of Both Sheep and Goats after Sungri/96 PPRV VaccinationPeste des petits ruminants (PPR) by PPR virus (PPRV) is an World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)-listed acute, contagious transboundary viral disease of small ruminants. The attenuated Sungri/96 PPRV vaccine used all over India against this PPR provides long-lasting robust innate and adaptive immune response.