News

The Deutschbauer and Arkin groups (Lawrence Berkeley Lab) reported the results of transposon mutagenesis of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, a commensal bacterium in the human gut. Published March 2, 2021 in Cell Reports: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2021.108789

A team led by Vivek Mutalik and Adam Arkin identified (Lawrence Berkeley Lab) identified producers and targets of tailocins in soil bacterial genomes. Published March 1, 2021 in ISME: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-021-00921-1

The Coleman-Derr lab (Plant and Microbial Biology) reported changes in microbiome composition, gene content, and activity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi across agricultural management strategies in the San Jaoquin Valley. Published December 11, 2020 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology: https://aem.asm.org/content/87/5/e02345-20.abstract

Soil microbiota mediate tradeoffs between development timing and heat stress in Caenorhabditis elegans, in a study by the Shapira lab (Integrative Biology) published November 13, 2020 in Microorganisms: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/8/11/1781

New study from the Nelson lab (Civil and Environmental Engineering) assessed the effects of water quality metrics like chlorine levels and pH on microbial cell counts. Published November 10, 2020 in Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2020/ew/d0ew00809e

Catalog of metagenome-assembled genomes from a range of environments described by Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh and colleagues at the Joint Genome Institute. Published in Nature Biotechnology on November 9, 2020: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-020-00769-4

The Cheng group (Joint Genome Institute) developed CRAGE, a method for engineering large gene clusters into bacterial chromosomes. Published November 4, 2020 in PLOS One: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241867

Heat and drought stress affect the Sorghum microbiome in different ways, but both involve recruitment of Actinobacteria. Reported in Phytobiomes by the Coleman-Derr lab on October 7, 2020: https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/pdf/10.1094/PBIOMES-07-20-0052-R

The Dawson lab (Integrative Biology) identified Actinobacteria enrichment in the microbiomes of redwood tree roots under dry conditions. Published October 1, 2020 in Molecular Ecology: https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15666

Machine Learning Takes on Synthetic Biology: Algorithms Can Bioengineer Cells for You https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/09/25/machine-learning-takes-on-synthetic-biology-algorithms-can-bioengineer-cells-for-you/ 

Megaphages harbor mini-Cas proteins ideal for gene editing https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/07/16/megaphages-harbor-mini-cas-proteins-ideal-for-gene-editing/ https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6501/333.long 

New study from the Yelick group (Lawrence Berkeley Lab) showed that MetaHipMer, a new tool for coassembly of large metagenome sequence datasets, recovers more complete genomes with lower error rates than sample-by-sample assembly. Published July 1, 2020 in Scientific Reports: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-67416-5

Study Gains New Insight Into Bacterial DNA Packing https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/07/01/study-gains-new-insight-into-bacterial-dna-packing/ 

New study from the Fleiszig lab (School of Optometry) showed that the cornea lacks a resident bacterial microbiome even under experimentally induced dry eye. Published May 29, 2020 in PLOS One: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0234013

New study from the Nelson lab (Civil and Environmental Engineering) identified avenues for transmission of fecal-associated bacteria in rural Bangladeshi households. Published May 23, 2020 in Water Research X: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589914720300165#!

New study from the Nachman lab (Integrative Biology) tested the contributions of the gut microbiome to Bergmann’s rule, an ecological pattern wherein animal body mass is higher in colder regions. Published May 17, 2020 in Molecular Ecology: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mec.15476?casa_token=TPerdnrjZ4IAAAAA%3AHN-kBol9vA2Vok2_lUAcVvqdcD2aY3PDAQ0TJWwI9YbuzhbSSesvZ0PCMKtAmvDwmLkcj4UWLtVxmZFm

Scientists Explore Links Between Genetics, Gut Microbiome, and Memory https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/04/29/genetics-microbiome-memory/