Featured
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Letter |
Defining the core Arabidopsis thaliana root microbiome
Sequencing of the Arabidopsis thaliana root microbiome shows that its composition is strongly influenced by location, inside or outside the root, and by soil type.
- Derek S. Lundberg
- , Sarah L. Lebeis
- & Jeffery L. Dangl
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News |
The skin’s secret surveillance system
Microorganisms that reside on the skin found to influence host immunity.
- Virginia Gewin
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News Feature |
Microbes en masse: The sequencing machine
Faeces, lizards, keyboards, faces — Rob Knight likes to sequence the microbes on anything and everything. Next, he plans to sequence Earth.
- Virginia Gewin
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News & Views |
Learning about who we are
Microbial inhabitants outnumber our body's own cells by about ten to one. These residents have become the subject of intensive research, which is beginning to elucidate their roles in health and disease. See Articles p.207 & p.215
- David A. Relman
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Letter |
Dietary-fat-induced taurocholic acid promotes pathobiont expansion and colitis in Il10−/− mice
Consumption of a diet high in milk-derived fat is shown to increase the abundance of sulphite-reducing bacteria by altering bile composition, leading to inflammation and colitis in genetically susceptible mice.
- Suzanne Devkota
- , Yunwei Wang
- & Eugene B. Chang
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Article
| Open AccessStructure, function and diversity of the healthy human microbiome
The Human Microbiome Project Consortium reports the first results of their analysis of microbial communities from distinct, clinically relevant body habitats in a human cohort; the insights into the microbial communities of a healthy population lay foundations for future exploration of the epidemiology, ecology and translational applications of the human microbiome.
- Curtis Huttenhower
- , Dirk Gevers
- & Owen White
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Article
| Open AccessA framework for human microbiome research
The Human Microbiome Project Consortium has established a population-scale framework to study a variety of microbial communities that exist throughout the human body, enabling the generation of a range of quality-controlled data as well as community resources.
- Barbara A. Methé
- , Karen E. Nelson
- & Owen White
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Research Highlights |
Less biodiversity, more allergies
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News |
Microbiome sequencing offers hope for diagnostics
Scientists try to avoid the hype that dogs human-genome research.
- Ed Yong
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Research Highlights |
Seal corpses shelter Antarctic microbes
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Research Highlights |
Sequencing from scratch
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Article |
Inflammasome-mediated dysbiosis regulates progression of NAFLD and obesity
An expansion of Porphyromonadaceae in the gut is linked to the pathogenesis and progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in the mouse.
- Jorge Henao-Mejia
- , Eran Elinav
- & Richard A. Flavell
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Review Article |
Inflammasomes in health and disease
- Till Strowig
- , Jorge Henao-Mejia
- & Richard Flavell
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Obituary |
Lynn Margulis (1938–2011)
Biologist who revolutionized our view of early cell evolution.
- James A. Lake
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Outlook |
Microbiome: Gut reaction
Microbes are under the spotlight in efforts to unravel — and combat — allergies.
- Cassandra Willyard
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Letter |
Metagenomic analysis of a permafrost microbial community reveals a rapid response to thaw
- Rachel Mackelprang
- , Mark P. Waldrop
- & Janet K. Jansson
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Letter |
Ecology drives a global network of gene exchange connecting the human microbiome
- Chris S. Smillie
- , Mark B. Smith
- & Eric J. Alm
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Research Highlights |
Reefs wrecked by shipwrecks
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Research Highlights |
Diet dictates gut bacteria
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Research Highlights |
Russian doll-style symbiosis
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Research Highlights |
Algal synchronized swimming
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Article |
Genomic island variability facilitates Prochlorococcus–virus coexistence
- Sarit Avrani
- , Omri Wurtzel
- & Debbie Lindell
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News |
Bacteria helped early animals to breathe
Microbial mats might have functioned as oxygen oases for primitive multicellular life.
- Matt Kaplan
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News |
Friendly bacteria fight the flu
Microbes trigger immune response that suppresses infections.
- Amy Maxmen
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News |
Slime moulds prosper on the microfarm
Soil-dwelling amoebae harvest and transport their food.
- Geoff Marsh
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Letter |
Primitive agriculture in a social amoeba
Agriculture has been central to the success of humans and some social insects. This paper shows that social amoebae can do it too. Some isolates of Dictyostelium discoideum refrain from consuming all the available bacteria at a site and instead they incorporate them into their reproductive assemblages to seed a new bacterial crop at another location.
- Debra A. Brock
- , Tracy E. Douglas
- & Joan E. Strassmann
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News Feature |
Microbiology: The new germ theory
What can microbiologists who study human bowels learn from those who study the bowels of Earth?
- Lizzie Buchen
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Article
| Open AccessGenomic and functional adaptation in surface ocean planktonic prokaryotes
Using newly derived genome sequences of 137 marine microbial isolates as well as previously obtained genome and metagenome data, this study presents a functional analysis of picoplankton residing in the ocean's surface layer.
- Shibu Yooseph
- , Kenneth H. Nealson
- & J. Craig Venter
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News |
A solar salamander
Photosynthetic algae have been found inside the cells of a vertebrate for the first time.
- Anna Petherick
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News & Views |
The tale of our other genome
The groundwork for analysing the human microbiome — sequencing the collective genome of all our resident microorganisms — is now done. This work is of significance for understanding both human health and disease.
- Liping Zhao
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News |
Colonizers give up sequence secrets
First results from human microbiome project yield nearly 30,000 new genes.
- Heidi Ledford
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News |
Truffle's savoury secret revealed
The Périgord black truffle's flavour depends on its own enzymes rather than on where it grows.
- Amy Maxmen
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Letter
| Open AccessPérigord black truffle genome uncovers evolutionary origins and mechanisms of symbiosis
The genome of the black truffle - one of the most popular truffles on the market - has been sequenced. This is the first genome of a symbiotic ascomycete to be analysed. Comparison with the genome of another ectomycorrhizal symbiotic fungus indicates that a genetic predisposition to symbiosis evolved differently in ascomycetes and basidiomycetes. The study also offers insight into fungal sex and fruiting.
- Francis Martin
- , Annegret Kohler
- & Patrick Wincker
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Letter |
Electric currents couple spatially separated biogeochemical processes in marine sediment
It has been previously demonstrated that some microbes are capable of extracellular electron transport through so–called nanowires or electron shuttles. Here it is demonstrated that this may be a significant process in the marine sediment.
- Lars Peter Nielsen
- , Nils Risgaard-Petersen
- & Mikio Sayama