Microbiome News and Research

RSS

Plants influence how their bacterial and fungal neighbors react to climate change

University of California, Irvine, biologists have discovered that plants influence how their bacterial and fungal neighbors react to climate change.

31 Mar 2021

Bacteria residing within tumor cells may boost cancer immunotherapy

Cancer immunotherapy may get a boost from an unexpected direction: bacteria residing within tumor cells. In a new study published in Nature, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science and their collaborators have discovered that the immune system "sees" these bacteria and shown they can be harnessed to provoke an immune reaction against the tumor.

23 Mar 2021

Decades of crop breeding prevents modern corn from recruiting nitrogen-fixing microbes

Corn didn't start out as the powerhouse crop it is today. No, for most of the thousands of years it was undergoing domestication and improvement, corn grew humbly within the limits of what the environment and smallholder farmers could provide.

17 Mar 2021

Probiotic spray reduced incidence of fire blight in apple flowers

While many celebrate apple blossoms as classic signs of spring, they are also welcoming entry gates for pathogens. Full of nutrients to lure pollinators and promote pollen germination, flowers also attract bacteria like Erwinia amylavora, a pathogen that causes a damaging disease called fire blight.

10 Mar 2021

UMD awarded grant to explore nettle as a functional food for improving health

Obesity, diabetes, and overall immune system health are issues that are all top-of-mind right now, especially during the pandemic.

9 Mar 2021

Gut mycobiome correlates with metabolic outcomes in response to diet

Studies of the microbiome in the human gut focus mainly on bacteria. Other microbes that are also present in the gut -- viruses, protists, archaea and fungi -- have been largely overlooked.

8 Mar 2021

Early exposure to tough conditions could impact oysters' ability to grow meaty tissue

Early exposure to tough conditions--particularly warmer waters and nightly swings of low oxygen--could leave lasting scars on oysters' ability to grow meaty tissue.

2 Mar 2021

Portable DNA sequencers may enable routine microbial monitoring during food production

According to a recent study, handheld or portable instruments are suitable for environmental control during the production of food.

23 Feb 2021

Study reveals distinct gut microbiome signature associated with healthy aging, longevity

The gut microbiome is considered an essential part of the body, but its significance in the human aging process is still vague.

22 Feb 2021

Gut microbiome alterations help melanoma patients to respond to immunotherapy

Statistical modeling developed by Oregon State University researchers has confirmed that changes to melanoma patients' gut microbiome led them to respond to a type of treatment capable of providing long-term benefit.

17 Feb 2021

Rebuilding soil microbiomes becomes challenging in high- tunnel soils with salt and nitrogen

The presence of high salt and nitrogen concentrations in high- tunnel soils may make it more challenging to rebuild a healthy soil microbiome following a soil-clearing event, according to microbial ecologists in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

From Penn State University 12 Feb 2021

Detecting the levels of antibiotics in food

In this interview, AZoLifeSciences speaks to Dr. Yujie Ben about her latest research that investigated the varying levels of antibiotics found in food.

From Southern University of Science and Technology 8 Feb 2021

Components of Neanderthals' gut microbiota are essential for human health

Neanderthals' gut microbiota already included some beneficial micro-organisms that are also found in our own intestine.

5 Feb 2021

Fecal microbiota transplant helps cancer patients respond to immunotherapy

For patients with cancers that do not respond to immunotherapy drugs, adjusting the composition of microorganisms in the intestines--known as the gut microbiome--through the use of a stool, or fecal, transplants may help some of these individuals respond to the immunotherapy drugs, a new study suggests.

From National Cancer Institute (NCI) 5 Feb 2021

Study shows how microbiomes may recover from biodiversity loss

For many years, researchers have fought with opposing theories to describe how inter-species interactions, including competition, affect biodiversity.

5 Feb 2021

Researchers develop a method to simultaneously measure 77 antibiotics in foods

Widespread use of antibiotics in human healthcare and livestock husbandry has led to trace amounts of the drugs ending up in food products.

28 Jan 2021

New search engine helps compare samples in different microbiomes

Metagenomics refers to the study of genetic material from an environmental specimen. This field is now progressing as organisms evolve or are identified worldwide.

26 Jan 2021

Immunity of COVID-19 patients may rely on antibodies from previous coronavirus infections

The results of a study led by Northern Arizona University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, suggest the immune systems of people infected with COVID-19 may rely on antibodies created during infections from earlier coronaviruses to help fight the disease.

22 Jan 2021

COVID-19 virus triggers antibody response from prior coronavirus infections

According to the results of a study, the immune systems of COVID-19 patients may depend on antibodies that were produced during infections from previous coronaviruses to help combat the disease.

20 Jan 2021

Fecal microbiome differs in healthy and food-allergic twins

A new study out of the University of Chicago and Stanford University on pairs of twins with and without food allergies has identified potential microbial players in this condition. The results were published on Jan. 19 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.