Karen Pendergrass, Standards Team

Comparing two DNA extraction and two library preparation methods on ancient dental calculus, wet-lab protocols strongly biased recovered oral microbiome data. Effects were pronounced in well-preserved samples, while the QG plus single-stranded library approach best recovered authentic ancient DNA from poorly preserved samples.

Obese children showed elevated Firmicutes, depleted Bacteroidetes, and higher short chain fatty acid levels, pointing to dysbiosis with heightened fermentation activity.

On four wild Asian amphibian species, infection with the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis was linked to shifts in both skin bacteria and fungi. Infected frogs showed more Proteobacteria and less Bacteroidota, and anti-Bd bacterial richness tracked infection status and intensity.

Tongue-coating fungal sequencing found increased richness and altered mycobiome composition in COVID-19 patients, with Candida among the enriched opportunistic genera used to build a diagnostic classifier.

In Bhutanese refugee adults, glycemic status correlated with lipopolysaccharide binding protein, inflammation, and gut microbiome alpha diversity, with proinflammatory taxa tracking inflammatory cytokines.

Fecal 16S sequencing in 30 age-related macular degeneration patients and 17 matched controls found the AMD gut microbiota had lower Simpson diversity, a shift toward Gram-negative and potentially pathogenic phenotypes, and enrichment of predicted lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis genes.

Schizophrenia patients show reduced oral fungal diversity with a shift from Candida toward Malassezia that tracks with elevated pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Endometrial cancer patients showed markedly reduced gut microbial diversity and depleted Firmicutes, Faecalibacterium, and other beneficial taxa compared with healthy controls.

Comparing short-read and long-read 16S rRNA sequencing of mucosal microbiota, only Ruminococcus gnavus was consistently elevated in patients with bowel polyps versus those without.

Machine learning of vaginal microbiome data found Ralstonia enrichment most predictive of cervical cancer, alongside elevated Lactobacillus iners.

Twelve months of inhaled concentrated fine air pollution gave mice glucose and insulin intolerance and lowered gut bacterial richness. The drop in bacterial Chao-1 richness statistically accounted for about 15 percent of the pollution-driven glucose intolerance.

Children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease showed enriched gut Gammaproteobacteria and Prevotella and higher fecal ethanol than lean children.

In 30 functional constipation patients, gut microbiota shifted and 44 fecal microRNAs changed, and a panel of seven microbe and microRNA markers predicted constipation with an AUC of 0.832, pointing to microRNA-microbe crosstalk in the disorder.

In adults with celiac disease, first-degree relatives and controls, gut bacterial diversity was similar, but specific duodenal and faecal sequence variants differed. Celiac faecal microbiota also showed reduced predicted capacity to degrade gluten compared with relatives.

After gastric cancer surgery, the salivary microbiota lost bacterial species and shifted composition, and some genera changed in parallel in both saliva and gastric fluid. Shared saliva-stomach species fell about 9.7 percent, showing a close link between the mouth and stomach.

In 91 steroid-naive autoimmune hepatitis patients, the gut microbiome had lower diversity, depleted anaerobes, and expanded pathobionts including Veillonella, which correlated with aspartate aminotransferase and liver inflammation; a four-genus panel separated patients from controls with about 0.8 accuracy.

Chemotherapy sharply reduced gut Firmicutes and Actinobacteria while increasing Proteobacteria in lymphoma patients before HSCT.

Alzheimer's patients showed higher oral microbial diversity, with more Firmicutes and less Bacteroidetes, than healthy seniors.

Gut microbiome composition did not differ between Parkinson's patients with mild cognitive impairment and those with normal cognition.

In 33 wild bats from southern Brazil, feeding habit shaped the gut microbiome. Nectar- and insect-eating bats had higher diversity than fruit- and blood-eating bats, beta diversity differed sharply between species, and 78 sequences from 12 potentially pathogenic genera varied by diet.

Cerebral infarction patients showed 72 significantly altered gut taxa versus healthy controls, with 22 identified as candidate microbial biomarkers.

Over four years, gut bacterial and viral richness declined in prediabetes patients while glycemia rose and insulin sensitivity fell in parallel.

Current cigarette smokers showed depleted oral Proteobacteria (4.6 percent versus 11.7 percent in never smokers) and altered genus-level taxa, a study of 1204 US adults found.

Exclusive enteral nutrition drives individually variable, strain-level shifts in Lachnospiraceae and medium-chain fatty acids that induce remission in pediatric Crohn's disease.