Category Archives: microbiology

What is DAS? A new tool to recover genomes from metagenomes

Posted on 8 Jun, 2018 by Kelle Freel

There are a lot of data out there, and if you haven’t already noticed the ‘omics train has steadily stayed its path through the fruitful (but challenging) world of metagenomics. Metagenomics offers the chance to unravel complex microbial communities without … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, genomics, metagenomics, methods, microbiology, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Signal Boosting a Comprehensive Review of eDNA and Metabarcoding Studies

Posted on 10 Apr, 2018 by Katharine Coykendall

Everything is meta these days – metabarcoding, metagenomics, and now meta blog posts that are reviews of reviews. Much like every ecologist at least dabbles in the molecular world, so most of those predisposed to molecular ecology and population genetics … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, DNA barcoding, metagenomics, methods, microbiology, next generation sequencing, population genetics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Major new microbial groups expand diversity and alter our understanding of the tree of life

Posted on 18 Mar, 2018 by Laetitia Wilkins

I still believe in revolutions. And sometimes they just happen, almost unnoticed. One such revolution happened on a boring 11th of April 2016 when Laura Hug et al. published their new tree of life in the journal of Nature Microbiology. … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, evolution, genomics, metagenomics, microbiology, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Exploring the genomic diversity of tubeworm endosymbionts

Posted on 1 Feb, 2018 by Kelle Freel

Tubeworms are cool. (To be read only in your best (eleventh) Doctor Who voice). Although, depending on how close they are to a hydrothermal vent, they might be more on the hot side….Regardless, if you’re on the fence about how … Continue reading →

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Retrieving a million sequences and avoiding primer bias, a new method that might have it all

Posted on 19 Jan, 2018 by Kelle Freel

We have come a long way since the early days when sequencing was a breakthrough method initially used to identify uncultured microbes from the environment. It is now been almost three decades, in fact, since the first microbial 16S rRNA … Continue reading →

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Diving deep: Exploring microbial communities under the seafloor

Posted on 7 Dec, 2017 by Kelle Freel

As we all sat staring at three large monitors in the front of the room, the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason hung on to a borehole observatory with one hydraulic arm as the other arm plugged our sampling equipment into … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, fieldwork, genomics, metagenomics, microbiology, transcriptomics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

0.80994 leagues under the sea

Posted on 16 Nov, 2017 by Kelle Freel

After a month on the water (and a few weeks getting my land legs again), I’m happily settling back in at home. I just returned from an expedition to a site known as North Pond along the western flank of … Continue reading →

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Missing symbionts: do some animals lack resident gut microbiomes?

Posted on 28 Aug, 2017 by Elin Videvall

It seems like the field of “gut microbiomics” is having major breakthroughs almost every month these days. It’s very exciting to follow what is being discovered and gut microbes have now been linked with an array of important host traits, … Continue reading →

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Genomes are coming: Sequence libraries from the honey bee reflect associated microbial diversity

Posted on 20 Jul, 2017 by Kelle Freel

One of the coolest of reasons that cheap sequencing is nifty, in my opinion, is that it has allowed researchers to study individual eukaryotic organisms, and their associated microbes (their microbiome). Let’s be real, we are in the midst of … Continue reading →

Posted in Coevolution, community ecology, evolution, genomics, metagenomics, microbiology, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

When less might be more: The evolution of reduced genomes

Posted on 23 Jun, 2017 by Kelle Freel

The advent of affordable genome sequencing has provided us with a wealth of data. Researchers have sequenced everything from Escherichia coli (4.6 Mbp genome size), to sea urchins (810 Mbp), chimpanzees (3.3 Gbp), and humans (3.2 Gbp). Then there are the … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, evolution, genomics, microbiology, population genetics, selection | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment