This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Antibiotics are powerful for fighting infection. But they could create a dangerous imbalance in the gut, where the eradication of harmful bacteria might make room for gut fungi to invade. To find out, researchers analyzed stool samples from 14 healthy participants. Samples were collected over 3 months following a 6-day course of antibiotics. While the bacterial community mostly rebounded over those 3 months, the fungal community shifted from one characterized largely by mutually beneficial interactions (red) to one fraught with competitive interactions (blue) with half of the bacterial-fungal interactions detected before the antibiotic treatment disappearing 3 months later. Metagenomics data revealed that certain bacteria normally help keep opportunistic fungal pathogens like Candida albicans in check. Understanding how could help researchers find ways to restore balance to the gut microbiome following drug treatment or during disease..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing public health and environmental problem, except, presumably, in remote regions like Antarctica. Antarctica is considered the most pristine continent because of its minimal human activity confined to specific research stations, so it’s an ideal location to study the early mechanisms of AMR acquisition. Existing evidence suggests that although human gut bacteria have colonized native wildlife around research stations, AMR in birds and seals is minimal. However, the research so far has been limited, and the standards and methods used have varied widely. In addition, much of the continent remains unsampled, making a comprehensive AMR assessment impossible. Implementation of continent-wide standards for AMR reporting would help future studies produce meaningful and comparable results that can be used to understand AMR acquisition in other regions of the globe..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Antimicrobials are commonly used in agriculture and are important for animal health. This use drives most of the antimicrobial use globally and has led to an increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR), including resistance to antimicrobials that are critical in human medicine. Researchers recently examined the AMR profiles of over 400 pigs, including wild boars, Tibetan pigs, and commercial pigs, under multiple rearing modes. They identified over a thousand potential antimicrobial resistance gene (ARG) sequences that belonged to 69 different drug resistance classes. From this dataset a few patterns emerged. Tetracycline resistance was the most enriched, but aminoglycoside resistance had the most unique ARGs. Farm-reared pigs had higher AMR levels than semi-free-range pigs or wild boars..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an increasingly serious threat to global public health. New resistance mechanisms reduce our ability to treat common infectious diseases. Although microorganisms possessing AMR genes are thought to have emerged from natural habitats, better understanding is needed. A new study sought to examine the consequences of introducing antimicrobials into natural environments. Using lichen – a model for well-defined micro-ecosystems consisting of hundreds of microbial species – researchers evaluated changes in microbial communities following exposure to different antimicrobials. They found that the native lichen microbiome comprises highly diverse and low-abundance intrinsic antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) to cope with antimicrobial pressure. Antimicrobial-specific shifts occurred in the structure and function of the microbiome following 10 days of exposure to antimicrobials..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Polyphenols are micronutrients found in a variety of plant-based foods, including red wine, chocolate, and green tea. Daily consumption of polyphenols offers several health benefits. The polyphenol EGCG, found in green tea, possesses anti-inflammatory properties and has been linked to a reduced risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). But one important factor that’s remained underexplored in studies of EGCG is the effect of the gut microbiome. Now, a new study of gut microbes in mice may pave the way for understanding EGCG's anti-inflammatory effects in the intestine. Researchers first confirmed that feeding EGCG to mice with colitis alleviated symptoms of disease. Experiments then showed that EGCG altered the makeup and function of the intestinal microbial community. The team found that EGCG had the same protective and microbiome-altering effects even when given to mice before they developed colitis..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Radiation is a powerful therapy for fighting cancer. But it can prove toxic to tissues in the bone marrow and gastrointestinal tract, a condition known as acute radiation syndrome. In 2017, researchers discovered that transplanting fecal matter from healthy mice to mice with acute radiation syndrome can alleviate radiation toxicity. To find out how, the researchers analyzed fecal pellets from mice receiving radiation to treat tumors. They discovered elevated levels of indole 3-propionic acid, or IPA, a protective antioxidant produced by microbes in the gut, suggesting that IPA is lost following exposure to radiation. Administering IPA orally to irradiated mice recouped this loss. and produced notable improvements in the spleen and thymus of mice with acute radiation syndrome without accelerating tumor growth. The evidence suggests that administering IPA could be a safe way to prevent acute radiation syndrome during radiotherapy without requiring fecal matter transplantation..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) is an important bacterial disease of shrimp caused by some Vibrio species and has severe negative impacts on shrimp aquaculture globally. Antibiotics are commonly used prophylactically against such diseases but can cause bacterial antibiotic resistance and microbiome impairment. Given the risk of antibiotics to human and environmental health, the application of probiotics is a promising approach, but whether these probiotics affect the shrimp gut microbiome remains unknown. Recently, researchers examined how the shrimp gastrointestinal microbiota responded to the ILI strain, a Vibrio strain that also serves as an effective shrimp probiotic. The ILI strain was effective not only in preventing AHPND and promoting shrimp survival but also in maintaining a healthy gut microbiome..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems host an array of macrofauna, including many invertebrates. These animals adapt to the extreme conditions by forging endosymbiotic relationships with chemoautotrophic bacteria. Phages, viruses that infect prokaryotes, can fundamentally affect endosymbiotic bacteria, but their specific roles in deep-sea vent endosymbionts are not yet known. A recent study utilized metagenomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics to examine the endosymbiotic phages associated with the deep-sea vent snail Gigantopelta aegis. These phages infected methane- and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, and there was evidence of both lysogenic and lytic lifecycles. The genomes also showed evidence of an arms race between bacteria and phages, with the bacteria encoding defense systems like CRISPR–Cas to break down phage DNA and the phages encoding their own anti-defense mechanisms. The phages also had horizontally acquired auxiliary metabolic genes, which could benefit replication..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Mosquito-borne illness kills more than 700,000 people per year. Often these pathogens reside in the mosquito gut, where they may be impacted by their diet and gut microbiome. But there are gaps in the research into these impacts. Specifically, most studies into mosquito sugar metabolism focused on blood diets, but only female mosquitos drink blood, while both sexes eat plant sugars like nectar and sap. Similarly, most mosquito microbiome research focused on bacteria, largely missing the potential role of gut fungi, or the mycobiome. To narrow these gaps, researchers examined fructose metabolism in Asian tiger mosquitoes using 13C-metabolomics and stable isotope probing. While female and male mosquitos had distinct metabolic pathways, the active fungal groups in both sexes after fructose ingestion had a mix of competitive and synergistic interactions. There was also evidence of cross-feeding interactions, where one microbial species produces metabolites that other microbes use..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Microbial metagenomes are like a blueprint of all the functions performed by a microbial community. Some microbes can't be grown in the lab, so metagenomics is important for investigating otherwise-unknown microbial "dark matter". Short-read sequencing provides large amounts of data, but it's hard to assemble into complete genomes. A recent study combined short-read data with nanopore long-read data using Iterative Hybrid Assembly (IHA). The researchers reconstructed 49 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), including some with very low coverage. In total, 34 MAGs did not belong to any known genus, representing unknown microbe groups. The IHA method revealed more of the genes present than a short-read-only approach and showed that the anammox genome of genus Ca. Brocadia contains two identical hydrazine synthase genes. The current method is best for enriched microbial communities and will be extended to high-complexity samples in the future..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Research is increasingly showing the impact of the microbiome -- the diverse microbial communities living within the gut -- on human health. But, _when_ and _how_ is the microbiome established? Two opposing hypotheses have been put forward. For over a century, the prevailing thought has been that the human fetal environment is sterile and that microbes are acquired during and after birth. If this view is correct, the microbiome of infants born via C-section should differ from those born vaginally. Recent studies using molecular techniques, however, suggest that bacterial communities may be present in the placenta, amniotic fluid, and the baby’s first stool. They posit that the acquisition of the gut microbiome, therefore, begins _in utero_. If this is the case, delivery method should have less of an effect on early microbiome assembly..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"SARS-CoV-2 is the notorious virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Like other viruses, it coexists with a multitude of other microorganisms that could influence our susceptibility to infection. Thus, identifying associations between bacteria and SARS-CoV-2 could lend critical insight for the development of strategies for COVID-19 prevention and treatment. To meet this need, researchers recently characterized the microbial communities associated with COVID-19 patients, health care providers, and indoor surfaces in the hospital environment using 16S rRNA sequencing. They found SARS-CoV-2 RNA on 16% of the surfaces in COVID-19 patient rooms, with the highest prevalence in floor samples and lower prevalence on bed rails. SARS-CoV-2-positive samples had higher bacterial diversity than SARS-CoV-2-negative samples. Interestingly, bacteria in the genus Rothia were commonly found in the samples containing SARS-CoV-2, suggesting the existence of an association between these microorganisms..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"In the human gut, a subpopulation of the microbiome belonging to Archaea produces methane through fermentation. Increased methane production is associated with gastrointestinal discomfort and disorders, and 20% of the healthy Western population exhales high methane levels, indicating high gut methane production. However, the mechanisms and health effects are unclear. To learn more, a recent study analysed 100 healthy young adults who were divided into high methane emitters and low methane emitters according to breath analysis. 16S rRNA sequencing revealed that the microbiomes of high and low emitters had different diversity levels and different compositions. Notably, the relative abundance of the archaeon Methanobrevibacter smithii was 1000-fold higher in high emitters than in low emitters, and M. smithii in the high emitters co-occurred with dietary fiber-degrading bacteria, including Ruminococcaceae and Christensenellaceae..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Two important hallmarks of the disease are faulty tumor suppressor genes and altered composition of the community of microbes that live in the colon. That prompted researchers to explore whether there is a connection between the two. They examined 33 tissue samples from patients with colorectal cancer. Protein-assisted DNA sequencing revealed the prominence of Fusobacterium nucleatum, pathogenic bacteria associated with gum disease, and Hungatella hathewayi, rod-shaped bacteria with no substantial track record of causing disease. Further experiments showed that these bacteria can actually mute genes that normally suppress cancer, promoting the spread of colorectal cancer cells. The findings are unexpected evidence that bacteria in the colon can regulate genes linked to cancer suppression and reveal at least a few targets for anti-cancer therapy..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

The focus of this presentation is to expand the students’ knowledge about the Human Gut Microbiome. The gut is - similar to the skin - exposed externally and is therefore a non-sterile environment.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The birth of a child involves many big transitions, but one of these changes occurs inside the child, who transitions from the sterile womb to an outside environment full of microbes. While this has lasting effects on growth, inflammation, and immunity, remarkably little is known about how gut bacteria and viruses are acquired by infants. Recently, researchers used next-generation sequencing to evaluate microbes from the guts of 28 pairs of twins and their mothers. They found that the majority of the infant’s gut bacteria were similar to their mother’s gut bacteria. Viruses were less similar, suggesting they might be transmitted through other routes. Twins also shared more of their gut microbiota with each other, emphasizing the strong effect of environmental exposure, and mode of delivery had very little effect on how much of the infants’ gut microbiome was inherited from their mothers..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Crohn’s disease is an incredibly painful inflammatory bowel disease that frequently reoccurs after treatment. The growth of a certain type of abdominal fat has been associated with Crohn's disease recurrence. This fat, called mesenteric adipose tissue, is tucked up against the membrane connecting the intestines to the abdominal wall. Microbes can escape the intestines in Crohn's disease and may affect the mesenteric fat. Recently, researchers explored this relationship by investigating the mesenteric microbiome of patients with Crohn’s disease. Crohn’s disease patients had distinct mesenteric microbiomes, host gene expression patterns, and metabolites compared to controls. To explore the specifics, the researchers isolated bacterial strains from the mesenteric microbiome of these patients. In a mouse model of colitis, introducing a mixture of five of the isolated bacterial strains made disease symptoms worse. One of these strains, _A..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Our microbiomes are in continuous exchange with the microorganisms living in our indoor environments. In hospitals, this interaction may play a critical role in hospital-acquired infections and the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, the bacterial colonization dynamics in newly opened hospitals are poorly understood. In a recent study, researchers used a longitudinal metagenomic approach to characterize this process in a newly occupied hospital ward. Sequencing data showed that the taxonomic succession was site-specific and led to stable community structures after only a few weeks. This fast colonization process was characterized by a significant increase in the bacterial biomass and its alpha-diversity. The bacterial composition of the environment could also be linked to exchanges with patient microbiota. They did not detect a rise in pathogenic bacteria during the 30-week study, but the number of antibiotic resistance genes found on the hospital floor increased over time..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Microbes are all around us. With around the same number of bacteria as cells in each human body, our microbiomes are constantly interacting with microbes in the surrounding environment. And indoor environmental microbes can influence our health, affecting allergies, asthma, and other health conditions. To better characterize indoor microbial communities, researchers conducted an environmental assessment as part of an epidemiologic study of 50 elementary schools in a large city in the United States. They identified more than 2,000 bacterial species in floor dust collected from 500 classrooms. The most abundant bacterial phyla were Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, and interestingly, the genus Halospirulina was reported for the first time in a classroom sample. Outdoor-associated and gram-negative bacteria were more abundant in classroom floor dust compared to homes, where human-associated and gram-positive bacteria are more abundant..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Infectious microbes don’t stop at the hospital door upon admission. Hospital surfaces serve as a reservoir of microbial life that may colonize patients, resulting in healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The most vulnerable are critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), where HAIs represent the leading cause of death. Unfortunately, little is known about how the microbiome of the ICU is established or how it is influenced over time. A new study took advantage of a unique opportunity to examine the evolution of the ICU microbiome. Researchers examined microbes isolated from ICU surfaces before, during, and after hospital renovations closed the unit. Using DNA sequencing, they found that the greatest bacterial diversity existed before ICU closure..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.