Some of you may know that we ran a Kitty Kickstarter back in May to start a participatory research project inspired by the American Gut Project only for cats. When you sign up, kittybiome will sequence the gut microbiome of your cat and provide you with the results, so you can see how your cat compares with …
Here are the new papers on microbes in the Built Environment I found this week, about salt-loving bacteria colonizing old houses, viruses in swimming pools, sewer systems, urban water and soils, and microbiota in urban mosquitos. Here is a good ol’ country song to match this post: This Old House by Stuart Hamblen. Paid Access, review: Halophilic microbial communities in deteriorated buildings – …
Here is a recent article about a built environment that hasn’t been characterized before for bacterial diversity: a meat processing plant where sausages are produced. The authors sequenced the V1-V3 area of the 16S rRNA gene to characterize cold tolerant or psychrotrophic bacteria in a refrigerated meat processing plant. Psychrotolerant bacteria are bacteria that are capable of surviving in …
This article on the website of Michigan Radio had an intriguing title. Detective work traces bacteria in Michigan rivers back to leaky septic tanks – Rebecca Williams – Michigan Radio This is a nice story illustrating how the detection of marker bacteria can be used to track contamination of rivers and other environments with fecal matter, …
So – I keep getting asked about this. I am looking for how people are doing DNA extractions from 1000s of samples. Some questions 1. What are the cheapest service providers out there for doing DNA extractions from 1000s of samples? 2. What would be the best way to do this oneself? That is, if you were …
Well this is certainly very interesting and filled with all sorts of topics of relevance to microbiology of the built environment: Source: Did a moldy building kill 4 New Orleans college professors? | NOLA.com. I am by no means a mold expert so I am not sure I can comment much on the …
Recent papers about microbiology of the built environment and water treatment. Two of them are about fish, so here is a 70s classic rock song in a modern version, to go with this post: Barracuda by Heart and Fergie. Open Access: Temporal and Spatial Stability of Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea and Bacteria in Aquarium Biofilters – Bagchi, Siegfried E. Vlaeminck, …
The University of Oregon published this announcement on AAAS’ EurekAlert: Oregon architecture researchers to study indoor air quality in 72 homes. So a good song to play while reading this post would be: “Portland, Oregon” ‌‌by Loretta Lynn & Jack White. The press release starts off with a short summary of this project: University of Oregon researchers and industry partners …