Help wanted: looking for a recent (post 2012) #openaccess review on molecular phylogenetic methods

I am getting ready for my “EVE161” class on Sequence based studies of the diversity of microbes.  For more about past versions of the class see here: https://www.microbe.net/eve161/. Anyway – I am working on the reading for the class and I am looking for a good, recent, open access review of molecular phylogenetic methods.  Any recommendations …

Why genome completeness and contamination estimates are more complicated than you think

Genome-resolved metagenomics is the process of recovering de novo genomes belonging to individual organisms present in a community using DNA extracted from the whole community. These genomes are sometimes referred to as MAGs (metagenome-assembled genomes), and are recovered by associating assembled contigs together in “bins” in a process known as genome binning. As opposed to …

Our #ISS Microbiome Paper in PeerJ

So a number of years ago our lab embarked on Project MERCCURI (let’s not talk about the tortured acronym).  This complex and citizen science-based collaboration (website here) has been a fascinating journey.  It’s ranged from getting to watch a rocket launch in Florida, to discovering/describing a new bacterial species, to our most recent publication… the …

Networks shed new light on microbiota literature

Thanks to rapid and relatively inexpensive techniques, anything that can be swabbed, scooped and sequenced is fair game for bacterial community analyses. And, microbiome-mania aside, we are still discovering incredible things about the invisible microbial world everyday. Fellow microBEnet author David Coil has suggested that it is timely to collate the wealth of information that …

Geobiology 2018 summer course at Caltech

Just heard about this course from a former undergraduate in our lab who spoke very highly of the opportunity.  “GEOBIOLOGY 2018 An International Training Course in a Rapidly Evolving Field”.  Takes place during summer 2018 at Caltech.  Information from the website below. Now entering its 15th year, the International Geobiology Course is an intense, multidisciplinary …