Jamison McCorrison

TL;DR: The Human Microbiome Project Consortium reported the first results of their analysis of microbial communities from distinct, clinically relevant body habitats in a human cohort; the insights into the microbial communities of a healthy population lay foundations for future exploration of the epidemiology, ecology and translational applications of the human microbiome as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: The Human Microbiome Project has analysed the largest cohort and set of distinct, clinically relevant body habitats so far, finding the diversity and abundance of each habitat’s signature microbes to vary widely even among healthy subjects, with strong niche specialization both within and among individuals.

TL;DR: The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) Consortium has established a population-scale framework which catalyzed significant development of metagenomic protocols resulting in a broad range of quality-controlled resources and data including standardized methods for creating, processing and interpreting distinct types of high-throughput metagenomics data available to the scientific community as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: The draft sequence of the M. truncatula genome sequence is described, a close relative of alfalfa (Medicago sativa), a widely cultivated crop with limited genomics tools and complex autotetraploid genetics, which provides significant opportunities to expand al falfa’s genomic toolbox.

TL;DR: Results from an initial reference genome sequencing of 178 microbial genomes allow for ~40% of random sequences from the microbiome of the gastrointestinal tract to be associated with organisms based on the match criteria used, suggesting that the authors are still far from saturating microbial species genetic data sets.