Rob Knight

TL;DR: Phylogenetic clusters of previously unclassified experimental sequences were identified with notable improvements, and Phylotypes unclassified at the genus level represented a greater proportion of the total community variation than classified operational taxonomic units in mouse gut and anaerobic digester samples, underscoring the need for greater diversity in existing reference databases.

TL;DR: A series of studies introduces a forensics approach that could eventually be used to independently evaluate results obtained using more traditional forensic practices, and can use a high-throughput pyrosequencing-based approach to quantitatively compare the bacterial communities on objects and skin to match the object to the individual with a high degree of certainty.

TL;DR: It is shown that there is no overlap of abundant bacterial taxa between the microbiotas of the mammalian gut and plant roots, whereas taxa overlap does exist between fish Gut and plant root communities.

TL;DR: To understand the generalizability of microbiota-based diagnostic models of metabolic disease, the gut microbiota was characterized of 7,009 individuals from 14 districts within 1 province in China and among phenotypes, host location showed the strongest associations with microbiota variations.

TL;DR: Microbial nucleic acids are detected in samples of tissues and blood from more than 10,000 patients with cancer, and machine learning is used to show that these can be used to discriminate between and among different types of cancer, suggesting a new microbiome-based diagnostic approach.