Publications by authors named "S Wittouck"
The human skin microbiome plays an essential role in protecting against pathogens and other external substances. This open ecosystem is also influenced by personal and environmental factors, but the precise impact of these factors, such as lifestyle and season, is understudied. We focused here on the inner elbow, a skin site prone to inflammatory conditions like atopic dermatitis and psoriasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMotivation: Much of prokaryotic comparative genomics currently relies on two critical computational tasks: pangenome inference and core genome inference. Pangenome inference involves clustering genes from a set of genomes into gene families, enabling genome-wide association studies and evolutionary history analysis. The core genome represents gene families present in nearly all genomes and is required to infer a high-quality phylogeny.
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- Carotenoids are important pigments found in plants and algae that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits, and they are also seen in some non-photosynthetic prokaryotes, but their role outside photosynthetic organisms is not well understood.
- This study analyzed terpenoid biosynthetic gene clusters in the Lactobacillaceae family, identifying crtMN genes related to C30 carotenoid production in 28 species across various genera.
- The presence of these genes is linked to habitat adaptation, with nomadic and insect-adapted Lactobacillaceae showing higher rates of C30 carotenoid production, which helps them resist UV stress in their environments.*
The family is the largest family composed of halophilic bacteria, with more than 160 species with validly published names as of July 2023. Several classifications to circumscribe this family are available in major resources, such as those provided by the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN), NCBI Taxonomy, Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB), and Bergey's Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria (BMSAB), with some degree of disagreement between them. Moreover, regardless of the classification adopted, the genus is not phylogenetically consistent, likely because it has been used as a catch-all for newly described species within the family that could not be clearly accommodated in other genera.
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- Understanding the vaginal microbiome’s composition and function is vital for women's reproductive health, and the Isala citizen-science project analyzed samples from over 3,300 women in Belgium to explore this.
- The study found that age, childbirth, and menstrual cycle phase significantly influenced the vaginal microbiome, with Lactobacillus species present in 78% of samples.
- The research established connections between different bacterial groups and various health factors, like estrogen levels, contraceptive use, and lifestyle choices, creating a comprehensive resource for future clinical studies.