General microbiome
Commentary: The AGA’s Fecal Microbiota Transplantation National Registry: An important step toward understanding risks and benefits of microbiota therapeutics – Colleen R. Kelly – Gastroenterology

Review: Microbes and Mental Health: A Review – Ryan Rieder – Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

Review: The role of divalent metals for infectious diseases susceptibility and outcome – Guenter Weiss – Clinical Microbiology and Infection

Human gut microbiome
Effects of Acarbose on the Gut Microbiota of Prediabetic Patients: A Randomized, Double-blind, Controlled Crossover Trial – Xiuying Zhang – Diabetes Therapy

Clinical Commentary: More Than a Gut Feeling: The Implications of the Gut Microbiota in Psychiatry – Pochu Ho – Biological Psychiatry

Animal experiments
Target Intestinal Microbiota to Alleviate Disease Progression in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis – Yong-guo Zhang – Clinical Therapeutics

Commensal Bacteria at the Crossroad between Cholestrol Homeostasis and Chronic Inflammation in Atherosclerosis – Kazuyuki Kasahara – Journal of Lipid Research

Bovine milk oligosaccharides decrease gut permeability and improve inflammation and microbial dysbiosis in diet-induced obese mice – Gaelle Boudry – Journal of Dairy Science

Broad spectrum antibiotic enrofloxacin modulates contact sensitivity through gut microbiota in a murine model – Anna Strzepa – Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Effects of subchronic oral toxic metal exposure on the intestinal microbiota of mice -Qixiao Zhai – Science Bulletin

In vitro fermentation of key dietary compounds with rumen fluid: A genome-centric perspective – Stefano Campanaro – Science of the Total Environment

Cow, yak, and camel milk diets differentially modulated the systemic immunity and fecal microbiota of rats – Wen Yongping – Science Bulletin

Animal microbiome
The oral microbiota of domestic cats harbors a wide variety of Staphylococcus species with zoonotic potential – Ciro Cesar Rossi – Veterinary Microbiology

Effects of daidzein on performance, serum metabolites, nutrient digestibility, and fecal bacterial community in bull calves – X.H. Zhao – Animal Feed Science and Technology

Plant microbiome
Marchantia liverworts as a proxy to plants basal microbiomes – Luis David Alcaraz – bioRxiv

Water and extremophile microbiome
Microbial succession in biofilms growing on artificial substratum in subtropical freshwater aquaculture ponds  – Zhifei Li – FEMS Microbiology Letters

Model communities hint to promiscuous metabolic linkages between ubiquitous free-living freshwater bacteria – Sarahi L Garcia – bioRxiv

Metagenomic identification of active methanogens and methanotrophs in serpentinite springs of the Voltri Massif, Italy – William J. Brazelton – PeerJ

Food microbiology
Beneficial effects of legumes in gut health – Alfonso Clemente – Current Opinion in Food Science

Probiotics / prebiotics
Impact of ageing and a synbiotic on the immune response to seasonal influenza vaccination; a randomised controlled trial – Sumaia Enani – Clinical Nutrition

Antivirulence Properties of Probiotics in Combating Microbial Pathogenesis – M. Surendran Nair – Advances in Applied Microbiology

Bioinformatics
MetaShot: an accurate workflow for taxon classification of host-associated microbiome from shotgun metagenomic data  – B Fosso – Bioinformatics

Linclust: clustering protein sequences in linear time – Martin Steinegger – bioRxiv

Techniques
Chapter 3: Best practices for germ-free derivation and gnotobiotic zebrafish husbandry – E. Melancon – Methods in Cell Biology

Chapter 10: Modeling intestinal disorders using zebrafish – X. Zhao – Methods in Cell Biology

A novel LCMSMS method for quantitative measurement of short-chain fatty acids in human stool derivatized with 12C- and 13C-labelled aniline – James Chun Yip Chan – Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis

Newly Isolated Strains
Actinomyces bouchesdurhonensis sp. nov. and Actinomyces mediterranea sp. nov., isolated from Human Stomach and Duodenum – Morgane Mailhe – Human Microbiome Journal

Peptoniphilus duodeni sp. nov., a new bacterial species identified in human duodenum – Morgane Mailhe – Human Microbiome Journal

Bacteroides bouchesdurhonensis sp. nov., a new bacterium isolated from the human gut – Sokhna Ndongo – Human Microbiome Journal

Microbes in the news
What Even is Kombucha, Anyway? – Anthony Rivas – BuzzFeed

Preventing Biofilm and Bacteria in Dental Operatory Tubing – Tech Featured

Non-Microbiology picks
The State of Systems Genetics in 2017 – Nitin S. Baliga – Cell Systems

Trump’s Immigration Ban Is Already Harming American Science – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

Geneticist launches bid for US Senate – Sara Reardon – Nature