Effects of prebiotics on body fat and gut microbiota of children, a review on the phage community of the human gut, a metabolomics study of the rodent brain to analyze the influence of gut bacteria.

Pregnancy and early life

Clostridium difficile colonization and/or infection during infancy and the risk of childhood allergic diseases – Sun Hwa Lee – Korean Journal of Pediatrics

Human vaginal microbiome

Association of vaginal dysbiosis and biofilm with contraceptive vaginal ring biomass in African women – Liselotte Hardy – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Age-Related Changes in the Composition of Gut Bifidobacterium Species – Kumiko Kato – Current Microbiology

Review: The low FODMAP diet: recent advances in understanding its mechanisms and efficacy in IBS – Heidi M Staudacher – Gut

Animal experiments

Antibiotics in 16-day-old broilers temporarily affect microbial and immune parameters in the gut – H J Wisselink – Poultry Science

Weaned beef calves fed selenium-biofortified alfalfa hay have an enriched nasal microbiota compared with healthy controls – Jean A Hall – PLOS ONE

The artificial sweetener acesulfame potassium affects the gut microbiome and body weight gain in CD-1 mice – Xiaoming Bian – PLOS ONE

Effects of different n-6 to n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids ratio on reproductive performance, fecal microbiota and nutrient digestibility of gestation-lactating sows and suckling piglets – Jia Yin – Animal Science Journal

Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-containing protein 2 (Nod2) modulates T1DM susceptibility by gut microbiota – Yang-yang Li – Journal of Autoimmunity

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Kinetic analysis of aerobic biotransformation pathways of a perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) precursor in distinctly different soils – Lilan Zhang – Environmental Pollution

Plant breeding goes microbial – Zhong Wei – Trends in Plant Science

Atrazine, chlorpyrifos, and iprodione effect on the biodiversity of bacteria, actinomycetes, and fungi in a pilot biopurification system with a green cover – Sebastian Elgueta – Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part B

Probiotics/prebiotics

Prebiotic Reduces Body Fat and Alters Intestinal Microbiota in Children With Overweight or Obesity – Alissa C Nicolucci – Gastroenterology

• Press: New study on children shows fiber supplement changes gut bacteria – EurekAlert
• Press: Prebiotics reduce body fat in overweight children – ScienceDaily

Phages and viruses

Review: The Human Gut Phage Community and Its Implications for Health and Disease – Pilar Manrique – Viruses

Metabolomics

Application of 1H NMR spectroscopy to the metabolic phenotyping of rodent brain extracts: A metabonomic study of gut microbial influence on host brain metabolism – J R Swann – Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis

More microbes

Multi-locus and ultra-long amplicon sequencing approach to study microbial diversity at species level using the MinION(TM) portable nanopore sequencer – Alfonso Benítez-Páez – bioRxiv

ComM is a hexameric helicase that promotes branch migration during natural transformation in diverse Gram-negative species – Thomas M Nero – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

Microbiology: Many forks make light work – ScienceDaily

Fungi awake bacteria from their slumber – ScienceDaily

Microbes on the market

Seres Completes Enrollment for SER-287 Phase 1b Clinical Trial in Patients with UC – Daniela Semedo – IBD News Today