Today’s digest is a mix of exciting reviews and research articles. The research articles are about – association between (site-specific) microbiota changes and stunded chilhood growth, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and Ankylosing Spondylitis; new tools to analyze mother-infant phage transmission; and low cost platform to analyze gut microbiota and host biomarkers. Also includes statement from FDA on regulation of live microbiome-based products, and comparison of single versus multiple strain probiotics in intestinal dysbiosis.

General microbiome

Review: Microbiology of the built environment – Jack A Gilbert – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Considerations for Best Practices in Studies of Fiber or Other Dietary Components and the Intestinal Microbiome – David M Klurfeld – American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology and Metabolism

Review: Impact of the commensal microbiota in atherosclerosis and arterial thrombosis – Klytaimnistra Kiouptsi – British Journal of Pharmacology

Pregnancy and early life

Metagenomic analysis with strain-level resolution reveals fine-scale variation in the human pregnancy microbiome – Daniela SA Goltsman – bioRxiv

Human respiratory microbiome

Early Airway Microbial Metagenomic and Metabolomic Signatures are Associated with Development of Severe Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia – Charitharth V Lal – American Journal of Physiology

Human gut microbiome

Stunted childhood growth is associated with decompartmentalization of the gastrointestinal tract and overgrowth of oropharyngeal taxa – Pascale Vonaesch – PNAS

Tracing mother-infant transmission of bacteriophages by means of a novel analytical tool for shotgun metagenomic datasets: METAnnotatorX – Christian Milani – Microbiome

Altered Bacteria-Fungi Inter-Kingdom Network in Gut of Ankylosing Spondylitis Patients – Ming Li – bioRxiv

Animal experiments

Hyperactivated PI3Kd promotes self and commensal reactivity at the expense of optimal humoral immunity – Silvia Preite – Nature Immunology

The Potential Role of the Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4-Like Activity From the Gut Microbiota on the Host Health – Marta Olivares – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Effects of compost containing oxytetracycline on enzyme activities and microbial communities in maize rhizosphere soil – Lisha Zhen – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Impact of soil salinity on the microbial structure of halophyte rhizosphere microbiome – Salma Mukhtar – World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Inter-Kingdom beach warfare: Microbial chemical communication activates natural chemical defences – Zeinab G Khalil – The ISME Journal

Biogeography and taxonomic overview of terrestrial hot spring thermophilic phages – Olivier Zablocki – Extremophiles

Food microbiology

How Fine Structural Differences of Xylooligosaccharides and Arabinoxylooligosaccharides Regulate Differential Growth of Bacteroides Species – Mihiri Mendis – Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Probiotics / prebiotics

Influence of monostrain and multistrain probiotics on immunity, intestinal ultrastructure and microbiota in experimental dysbiosis – E Ermolenko – Beneficial Microbes

Effect of probiotic Bifidobacterium bifidum G9-1 on the relationship between gut microbiota profile and stress sensitivity in maternally separated rats – Hirokazu Fukui – Scientific Reports

Techniques

A low-cost paper-based synthetic biology platform for analyzing gut microbiota and host biomarkers – Melissa K Takahashi – Nature Communications

Microbes in the news

Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., on advancing the science and regulation of live microbiome-based products used to prevent, treat, or cure diseases in humans – Food and Drug Administration

Non-microbiology picks

Mechanisms regulating intestinal barrier integrity and its pathological implications – Chaithanya Chelakkot – Experimental and Molecular Medicine