Highlights!

Human microbiome variation associated with race and ethnicity emerges as early as 3 months of age – Elizabeth K Mallott – PLoS Biology

Mapping the T cell repertoire to a complex gut bacterial community – Kazuki Nagashima – Nature

Comparison of the relative impacts of acute consumption of an inulin-enriched diet, milk kefir or a commercial probiotic product on the human gut microbiome and metabolome – Liam H. Walsh – npj Science of Food 

High-resolution strain-level microbiome composition analysis from short reads – Herui Liao – Microbiome

Preprint: Profiling novel lateral gene transfer events in the human microbiome –  Tiffany Y. Hsu – bioRxiv

Human and General Microbiome

Preprint: Major data analysis errors invalidate cancer microbiome findings –  Abraham Gihawi – bioRxiv

Microdiversity of the vaginal microbiome is associated with preterm birth – Jingqiu Liao – Nature Communications

Dysbiosis of gut microbiota during fecal stream diversion in patients with colorectal cancer – Soo Young Lee – Gut Pathogens

The gut microbiome contributes to somatic morphine withdrawal behavior and implicates a TLR2 mediated mechanism – Bridget Truitt – Gut Microbes

Association of the human gut microbiota with vascular stiffness – Rafael R C Cuadrat – Scientific Reports

Gut microbiota and intervertebral disc degeneration: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study – Ziming Geng – Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research

News & Views: Microbiome alterations in autism spectrum disorder – Elena J Coley-O’Rourke – Nature Microbiology

Beneficial Microbes and Compounds

Rosmarinic acid alleviates intestinal inflammatory damage and inhibits endoplasmic reticulum stress and smooth muscle contraction abnormalities in intestinal tissues by regulating gut microbiota – Kan Li – Microbiology Spectrum

Prevotella copri alleviates sarcopenia via attenuating muscle mass loss and function decline – Xiaolei Liu – Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle

The Influence of Protein Secretomes of Enterococcus durans on ex vivo Human Gut Microbiome – Carolina Baldisserotto Comerlato – Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins

Kombucha tea as an anti-hyperglycemic agent in humans with diabetes – a randomized controlled pilot investigation – Chagai Mendelson – Frontiers in Nutrition 

Animal Microbiome

The unique gut microbiome of giant pandas involved in protein metabolism contributes to the host’s dietary adaption to bamboo – Feilong Deng – Microbiome

Systematic review of cnidarian microbiomes reveals insights into the structure, specificity, and fidelity of marine associations – M McCauley – Nature Communications

Review: Toward an Integrated Understanding of the Lepidoptera Microbiome – Yongqi Shao – Annual Review of Entomology

Plant Microbiome

Characterization of bacterial community in tobacco leaves at flue-curing and redrying processing stages – Yue Yang – Scientific Reports

Environmental Microbiome

Inter-comparison of marine microbiome sampling protocols – Francisco Pascoal – ISME Communications

Discovery of a novel bacterial class with the capacity to drive sulfur cycling and microbiome structure in a paleo-ocean analog – Adrien Vigneron – ISME Communications

Microbiome Research: Resources, Tools and Techniques

MT-MAG: Accurate and interpretable machine learning for complete or partial taxonomic assignments of metagenome assembled genomes – Wanxin Li – PloS one

BinaRena: a dedicated interactive platform for human-guided exploration and binning of metagenomes – Michael J Pavia – Microbiome

Detection of viable commensal bacteria in murine melanoma tumors by culturomics – Catherine M Phelps – STAR Protocols