Work in rodents shows that the bacteria living in a mother’s gut can produce immunomodulatory metabolites and influence the production of maternal antibodies—both of which can affect her offspring’s development.

Bacteria in the gut influence the production of antibodies and themselves secrete metabolites. In a pregnant woman, these compounds may influence immune development of her fetus.

Researchers identify live bacteria in fetal guts, skin, lungs, and placentas that activate memory T cells, indicating that early exposure to microbes could help educate the developing immune system.

With multiple microbiota therapeutics in the pipeline for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection, clinicians foresee a shift in treatment options for the condition.

A study of human populations around the world detects differing rates of horizontal gene transfer in the microbiome depending on what kind of society those people live in.

A review offers a glimpse of previously unconsidered variables that could hinder efforts to identify true correlations between disease and gut microbiome composition.

Tiny doses of maternal poo mixed with breast milk and given to Cesarean-born infants makes their gut microbiota resemble those of babies born vaginally.

A B-cell receptor critical for the production of a subset of intestinal antibodies has been pinpointed, but the function of those antibodies remains unclear.

The BioCollective, a company that transforms whole stool samples into microbial metadata, is developing the US’s first national microbiome reference material.

Most of the viruses present in people’s guts are bacteriophages, but how they interact with resident bacteria is still an open question.

Researchers find strains of the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae that produce high levels of alcohol in 60 percent of patients with the condition.

Research on hundreds of babies finds the delivery method is linked with a greater abundance of taxa more frequently seen in hospitals.

Antibiotics disrupt the immune response to the influenza vaccine in people who haven’t recently had exposure to the virus or immunization.

Physical activity, independent of diet, shifts the composition of bacteria in the intestines, spurring researchers to search for species that might provide benefits akin to working out.

Curbing the growth of harmful bacteria in mouse microbiomes reduces the animals’ incidence of inflammation-related colorectal cancer.

Neither the maternal microbiome nor housing conditions appear to permanently alter which microbes remain in the animals.

Research in mice and humans is beginning to establish a link between the composition of microbes in the gut and immune responses to tumor cells, but the mechanisms are not yet clear.