gut bacteria

A study finds some E. coli can deploy a chemical called colibactin to reawaken long-dormant viruses inside bacteria, causing destruction.

Research in mice and flies suggests that bacteriophages, including those found in dairy foods, may have an influence on an animals’ ability to learn and remember information.

By breaking down urea, the animals’ gut bacteria recycle nitrogen, which can be then used to build new molecules during prolonged fasting.

The unbalanced gut flora present in some people with autism is not a driver of the condition but rather a consequence of eating behaviors characteristic of the condition, a new study claims.

Depleting intestinal fungi allows radiation to effectively fight cancer, likely because the microbes influence the antitumor immune response.

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.