Journal Article

A sparse covarying unit that describes healthy and impaired human gut microbiota development

Leyn, Semen A., Haque, Rashidul, Mahfuz, Mustafa, Huq, Sayeeda, Osterman, Andrei L., Kang, Gagandeep, Bessong, Pascal O., Arzamasov, Aleksandr A., Ahmed, Tahmeed, Mostafa, Ishita, Barratt, Michael J., Subramanian, Sathish, Kosek, Margaret N., Islam, Munirul, Hibberd, Matthew C., Venkatesh, Siddarth, Chang, Hao-Wei, Gehrig, Jeanette L., Lima, Aldo A.M., Rodionov, Dmitry A., Raman, Arjun S., Gordon, Jeffrey I., Petri, William A.

2019

Overview

Childhood malnutrition is accompanied by growth stunting and immaturity of the gut microbiota. Even after therapeutic intervention with standard commercial complementary foods, children may fail to thrive. Gehrig et al. and Raman et al. monitored metabolic parameters in healthy Bangladeshi children and those recovering from severe acute malnutrition. The authors investigated the interactions between therapeutic diet, microbiota development, and growth recovery. Diets were then designed using pig and mouse models to nudge the microbiota into a mature post-weaning state that might be expected to support the growth of a child. These were first tested in mice inoculated with age-characteristic gut microbiota. The designed diets entrained maturation of the children's microbiota and put their metabolic and growth profiles on a healthier trajectory. Science , this issue p. eaau4732 , p. eaau4735 Health-linked microbiota can be used to monitor the effects of potentially therapeutic dietary components on recovery from malnutrition. Characterizing the organization of the human gut microbiota is a formidable challenge given the number of possible interactions between its components. Using a statistical approach initially applied to financial markets, we measured temporally conserved covariance among bacterial taxa in the microbiota of healthy members of a Bangladeshi birth cohort sampled from 1 to 60 months of age. The results revealed an “ecogroup” of 15 covarying bacterial taxa that provide a concise description of microbiota development in healthy children from this and other low-income countries, and a means for monitoring community repair in undernourished children treated with therapeutic foods. Features of ecogroup population dynamics were recapitulated in gnotobiotic piglets as they transitioned from exclusive milk feeding to a fully weaned state consuming a representative Bangladeshi diet.

• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subject: Animals / Bacteria - classification / Bacteria - genetics / Bacteria - isolation & purification / Bangladesh / Bottle Feeding / Child Nutrition Disorders - diet therapy / Child Nutrition Disorders - microbiology / Child, Preschool / Cohort Studies / Diet / Gastrointestinal Microbiome - genetics / Gastrointestinal Microbiome - physiology / Germ-Free Life / Humans / Infant / Infant, Newborn / Models, Animal / RESEARCH ARTICLE SUMMARY / Swine / Weaning