Infant Gut Microbes Have Their Own Circadian Rhythm, and Diet Has Little Impact on How the Microbiome Assembles
Published:18 Jun.2024 Source:Cell Press
Infant gut microbiomes oscillate with a circadian rhythm, even when they are cultivated outside of the body. The rhythm is detectable as early as 2 weeks after birth but becomes more pronounced with age.
The researchers used a randomized controlled trial to compare microbiome development in infants that were exclusively breastfed with infants who received different types of formula -- un-supplemented formula. The researchers found that diet had little impact on infant growth or the differences in the infants' microbiomes. However, there was a significant difference in the gut metabolite profile between exclusively breastfed and formula-fed infants. The researchers also observed rhythmic 24-hour fluctuations in the abundance of different microbiome species.
The researchers plan to further investigate microbiome circadian rhythms in future studies. Specifically, they want to examine whether individual bacterial species maintain rhythms when grown in isolation rather than in complex communities and to search for the genes that control these rhythms.