Laboratory of Food Biotechnology, Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, Department of Health Science and Technology, ETH, Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Division of Gastroenterology and Nutrition and Children's Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, 8032, Zurich, Switzerland.
Environ Microbiol. 2016 Jul;18(7):2246-58. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.13316. Epub 2016 May 26.
The colonization of the infant gut is crucial for early life development. Although the composition and diversity of the infant gut microbiota (GM) has been well described at a taxonomic level, functional aspects of this ecosystem remain unexplored. In the infant gut, lactate is produced by a number of bacteria and plays an important role in the trophic chain of the fermentation process. However, little is known about the lactate-utilizing bacteria (LUB) community in infants and their impact on gut health. By combining culture-based and molecular methods, we intensively studied LUB in fecal samples of 40 healthy infants on both taxonomic and functional levels. We demonstrated metabolic cross-feeding of lactate and identified keystone species specified for lactate utilization. The interactions of such species and their metabolic outcome could have direct impacts on infant health, either beneficial (production of short chain fatty acids) or detrimental (accumulation of hydrogen or hydrogen sulfide). We identified mode of delivery as a strong determinant for lactate-producing and -utilizing bacteria levels. These findings present the early establishment of GM with a novel perspective and emphasize the importance of lactate utilization in infancy.
婴儿肠道的定植对于生命早期的发育至关重要。尽管婴儿肠道微生物组（GM）的组成和多样性在分类学水平上已经得到了很好的描述，但该生态系统的功能方面仍未得到探索。在婴儿肠道中，许多细菌会产生乳酸，并在发酵过程的营养链中发挥重要作用。然而，人们对婴儿肠道中利用乳酸的细菌（LUB）群落及其对肠道健康的影响知之甚少。本研究通过结合培养和分子方法，在 40 名健康婴儿的粪便样本中，从分类学和功能水平上对 LUB 进行了深入研究。我们证明了乳酸的代谢交叉喂养，并鉴定了指定用于乳酸利用的关键物种。这些物种的相互作用及其代谢产物可能对婴儿健康产生直接影响，既有有益的（短链脂肪酸的产生），也有有害的（氢气或硫化氢的积累）。我们发现分娩方式是决定产乳酸和利用乳酸细菌水平的重要因素。这些发现从新的视角展示了 GM 的早期建立，并强调了乳酸利用在婴儿期的重要性。
