• A scanning electron micrograph of Bifidobacteria bacteria - the main genus found in the large intestine of infantsDR GARY GAUGLER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY A scanning electron micrograph of Bifidobacteria bacteria - the main genus found in the large intestine of infants DR GARY GAUGLER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY An unprecedented look at how the gutmicrobiomevaries among babies in different parts of the world reveals that infants in the West lack a microbe that is common elsewhere. • This could aid the development of probiotics, which are sometimes given to premature babies, that are tailored according to where the infant lives, to maximise the chance of these bacteria becoming established. • The first 1000 days of a child’s life are very importantfor seeding their microbiome, which influences everything from their immune function and mentalhealthto their future disease risk. • Our understanding of this was almost exclusively limited to infants in the West, but now, a global atlas of baby microbiomes is finally providing a broader picture. • Read moreBrain signals can change the gut microbiome in as little as 2 hours Read more Brain signals can change the gut microbiome in as little as 2 hours Advertisement Yan Shaoat the Wellcome Sanger Institute in South Cambridgeshire, UK, and his colleagues sequenced more than 1900 genomes of a bacterium calledBifidobacteria longum, which has beenlinked to the development of a stable gut microbiome. • These were taken from stool samples collected across the UK, Sweden, the US, and seven countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kenya, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Article Summaries:

  • A global study of infant gut microbiomes shows that babies in the West rarely carry the Bifidobacterium longum infantis subspecies that is common in Africa and South Asia, where about 70 % of infants have it by two months old. In contrast, B. longum longum is more prevalent in Western infants, found in roughly one‑third of UK, US and Swedish babies. The differences likely reflect dietary variations that influence which bacteria thrive. The research, which added 17‑fold more South Asian and 11‑fold more African B. longum genomes to existing data, suggests that probiotic treatments for premature infants could be tailored to regional microbiome profiles.

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