Zhao Fangqing's team reveals the evolutionary laws and determinants of the intestinal flora in the early stages of life

On August 25, 2021, Zhao Fangqing's team from Beijing Institute of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences published an online article entitled "Deterministic transition of enterotypes shapes the infant gut microbiome at an early age" in Genome Biology
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The research team collected and analyzed data on more than 10,000 neonatal intestinal flora from 17 countries around the world, revealed the regional characteristics of the global neonatal intestinal flora, and clarified humans through ecological models and system function analysis.
The deterministic pattern of the transformation of intestinal flora from infants to adults
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Figure 1.
Genome Biology published the important research results of Zhao Fangqing’s research team.
In this study, the researchers used machine learning algorithms and statistical models to integrate 13,776 self-test and public data sets from 1,956 newborns.
, By comparing the microbiome characteristics of different age groups, the newborns in the first three years after birth are divided into four significantly different intestinal types, which are divided into Firmicutes, Bifidobacterium, Bacteroides and Prevotella Dominate (Figure 1)
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The researchers found that the four intestinal types have obvious differences in maturity, and each represents a different developmental stage: infants dominated by Firmicutes and Bifidobacteria have a looser gut microbial ecological structure, and their flora is more mature.
Low, corresponding to the early stage of neonatal development; while infants dominated by Bacteroides and Prevotella have more complex metabolic pathways related to the intestinal flora, with higher species diversity and higher maturity.
Corresponds to a later stage of neonatal development
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At the same time, the four types of intestines also present a specific geographical distribution pattern in the global neonatal population: In countries with higher economic and health levels, the neonatal intestinal flora tends to mature quickly, with the Bacteroides-Prtoella intestinal type In areas with poor medical and health standards, the maturation of neonatal intestinal flora appears to be lagging behind, and Firmicutes-Bifidobacterium is the dominant one
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In the first three years of development of infants and young children, the intestinal flora has gradually matured, and the intestinal type has also undergone a definite transformation from immature Firmicutes-Bifidobacterium to mature Bacteroides-Prevotella
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Researchers use the stochastic evolutionary ecological model for the first time to explore the random and deterministic factors in the transformation of intestinal flora
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The model calculates the Nearest Taxon Index and Raup-Crick Index of each community to determine the evolutionary driving force of the community
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The lower the randomness of the evolutionary driving force of the community, the more mature the ecological community, which tends to evolve more stable in the subsequent development process
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The intestinal flora dominated by Bacteroides and Prevotella fits this feature
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The study covers 17 countries in 6 major continents of the world, with more than 10,000 samples.
It is by far the largest study of neonatal intestinal flora
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The study clarified the deterministic transformation of the intestinal flora of newborns in the first three years after birth, introduced an ecological model to explore the internal mechanism of flora maturation, and revealed the specific intestinal type in global newborns through large population cohort analysis Distribution mode
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The study systematically summarizes the development of the intestinal flora of newborns, expands our understanding of the early development of the human intestine, and is conducive to promoting the advancement of medical and health related to infants and young children, and promoting the healthy development of humans
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Xiao Liwen, a doctoral student at the Beijing Academy of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wang Jinfeng, associate researcher, and Zheng Jiayong from Wenzhou Medical University are the co-first authors of the paper, and researcher Zhao Fangqing is the corresponding author
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The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the key research and development projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the help of collaborators from Wenzhou Medical University in clinical sample and information collection
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Figure 2.
The neonatal population cohort and the geographical distribution patterns of the four intestinal types.
Links to the paper: https://genomebiology.
biomedcentral.
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