Maturational Patterns of the Infant Gut Mycobiome Are Associated with Early-life Body Mass Index

Overview

Journal Cell Rep Med

Publisher Cell Press

Specialties Biology
General Medicine

Date 2023 Feb 3

PMID 36736319

Authors

Mackenzie W Gutierrez

Emily M Mercer

Shirin Moossavi

Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe

Myrtha E Reyna

Allan B Becker

Elinor Simons

Piush J Mandhane

Stuart E Turvey

Theo J Moraes

Malcolm R Sears

Padmaja Subbarao

Meghan B Azad

Marie-Claire Arrieta

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Unlike the bacterial microbiome, the role of early-life gut fungi in host metabolism and childhood obesity development remains poorly characterized. To address this, we investigate the relationship between the gut mycobiome of 100 infants from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Cohort Study and body mass index Z scores (BMIz) in the first 5 years of life. An increase in fungal richness during the first year of life is linked to parental and infant BMI. The relationship between richness pattern and early-life BMIz is modified by maternal BMI, maternal diet, infant antibiotic exposure, and bacterial beta diversity. Further, the abundances of Saccharomyces, Rhodotorula, and Malassezia are differentially associated with early-life BMIz. Using structural equation modeling, we determine that the mycobiome's contribution to BMIz is likely mediated by the bacterial microbiome. This demonstrates that mycobiome maturation and infant growth trajectories are distinctly linked, advocating for inclusion of fungi in larger pediatric microbiome studies.

Citing Articles

Impact of diet on the gut mycobiome of Hong Kong Chinese infants.

Fong J, Lok K, Yeung M, Li W, Woo P, Teng J Comput Struct Biotechnol J. 2025; 27:661-671.

PMID: 40061440 PMC: 11889518. DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2025.02.006.

Early-life gut mycobiome core species modulate metabolic health in mice.

Gutierrez M, van Tilburg Bernardes E, Ren E, Kalbfleisch K, Day M, Lameu E Nat Commun. 2025; 16(1):1467.

PMID: 39922818 PMC: 11807121. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56743-8.

Gut Microbiota: An Important Participant in Childhood Obesity.

Luo Y, Li M, Luo D, Tang B Adv Nutr. 2024; 16(2):100362.

PMID: 39733798 PMC: 11786877. DOI: 10.1016/j.advnut.2024.100362.

The case for microbial intervention at weaning.

Flores J, Lubin J, Silverman M Gut Microbes. 2024; 16(1):2414798.

PMID: 39468827 PMC: 11540084. DOI: 10.1080/19490976.2024.2414798.

Probiotics and Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Major Depression: Doxa or Episteme?.

Evrensel A Adv Exp Med Biol. 2024; 1456:67-83.

PMID: 39261424 DOI: 10.1007/978-981-97-4402-2_4.

References

Borgo F, Garbossa S, Riva A, Severgnini M, Luigiano C, Benetti A . Body Mass Index and Sex Affect Diverse Microbial Niches within the Gut. Front Microbiol. 2018; 9:213. PMC: 5817072. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.00213. View

Alderete T, Jones R, Shaffer J, Holzhausen E, Patterson W, Kazemian E . Early life gut microbiota is associated with rapid infant growth in Hispanics from Southern California. Gut Microbes. 2021; 13(1):1961203. PMC: 8386720. DOI: 10.1080/19490976.2021.1961203. View

Bowyer R, Jackson M, Le Roy C, Ni Lochlainn M, Spector T, Dowd J . Socioeconomic Status and the Gut Microbiome: A TwinsUK Cohort Study. Microorganisms. 2019; 7(1). PMC: 6351927. DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms7010017. View

Visser W, Scheffers W, van Dijken J . Oxygen requirements of yeasts. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1990; 56(12):3785-92. PMC: 185068. DOI: 10.1128/aem.56.12.3785-3792.1990. View

Jung H, Ji Y, Kim N, Kim D, Kim K, Choi B . A Fomitopsis pinicola Jeseng Formulation Has an Antiobesity Effect and Protects against Hepatic Steatosis in Mice with High-Fat Diet-Induced Obesity. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2016; 2016:7312472. PMC: 4855004. DOI: 10.1155/2016/7312472. View

Ward T, Knights D, Gale C . Infant fungal communities: current knowledge and research opportunities. BMC Med. 2017; 15(1):30. PMC: 5304398. DOI: 10.1186/s12916-017-0802-z. View

Kumbhare S, Patangia D, Patil R, Shouche Y, Patil N . Factors influencing the gut microbiome in children: from infancy to childhood. J Biosci. 2019; 44(2). View

Tun H, Bridgman S, Chari R, Field C, Guttman D, Becker A . Roles of Birth Mode and Infant Gut Microbiota in Intergenerational Transmission of Overweight and Obesity From Mother to Offspring. JAMA Pediatr. 2018; 172(4):368-377. PMC: 5875322. DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.5535. View

Laforest-Lapointe I, Becker A, Mandhane P, Turvey S, Moraes T, Sears M . Maternal consumption of artificially sweetened beverages during pregnancy is associated with infant gut microbiota and metabolic modifications and increased infant body mass index. Gut Microbes. 2020; 13(1):1-15. PMC: 7781635. DOI: 10.1080/19490976.2020.1857513. View

10.

Kozich J, Westcott S, Baxter N, Highlander S, Schloss P . Development of a dual-index sequencing strategy and curation pipeline for analyzing amplicon sequence data on the MiSeq Illumina sequencing platform. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2013; 79(17):5112-20. PMC: 3753973. DOI: 10.1128/AEM.01043-13. View

11.

Ridaura V, Faith J, Rey F, Cheng J, Duncan A, Kau A . Gut microbiota from twins discordant for obesity modulate metabolism in mice. Science. 2013; 341(6150):1241214. PMC: 3829625. DOI: 10.1126/science.1241214. View

12.

Ajslev T, Andersen C, Gamborg M, Sorensen T, Jess T . Childhood overweight after establishment of the gut microbiota: the role of delivery mode, pre-pregnancy weight and early administration of antibiotics. Int J Obes (Lond). 2011; 35(4):522-9. DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2011.27. View

13.

Henderickx J, de Weerd H, Groot Jebbink L, van Zoeren-Grobben D, Hemels M, van Lingen R . The first fungi: mode of delivery determines early life fungal colonization in the intestine of preterm infants. Microbiome Res Rep. 2023; 1(1):7. PMC: 10714301. DOI: 10.20517/mrr.2021.03. View

14.

Anderson L, Carsley S, Lebovic G, Borkhoff C, Maguire J, Parkin P . Misclassification of child body mass index from cut-points defined by rounded percentiles instead of Z-scores. BMC Res Notes. 2017; 10(1):639. PMC: 5706297. DOI: 10.1186/s13104-017-2983-0. View

15.

Turnbaugh P, Ley R, Mahowald M, Magrini V, Mardis E, Gordon J . An obesity-associated gut microbiome with increased capacity for energy harvest. Nature. 2006; 444(7122):1027-31. DOI: 10.1038/nature05414. View

16.

Maher S, OBrien E, Moore R, Byrne D, Geraghty A, Saldova R . The association between the maternal diet and the maternal and infant gut microbiome: a systematic review. Br J Nutr. 2020; 129(9):1491-1499. DOI: 10.1017/S0007114520000847. View

17.

Op De Beeck M, Lievens B, Busschaert P, Declerck S, Vangronsveld J, Colpaert J . Comparison and validation of some ITS primer pairs useful for fungal metabarcoding studies. PLoS One. 2014; 9(6):e97629. PMC: 4059633. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097629. View

18.

Backhed F, Manchester J, Semenkovich C, Gordon J . Mechanisms underlying the resistance to diet-induced obesity in germ-free mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007; 104(3):979-84. PMC: 1764762. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0605374104. View

19.

Boutin R, Sbihi H, McLaughlin R, Hahn A, Konwar K, Loo R . Composition and Associations of the Infant Gut Fungal Microbiota with Environmental Factors and Childhood Allergic Outcomes. mBio. 2021; 12(3):e0339620. PMC: 8263004. DOI: 10.1128/mBio.03396-20. View

20.

Callahan B, McMurdie P, Rosen M, Han A, Johnson A, Holmes S . DADA2: High-resolution sample inference from Illumina amplicon data. Nat Methods. 2016; 13(7):581-3. PMC: 4927377. DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.3869. View