Divergent maturational patterns of the infant bacterial and fungal gut microbiome in the first year of life are associated with inter-kingdom community dynamics and infant nutritionOriginal paper
Karen Pendergrass is a microbiome researcher specializing in microbiome-targeted interventions (MBTIs). She systematically analyzes scientific literature to identify microbial patterns, develop hypotheses, and validate interventions. As the founder of the Microbiome Signatures Database, she bridges microbiome research with clinical practice. In 2012, based on her own investigative research, she became the first documented case of FMT for Celiac Disease, four years before the first published case study.
Read MoreWhat was studied?
Researchers tracked individual shifts in gut bacterial and fungal alpha diversity from 3 to 12 months of age in 100 infants from the CHILD Cohort Study.
How was it studied?
They compared bacterial and fungal maturation trajectories per infant, linking divergence to community composition, inter-kingdom dynamics, and urinary microbe-derived metabolites.
What did they find?
More than 40% of infants showed mismatched bacterial and fungal maturation timing. Formula feeding and C-section birth were linked to atypical bacterial, but not fungal, maturation. Fungal maturation instead tracked with prenatal artificially sweetened beverage exposure and the bacterial microbiome itself.
Why it matters
The findings show bacterial and fungal gut colonization do not always mature in step, and that inter-kingdom and individual-level analysis is needed to understand early-life microbiome development and its links to later health.