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Ecological memory of prior nutrient exposure in the human gut microbiome

Publication ,  Journal Article
Letourneau, J; Holmes, Z; Dallow, E; Durand, H; Jiang, S; Gupta, S; Mincey, A; Muehlbauer, M; Bain, J; David, L
2021

Many ecosystems retain an ecological memory of past conditions that affects responses to future stimuli. However, it remains unknown what mechanisms and dynamics may govern such a memory in microbial communities. Here, in both a human dietary intervention cohort and an artificial gut, we show that the human gut microbiome encodes a memory of past carbohydrate exposures. Changes in the relative abundance of primary degraders were sufficient to enhance metabolism, and these changes were mediated by transcriptional changes within hours of initial exposure. We further found that ecological memory of one carbohydrate species impacted metabolism of others. These findings demonstrate that the human gut microbiome’s metabolic potential reflects dietary exposures over preceding days and changes within hours of exposure to a novel nutrient. Recent nutrient exposures are encoded into the structure and activity of human gut microbial communities, which enables more efficient future metabolic responses.

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2021
 

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Letourneau, J., Holmes, Z., Dallow, E., Durand, H., Jiang, S., Gupta, S., … David, L. (2021). Ecological memory of prior nutrient exposure in the human gut microbiome. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.21.448853
Letourneau, Jeffrey, Zachary Holmes, Eric Dallow, Heather Durand, Sharon Jiang, Savita Gupta, Adam Mincey, Michael Muehlbauer, James Bain, and Lawrence David. “Ecological memory of prior nutrient exposure in the human gut microbiome,” 2021. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.21.448853.
Letourneau J, Holmes Z, Dallow E, Durand H, Jiang S, Gupta S, et al. Ecological memory of prior nutrient exposure in the human gut microbiome. 2021;
Letourneau, Jeffrey, et al. Ecological memory of prior nutrient exposure in the human gut microbiome. 2021. Epmc, doi:10.1101/2021.06.21.448853.
Letourneau J, Holmes Z, Dallow E, Durand H, Jiang S, Gupta S, Mincey A, Muehlbauer M, Bain J, David L. Ecological memory of prior nutrient exposure in the human gut microbiome. 2021;

DOI

Publication Date

2021