Environmental and maternal imprints on infant gut metabolic development
Early life is a critical period for immune and metabolic development, but these patterns remain underexplored in populations from low- and middle-income countries. Here, we profile the microbiome and metabolome of 55 Bangladeshi mother-infant dyads over the first 6 months of life. Importantly, we observe an increase in microbially derived bile amidates and N-acyl lipids with age in conjunction with reads matching the bile salt hydrolase/transferase (bsh) gene. Although microbial source tracking confirms maternal fecal seeding, a substantial environmental contribution is also highlighted. Differences in infant fecal metabolic profiles are associated with delivery mode, maternal milk composition, household assets, and household-level water treatment. Cesarean section (C-section) delivery and untreated drinking water are linked to transient metabolic differences, including increases in bile amidates, N-acyl lipids, and other host-microbe co-metabolic products, including acylcarnitines. Multi-omics analysis reveals specific microbial-metabolite relationships, highlighting how early environmental and maternal living circumstances influence gut metabolic development through the microbiome.
Authors
- Lindsey A. Burnett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6430-4498)
- Shirley M. Tsunoda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3974-8038)
- Sydney P. Thomas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8261-1195)
- Rashidul Haque
- Diego G. Bassani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6704-3820)
- Daniel T. McDonald (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0876-9060)
- Celeste Allaband (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1832-4858)
- Rob Knight (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0975-9019)
- Huma Qamar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5646-8548)
- Daniela S. Perry (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6870-1194)
- Shafiqul Alam Sarker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5566-2322)
- Lucas Patel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8607-2782)
- Ipsita Mohanty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-6443)
- Abubaker Patan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1415-7829)
- Antonio González-Torres (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5427-0637)
- Lisa G. Pell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5116-9998)
- Benjamin Ho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9506-3738)
- Samir K. Saha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3820-0748)
- Daniel Roth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7742-0925)
- Mohammad Shahidul Islam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8799-7784)
- Lars Bode (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9914-9571)
- Kine Eide Kvitne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8118-7660)
- Pieter C. Dorrestein (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3003-1030)
- Vincent Charron‐Lamoureux (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9440-7036)
- Davidson H. Hamer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4700-1495)
- Simone Zuffa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7237-3402)
- Kristija Sejane (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9643-0458)
- Abdullah Al Mahmud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4110-7552)
- Md. Iqbal Hossain (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0184-7153)
- Md Muniruzzaman Siddiqui
- Shamima Sultana (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7950-628X)
- Prakesh S Shah
- Tahmeed Ahmed
- Jennifer C. Onuora
Institutions
- Boston University (US)
- Mount Sinai Hospital (CA)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (BD)
- Hospital for Sick Children (CA)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Centre for Global Health Research (CA)
- Child Health Research Foundation (BD)
- University of Montana (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Cell Host & Microbe
- Published
- 2025-11-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2025.11.002
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Gut microbiota and health
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.42