New research frontiers pertaining to the infant gut microbiota

Marco Ventura; Douwe van Sinderen; Francesca Turroni

doi:10.20517/mrr.2022.12

New research frontiers pertaining to the infant gut microbiota

Microbiome Res Rep. 2022 Sep 28;1(4):24. doi: 10.20517/mrr.2022.12. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Marco Ventura^{1

2}, Douwe van Sinderen³, Francesca Turroni^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parma 43124, Italy.
² Microbiome Research Hub, University of Parma, Parma 43124, Italy.
³ APC Microbiome Institute and School of Microbiology, Bioscience Institute, National University of Ireland, Cork T12 YT20, Ireland.

Abstract

The human gut microbiota is believed to be responsible for multiple health-impacting host effects. The influence of gut microorganisms on the human host begins immediately after birth, having long-lasting health effects, while the gut microbiota itself continues to develop throughout the host's entire life. The purported health-associated effects of the gut microbiota have fueled extensive and ongoing research efforts. Nonetheless, the precise mode of action of functionalities exerted by microbial colonizers of the infant intestine is still largely unknown. The current perspective intends to illustrate major future investigative directions concerning the human gut microbiota with a specific focus on infant-associated gut microbes.

Keywords: Microbiome, metagenomics, culturomics, microbe-microbe interactions; host-microbe interactions.