From a remote Amazon village to the undergraduate lab: How diet and lifestyle shape the human microbiome

eScholarship, University of California 2021-01-01

The lifespan of people living in westernized countries is increasing, suggesting we are getting healthier; however, we are now struggling with a new health problem: the increasing incidence of chronic disease. We have only recently begun to appreciate the association of microbial colonization with health, and how changes in our lifestyles (i.e. diet, urbanization, sanitation) are affecting this association. Changes in microbial community composition have been linked with numerous acute and chronic disease states. Despite the microbiome’s strong correlation with health, there is still much work to be done in understanding the ideal structure and function of these human associated microbial communities.Humans first experience with microorganisms occurs during birth, when we are exposed to the maternal microbiome. Cervicovaginal microbes and their metabolic by-products critically influence the structuring and functioning of the early infant microbiome and immune system; however, global assessments of maternal microbes and metabolites are lacking. In Chapter 1, my co-authors and I address this knowledge gap by sequencing cervicovaginal fluid from 18 healthy mothers longitudinally throughout their pregnancy. Parallel to microbiome sequencing, we examined the vaginal metabolomes using GF-TOF and LC-MS/MS to broadly capture metabolites within this system. Additionally, we analyzed the metabolomes of offspring through their first year of life. We report strong metabolic biomarkers of microbiome composition within the cervicovaginal tract, which may ultimately be useful in future diagnostic and therapeutic endeavors for vaginal diseases like bacterial vaginosis (BV). We show a strong correlation between mannitol and the presence of Lactobacillus crispatus and speculate as to why a homofermentative vaginal lactobacillus may be generating mannitol via fructose reduction for redox purposes. In chapter 1, I focus on describing the early microbes and metabolites infants are expos

Molecular biology; Amazon; Carbohydrates; Diet; Microbiome; Pregnancy; publication

Open access content. Open access content
CC-BY

application/pdf
English

CDLER oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt0mx5d7j2
qt0mx5d7j2
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0mx5d7j2
https://escholarship.org/
1277077740

UC MASS DIGITIZATION
From OAIster®, provided by the OCLC Cooperative.

edsoai.on1277077740