NEW YORK – An international team has traced gut microbial community assembly in UK infants using longitudinal metagenomic sequencing and identified three distinct early community structures that are each associated with a different pioneering bacterial species.

纽约——一个国际团队使用纵向宏基因组测序追踪了英国婴儿的肠道微生物群落组装，并确定了三种不同的早期群落结构，每种结构都与不同的开创性细菌物种有关。

'This is the first large-scale cohort study to delineate the community state (enterotype-like) structures in the neonatal gut microbiota,' Wellcome Sanger Institute researcher Yan Shao said in an email, adding that 'we observed different microbiome development trajectories depending on the type of pioneer bacteria acquired by one-week-old babies.'.

Wellcome Sanger研究所研究员Yan Shao在一封电子邮件中说，“这是第一个描述新生儿肠道微生物群中社区状态（肠型样）结构的大规模队列研究”，并补充说“我们观察到不同的微生物群发展轨迹，这取决于一周大婴儿获得的先锋细菌的类型。”。

These and other results mark the 'first human observational evidence of the priority effects of microbial species in shaping early-life microbiota assembly,' Shao explained.

邵解释说，这些和其他结果标志着“微生物物种在塑造早期微生物群组装中的优先作用的第一个人类观察证据”。

As part of the UK Baby Biome Study, Shao and colleagues from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University College London, and the University of Birmingham used whole-genome sequencing to characterize gut microbes found in nearly 2,400 stool samples from 1,288 healthy infants under the age of one month.

作为英国婴儿生物群系研究的一部分，Shao和来自伦敦大学学院惠康桑格研究所和伯明翰大学的同事使用全基因组测序来表征1288名一个月以下健康婴儿的近2400份粪便样本中发现的肠道微生物。

The set included samples collected over time for a subset of infants as well as samples from 183 mother-infant pairs..

这组样本包括一部分婴儿随时间收集的样本以及183对母婴的样本。。

From the metagenomic sequence data, the team flagged 'primary colonizer' species, Enterococcus faecalis, Bifidobacterium longum sub-species longum, or B. breve, that coincided with one of three resulting gut microbiome community states — work that appeared in Nature Microbiology on Friday.

根据宏基因组序列数据，该团队标记了“主要定植者”物种，粪肠球菌，长双歧杆菌亚种长双歧杆菌或短双歧杆菌，这与产生的三种肠道微生物群落状态之一相吻合-这项工作于周五发表在《自然微生物学》上。

'[W]e have identified three pioneer bacteria that drive the development of the gut microbiota, allowing us to group them into infant microbiome profiles,' Shao said in a statement. 'Being able to see the makeup of these ecosystems and how they differ is the first step in developing effective personalized interventions to help support a healthy microbiome.'.

邵在一份声明中说：“我们已经确定了三种推动肠道微生物群发展的先锋细菌，使我们能够将它们归类为婴儿微生物群概况。”能够看到这些生态系统的组成以及它们之间的差异是开发有效的个性化干预措施以帮助支持健康微生物群的第一步。”。

While the E. faecalis-enriched community state was marked by instability and increased representation by potentially pathogenic microbes, for example, the investigators saw signs that community states centered on pioneering Bifidobacterium species were relatively stable and had features consistent with pathogen resistance and effective utilization of breast milk nutrients.

例如，虽然富含粪肠球菌的社区状态以不稳定和潜在致病微生物的代表性增加为特征，但研究人员发现，以开创性双歧杆菌物种为中心的社区状态相对稳定，并且具有与病原体抗性和有效利用母乳营养素相一致的特征。

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That pattern appeared particularly pronounced for the B. breve-dominated community state, which the team examined with pathogen colonization experiments in a germ-free mouse model.

对于以短双歧杆菌为主的社区状态，这种模式显得尤为明显，该团队在无菌小鼠模型中通过病原体定植实验对其进行了检查。

From these and other follow-up experiments, along with findings from smaller studies reported in the past, the authors suggested that '[m]aternal seeding of microbial metabolizers of the specialized bioactives in breast milk probably represents an [evolutionarily] conserved strategy to prime human gut microbiota assembly with primary colonizers with the highest likelihood for priority effects, such as B.

从这些和其他后续实验中，以及过去报道的较小研究的结果，作者认为“母乳中专门生物活性的微生物代谢产物的母体接种可能代表了一种[进化]保守的策略，以引发人类肠道微生物群与具有最高优先效应可能性的主要定植者（如B）的组装。

breve and, to a lesser extent, B. longum.'.

短，在较小程度上是长双歧杆菌。”。

The findings hinted at the possibility of providing a rational probiotic boost to formula formulations, rather than the B. infantis species that is more commonly used in commercial probiotics, Shao explained, noting that the study's findings also hint at the possibility of targeting microbiota-based therapeutic strategies to infants based on their early microbiome profiles..

Shao解释说，这些发现暗示了有可能为配方奶粉提供合理的益生菌，而不是商业益生菌中更常用的婴儿双歧杆菌，并指出该研究的发现也暗示了根据婴儿早期的微生物群特征将基于微生物群的治疗策略针对婴儿的可能性。。

Building on prior research that found a role for delivery methods on early infant gut microbiome development, the team also focused in on other early microbial community features that coincided with vaginal or cesarean section birth. The analyses revealed maternal and perinatal factors with apparent ties to infant gut microbiome community states and the primary colonizers present — from infant sex to maternal age, ethnicity, and birth history..

基于先前的研究发现分娩方法对早期婴儿肠道微生物群发育的作用，该团队还专注于与阴道或剖宫产分娩相吻合的其他早期微生物群落特征。分析显示，母亲和围产期因素与婴儿肠道微生物群落状态和主要殖民者（从婴儿性别到母亲年龄，种族和出生史）有明显的联系。。

Even so, the authors explained that it remains to be seen if and how each infant gut microbial community state relates to the children's outcomes over the longer term.

即便如此，作者解释说，每个婴儿肠道微生物群落状态是否以及如何与儿童的长期结果相关还有待观察。

'While our study has shortlisted three pioneer bacteria as important for babies' microbiome development, it remains to be determined if and how different pioneer bacteria affect health and diseases, both in childhood and later in life,' co-author Nigel Field, a global health researcher at UCL, said in a statement.

UCL全球健康研究员奈杰尔·菲尔德（NigelField）在一份声明中说：“虽然我们的研究已经将三种先锋细菌列为对婴儿微生物群发育重要的候选细菌，但不同的先锋细菌是否以及如何影响儿童期和晚年的健康和疾病还有待确定。”。

He added that UK Baby Biome Study investigators are 'actively following up participants to give clues about this, and now even bigger cohorts are needed to investigate the role of the infant microbiome on health.'.

他补充说，英国婴儿生物群落研究调查人员正在“积极跟踪参与者，以提供有关这一点的线索，现在需要更大的队列来调查婴儿微生物组对健康的作用。”。