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Microbiome

Fibre for the future

Nature volume 529, pages 158–159 (2016)Cite this article

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A chronic lack of dietary fibre has been found to reduce the diversity of bacteria in the guts of mice. This effect is not fully reversed when fibre is reintroduced, and increases in severity over multiple generations. See Letter p.212

People living in industrialized nations routinely consume much less than the recommended amount of 25–38 grams of dietary fibre per day. Physicians and nutritionists have been imploring us for decades to bolster our fibre intake to help stave off maladies ranging from heart disease to intestinal disorders. The mechanisms through which fibre consumption modulates health are manifold, including a role in maintaining our resident gut microorganisms. On page 212 of this issue, Sonnenburg et al.1 reveal that a lack of dietary fibre leads to a substantial loss of diversity in this microbial community, and influences the ability of gut bacteria to be transferred from parents to their offspring. Furthermore, it seems that simply restoring fibre consumption is not enough to reverse this effect once it has been passed to subsequent generations.

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Figure 1: Loss of diversity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eric C. Martens is in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.,

    Eric C. Martens

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  1. Eric C. Martens
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Correspondence to Eric C. Martens.

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Martens, E. Fibre for the future. Nature 529, 158–159 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/529158a

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