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Checkpoint for gut microbes after birth

The route to the establishment of a beneficial microbial community in the gut after birth is not fully understood. It now emerges that a gut-cell protein in newborn mice shapes the long-term composition of this community.
  1. Andrew J. Macpherson

    1. Andrew J. Macpherson is in the University Clinic for Visceral Surgery and Medicine, Bern University Hospital, and in the Department for BioMedical Research, University of Bern, 3008 Bern, Switzerland.

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  2. Stephanie C. Ganal-Vonarburg

    1. Stephanie C. Ganal-Vonarburg is in the University Clinic for Visceral Surgery and Medicine, Bern University Hospital, and in the Department for BioMedical Research, University of Bern, 3008 Bern, Switzerland.

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Although people think of divorce, bereavement and job loss as major life events, perhaps no change in a person’s life is quite as dramatic as the moment of their birth. As a baby exits the birth canal, the newborn infant loses placental support, and the respiratory system and gut must start to function. Moreover, both beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms will be encountered, and will compete to colonize the baby’s body. Writing in Nature, Fulde et al.1 report that the intestinal receptor protein TLR5 is involved in actively shaping the long-term composition of the gut microbial community, termed the microbiota, in newborn mice.

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Nature 560, 436-438 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05861-z

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