Cited by 77Gut microbiota and healthChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentGastrointestinal motility and disorders

Gut Feelings Begin in Childhood: the Gut Metagenome Correlates with Early Environment, Caregiving, and Behavior

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Flannery, Jessica E., Stagaman, Keaton, Burns, Adam R., Hickey, Roxana J., Roos, Leslie E., Giuliano, Ryan J., Fisher, Philip A., Sharpton, Thomas J.·2020·mBio

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Abstract

Childhood is a formative period of behavioral and biological development that can be modified, for better or worse, by the psychosocial environment that is in part determined by caregivers. Not only do our own genes and the external environment influence such developmental trajectories, but the community of microbes living in, on, and around our bodies—the microbiome—plays an important role as well. By surveying the gut microbiomes of a cross-sectional cohort of early school-aged children with a range of psychosocial environments and subclinical mental health symptoms, we demonstrated that caregiving behaviors modified the child gut microbiome’s association to socioeconomic risk and behavioral dysregulation.

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Crossref · 10.1128/mbio.02780-19

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89 of 89 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • B. fragilis and B. thetaiotaomicron have been associated with lower levels of intestinal inflammation as well as various behavioral outcomes such as reduced anxiety, depression, and overall negative behavioral dyregulation.

    “In particular, B. fragilis and B. thetaiotaomicron have been associated with lower levels of intestinal inflammation as well as various behavioral outcomes such as reduced anxiety, depression, and overall negative behavioral dyregulation53–55.”

    From Integrated analysis of behavioral, epigenetic, and gut microbiome analyses in AppNL-G-F, AppNL-F, and wild type mice (2021) · cites this paper as [53]

    The Discussion section on specific gut microbial taxa reports anti-inflammatory findings for both species and associates B. fragilis with less sadness and other behavioral difficulties, and B. thetaiotaomicron with less anxiety and negative behavioral dysregulation. It does not report reduced depression for either species; the reported decrease in depressive problems concerns R. inulinivorans. The paper also treats reduced intestinal inflammation in the children studied as a hypothesis, not a measured outcome. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Model optimization was conducted using stepwise regression based on AIC, reducing models to the minimal number of terms explaining the greatest variance.

    “Model optimization was conducted using stepwise regression based on the Aikake Information Criterion (AIC), wherein models with a full set of covariate terms (ordered by importance score from the random forest model) were reduced to the set of covariates that included the minimal number of terms that could explain the greatest variance53.”

    From Integrated analysis of behavioral, epigenetic, and gut microbiome analyses in AppNL-G-F, AppNL-F, and wild type mice (2021) · cites this paper as [53]

    In Materials and Methods (Metagenomic analyses; page not provided), the paper says it selected terms for CCA models by stepwise addition or subtraction based on AIC. It does not describe ordering covariates by random-forest importance scores or selecting the fewest terms that explain the greatest variance; its initial covariate screening used envfit. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Various Bacteroides species have been associated with health outcomes in both mice and humans.

    “Various Bacteroides species have been associated with health outcomes in both mice and humans.”

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Authors
Flannery, J. E., Stagaman, K., Burns, A. R., Hickey, R. J., Roos, L. E., Giuliano, R. J., Fisher, P. A., & Sharpton, T. J.
Affiliations
  • University of Oregon (US)
  • Oregon State University (US)
  • Stanford Medicine (US)
  • University of Manitoba (CA)
Corresponding author
Sharpton, Thomas J.
Venue
mBio
Published
2020-02-25
Volume
11
Issue
1
ISSN
  • 2150-7511 (ISSN-L)
  • 2161-2129
OpenAlex
W3001171623
Cited by
75
References
89
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 2
FWCI
3.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • mBio (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Hemera Foundation
  • Alfred Sloan Foundation
  • NIEHS Integrated Regional Training Program (T32-ES007060-38)
  • National Science Foundation (2015172132)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Gastroenterology › Gastrointestinal motility and disorders
Keywords
gut microbiota, childhood, caregiver behavior, psychosocial environment, socioeconomic status, behavioral dysregulation, younger schoolchildren, microbial communities
MeSH terms
Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Animals, Child, Child Behavior, Environment, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Theoretical, Socioeconomic Factors, Caregivers, Metagenome, Metagenomics

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