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Gut Microbiota and Host Juvenile Growth

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After she ate the entire cake, she grew so large that her head struck against the ceiling in the hall.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

Abstract

Good genes, good food, good friends. That is what parents hope will sustain and nurture the harmonious growth of their children. The impact of the genetic background and nutrition on postnatal growth has been in the spot light for long, but the good friends have come to the scene only recently. Among the good friends perhaps the most crucial ones are those that we are carrying within ourselves. They comprise the trillions of microbes that collectively constitute each individual’s intestinal microbiota. Indeed, recent epidemiological and field studies in humans, supported by extensive experimental data on animal models, demonstrate a clear role of the intestinal microbiota on their host’s juvenile growth, especially under suboptimal nutrient conditions. Genuinely integrative approaches applicable to invertebrate and vertebrate systems combine tools from genetics, developmental biology, microbiology, nutrition, and physiology to reveal how gut microbiota affects growth both positively and negatively, in healthy and pathological conditions. It appears that certain natural or engineered gut microbiota communities can positively impact insulin/IGF-1 and steroid hormone signaling, thus contributing to the host juvenile development and maturation.

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Acknowledgements

FL lab is supported by an ERC starting grant (FP7/2007-2013-N°309704), FINOVI foundation and the EMBO Young Investigator Program. MSch would like to acknowledge financial support from The Neuron Fund for the Support of Science (Neuron Fund). MSt was supported by Actions d’appui à la Recherche 2017 from UJM Saint-Etienne, University of Lyon.

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  1. Martin Schwarzer and Maura Strigini have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon (IGFL), Université de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS UMR 5242, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 69364, Lyon Cedex 07, France

    Martin Schwarzer & François Leulier

  2. Laboratory of Gnotobiology, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Nový Hrádek, Czech Republic

    Martin Schwarzer

  3. INSERM, U1059, Sainbiose, Université de Lyon, Université Jean Monnet, Faculté de Médecine, Campus Santé Innovation, 42023, Saint-Étienne, France

    Maura Strigini

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Glossary (Based on Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia, with Modifications)

Dysbiosis

Microbial imbalance in the gastrointestinal tract. Change in numbers or proportion of different members of microbiome resulting in the adverse effects on the host

Environmental enteropathy

Chronic disease of small intestine characterized by gut inflammation and barrier disruption, malabsorption, and systemic inflammation in the absence of diarrhea. Endemic in the areas with poor sanitation and high enteropathogen burden

Gnotobiosis

A condition in which all the forms of life associated with an organism can be accounted for. An extreme case is germ-free (axenic) animal which means organism with no associated living microbiota detectable by the up-to-date techniques

Holobiont

The assembly of different species that form an ecological unit. For the purpose of this review, it is used as the eukaryotic host plus all of its symbiotic microbes

Kwashiorkor

Severe form of undernutrition when protein intake is insufficient

Microbiome

The collective genomes of the microorganisms that reside in an environmental niche

Microbiota

An ecological community of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microorganisms found in and on a multicellular organism. It includes bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, and viruses

Nidifugous

Nidifugous organisms are those that leave the nest shortly after hatching or birth. They are born with open eyes and are capable of independent locomotion

Prebiotics

Non-digestible oligo- and polysaccharide compounds that induce the growth or activity of certain microorganisms

Probiotics

Live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host

Somatotropic axis

One of the major hormonal systems regulating postnatal growth in vertebrates. It refers to the hormonal signaling from hypothalamus to anterior pituitary gland, resulting in the release of growth hormone, which in turn stimulates the production of insulin-like growth factor-1 in the liver and peripheral organs

Subtherapeutical antibiotic treatment

Subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in animal feed, as opposed to therapeutic or disease-treating use, enhances efficiency of livestock production by promoting growth. Specifically, through a still unknown mechanism, an animal on subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics will, on a lesser quantity of feed, gain an equal amount of weight as an untreated animal

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Schwarzer, M., Strigini, M. & Leulier, F. Gut Microbiota and Host Juvenile Growth. Calcif Tissue Int 102, 387–405 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-017-0368-y

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