2'-Fucosyllactose helps butyrate producers outgrow competitors in infant gut microbiota simulations.

ABSTRACT: A reduced capacity for butyrate production by the early infant gut microbiota is associated with negative health effects, such as inflammation and the development of allergies. Here, we develop new hypotheses on the effect of the prebiotic galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) or 2'-fucosyllactose (2'-FL) on butyrate production by the infant gut microbiota using a multiscale, spatiotemporal mathematical model of the infant gut. The model simulates a community of cross-feeding gut bacteria in metabolic detail. It represents the community as a grid of bacterial populations that exchange metabolites, using 20 different subspecies-specific metabolic networks taken from the AGORA database. The simulations predict that both GOS and 2'-FL promote the growth of Bifidobacterium, whereas butyrate pr

SUBMITTER: Versluis DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10877688 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature