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Comment
. 2021 Feb 8;31(3):R124-R126.
doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.11.045.

Microbiomes: Infant Chimps Crawling with Bacteria

Daniel D Sprockett  1 , Andrew H Moeller  2
Affiliations
Comment

Microbiomes: Infant Chimps Crawling with Bacteria

Daniel D Sprockett et al. Curr Biol. .

Abstract

Human guts are colonized at birth by a limited set of microbes that gradually increases in diversity throughout infancy. A new study reports the opposite pattern in infant chimpanzees, raising questions about how host-microbiota relationships have changed during ape evolution.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Species richness decreases over time in the infant chimpanzee gut microbiota.
The species richness of the gut microbiota in chimpanzees is highest in individuals younger than two years old, decreases following weaning, and then remains at this lower level throughout adolescence and adulthood. This is in contrast to what has typically been observed in human studies, with low species richness being observed after birth, followed by increases later in life. Colored lines are not to scale and for illustrative purposes only. Grey rectangles indicate age ranges corresponding to the introduction of first complementary foods (FCF) and weaning.
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