title: Metabolic tinkering by the gut microbiome: Implications for brain development and function.
abstract: Brain development is an energy demanding process that relies heavily upon diet derived nutrients. Gut microbiota enhance the host's ability to extract otherwise inaccessible energy from the diet via fermentation of complex oligosaccharides in the colon. This nutrient yield is estimated to contribute up to 10% of the host's daily caloric requirement in humans and fluctuates in response to environmental variations. Research over the past decade has demonstrated a surprising role for the gut microbiome in normal brain development and function. In this review we postulate that perturbations in the gut microbial-derived nutrient supply, driven by environmental variation, profoundly impacts upon normal brain development and function.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences; Nanyang Technological University; Singapore, Singapore; Lee Kong Chain School of Medicine; Nanyang Technological University; Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Selkrig
authors.affiliation: Program in Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders; Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore; Singapore, Singapore; Behavioural Phenotyping Core Facility; Duke-NUS; Duke University Medical Center; Durham, NC USA.
authors.forename: Peiyan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Program in Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders; Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore; Singapore, Singapore; Department of Physiology; National University of Singapore; Singapore, Singapore; Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Duke University Medical Center; Durham, NC USA.
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Lee Kong Chain School of Medicine; Nanyang Technological University; Singapore, Singapore; Department of Microbiology, Tumor, and Cell Biology (MTC); Karolinska Institute; Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pettersson
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development*; D005502:Food; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D008660:Metabolism; D064307:Microbiota
keywords: glucose; gut microbiota; hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis; metabolism; microbiota-gut-brain axis; neurodevelopment; short chain fatty acids; β-hydroxybutyrate