WIKIMEDIA, POGREBNOJ-ALEXANDROFFHumans have coevolved with microbes for thousands of years, but the profiles of the gut microbiome in those living on a Western-style diet and humans living hunter-gatherer or mixed subsistence lifestyles are vastly different. A mouse study, led by microbiologists Justin and Erica Sonnenburg of Stanford University, now suggests that an underlying reason for this variation could be the differing amounts of fiber between the two populations’ diets. The team’s results were published today (January 13) in Nature.
“There’s definitely something going on right now in our Western population that’s progressive in terms of disease. None of that is happening in these traditional populations,” said Justin Sonnenburg. “There are many things that differentiate us, but I think one of the major candidates for what could contribute to that is the massive difference in the gut microbiota.”
To simulate the effects of a low-fiber diet on the gut microbiome, the researchers fed 10 germ-free mice fecal samples from a 36-year-old American man. The donor microbes quickly colonized the animals’ gastrointestinal tracts. The team then divided the mice into two groups—one fed a diet rich in fiber from various plants, the other given a low-fiber diet—and followed the animals for seven weeks.
At the start ...
