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Gut microbes and their genes are associated with brain development and cognitive function in healthy children

View ORCID ProfileKevin S. Bonham, View ORCID ProfileMuriel M. K. Bruchhage, Sophie Rowland, Alexandra R. Volpe, Kellyn Dyer, RESONANCE Consortium, View ORCID ProfileViren D’Sa, View ORCID ProfileCurtis Huttenhower, View ORCID ProfileSean C. L. Deoni, View ORCID ProfileVanja Klepac-Ceraj
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.13.944181
Kevin S. Bonham
1Department of Biological Sciences, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, 02481, USA
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Muriel M. K. Bruchhage
2Advanced Baby Imaging Lab, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, 02903, USA
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Sophie Rowland
1Department of Biological Sciences, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, 02481, USA
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Alexandra R. Volpe
2Advanced Baby Imaging Lab, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, 02903, USA
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Kellyn Dyer
2Advanced Baby Imaging Lab, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, 02903, USA
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Viren D’Sa
2Advanced Baby Imaging Lab, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, 02903, USA
3Department of Pediatrics, Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA
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Curtis Huttenhower
4Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
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Sean C. L. Deoni
2Advanced Baby Imaging Lab, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, 02903, USA
3Department of Pediatrics, Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA
5Department of Radiology, Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA
6Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Discovery & Tools, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Seattle WA, USA
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Vanja Klepac-Ceraj
1Department of Biological Sciences, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, 02481, USA
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  • For correspondence: vklepacc@wellesley.edu
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Abstract

Both the brain and microbiome of humans develop rapidly in the first years of life, enabling extensive signaling between the gut and central nervous system (dubbed the “microbiome-gut-brain axis”). Emerging evidence implicates gut microorganisms and microbiota composition in cognitive outcomes and neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., autism), but the influence of gut microbial metabolism on typical neurodevelopment has not been explored in detail. We investigated the relationship of the microbiome with the neuroanatomy and cognitive function of 281 healthy children in a cross-sectional analysis and demonstrated that differences in gut microbial taxa and gene functions are associated with the size of brain regions and with overall cognitive function. Many species, including Eubacterium eligens and Roseburia hominis, were associated with higher cognitive function, while some species such as Ruminococcus gnavus was more commonly found in children with low cognitive scores. Microbial enzymes involved in the metabolism of neuroactive compounds such as glutamate and GABA, were also associated with structure of the brain, including the first brain regions to develop such as the cerebellum, and with overall cognitive function.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • Added figure 2 (tests for taxonomic relationships to cognitive score), removed all references to longitudinal samples and restricted subjects to those that have neurocognitive data.

  • https://zenodo.org/record/3633793

  • https://zenodo.org/record/3648677

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted June 06, 2020.
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Gut microbes and their genes are associated with brain development and cognitive function in healthy children
Kevin S. Bonham, Muriel M. K. Bruchhage, Sophie Rowland, Alexandra R. Volpe, Kellyn Dyer, RESONANCE Consortium, Viren D’Sa, Curtis Huttenhower, Sean C. L. Deoni, Vanja Klepac-Ceraj
bioRxiv 2020.02.13.944181; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.13.944181
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Gut microbes and their genes are associated with brain development and cognitive function in healthy children
Kevin S. Bonham, Muriel M. K. Bruchhage, Sophie Rowland, Alexandra R. Volpe, Kellyn Dyer, RESONANCE Consortium, Viren D’Sa, Curtis Huttenhower, Sean C. L. Deoni, Vanja Klepac-Ceraj
bioRxiv 2020.02.13.944181; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.13.944181

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