choline-eating microbiomes tagged posts

Nacho Vivas, lab manager at the Rey Lab, checks on a group of germ-free mice inside a sterile environment. Credit: Bryce Richter/UW-Madison

If our microbiome overindulges, we might not have access to the nutrients we need. That’s the suggestion from new research that shows mice that harbor high levels of microbes that eat choline are deprived of this essential nutrient. “Gut bacteria get to use a lot of our food before we do,” says Federico Rey, a professor of bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Then we get their leftovers – or their waste. Compared to mice without choline-hungry bacteria, the choline-starved mice had an increased susceptibility to metabolic diseases and gave birth to pups with biochemical alterations in the brain and that exhibited more anxious behaviors...