The infant gut mycobiome exhibits defined maturation patterns over the course of early life from the perspective of taxonomic community structure. This study was conducted using multi-method analysis incorporating longitudinal infant, maternal, paternal, and environmental factors to assess individual maturation patterns of the mycobiome and its association with body mass index Z scores (BMIz) in the first 5 years of life. It was observed that bacterial beta diversity at 3 months modified the effect of fungal richness pattern on early-life BMIz, where an increasing fungal richness pattern was associated with lower BMIz when bacterial community dissimilarity was increased. These findings were consistent with the well-known ability of antibiotics to disrupt the gut microbiome and provide an opportunity for fungal community alterations. Further findings suggested that early-life and maternal factors may collectively influence growth dynamics in the first 5 years of life, in association with mycobiome maturational patterns and specific fungal taxa.
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Published On: 04/02/2023