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News Archive 2014

Guest blog: Gut bacteria's influence on brain development

5 Feb 2014
The Simons Foundation profile Professor J Cryan and Roman Stilling's work.
 

Gut bacteria's influence on brain development.

John F. Cryan, Roman Stilling

Attempting to understand how environmental factors influence gene expression is one of the most exciting areas in biomedicine today. Scientists often label these effects with the umbrella term ‘epigenetics.’

We can define the phenomena of epigenetics — chemical modifications of DNA or its associated proteins — as dynamic and potentially heritable changes in gene expression that persist even after the signal or event that initiated the change disappears. Increasingly, researchers are focusing on disentangling the molecular mechanisms in the developing and adult brain that underlie epigenetic change.

In a review published in the January issue of Genes, Brain and Behavior, we propose that researchers consider the influence of gut microbiota — the community of bacterial species that inhabit the digestive tract — on epigenetic regulation of brain functions,especially when studying neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism1.

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