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   Public release date: 25-Sep-2013    
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   Contact: Bob Nellis    
   newsb...@mayo.edu    
   507-284-5005    
   Mayo Clinic    
   Genetic makeup and diet interact with the microbiome to impact health    
      
   ROCHESTER, Minn . -- A Mayo Clinic researcher, along with his collaborators,   
   has shown that an individual's genomic makeup and diet interact to determine   
   which microbes exist and how they act in the host intestine. The study was   
   modeled in germ-free    
   knockout mice to mimic a genetic condition that affects 1 in 5 humans and   
   increases the risk for digestive diseases. The findings appear in the   
   Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.    
      
   "Our data show that factors in the differences in a host's genetic makeup --   
   in this case genes that affect carbohydrates in the gut -- interact with the   
   type of food eaten. That combination determines the composition and function   
   of resident microbes,"    
   says Purna Kashyap, M.B.B.S., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and first   
   author of the study. He is also a collaborator in the Microbiome Program of   
   the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine.    
      
   Significance of the Findings    
      
   Roughly 20 percent of humans lack the gene that encodes proteins for   
   processing a specific carbohydrate, a sugar in the intestinal mucus called   
   fucose. The interaction shown by the research team is valuable because many   
   bacteria are adept at utilizing    
   carbohydrates such as fucose, which are abundant in the gut. Confronted with   
   diets that have little or no complex plant sugars, these bacteria are forced   
   to change their function, especially in hosts that lack fucose. This was seen   
   with the altered    
   metabolic gene expression of one of the key microbes in the gut -- Bacteroides   
   thetaiotaomicron. Changes in microbial membership or function as demonstrated   
   in this study may, in turn, foster a "digestive landscape" that can promote   
   inflammatory    
   conditions such as Crohn's disease.    
      
   The microbiome represents millions of microbes in the gut and elsewhere in the   
   body. They perform specialized functions to help keep metabolism in balance.   
   Whether in humans or other animals, the microbial combination is unique and   
   must function well    
   with the individual's genome and diet for a healthy existence.    
      
   ###    
   Additional researchers on the study include Angela Marcobal, Ph.D.; Samuel   
   Smits; Erica Sonnenburg, Ph.D.; Elizabeth Costello, Ph.D.; Steven   
   Higginbottom; Susan Holmes, Ph.D.; David Relman, M.D.; and Justin Sonnenburg,   
   Ph.D.; all of Stanford University;    
   Luke Ursell, University of Colorado at Boulder; Rob Knight, Ph.D., Howard   
   Hughes Medical Institute and University of Colorado at Boulder; Steve Domino,   
   M.D., Ph.D., University of Michigan; and Jeffrey Gordon, M.D., Washington   
   University.    
      
   The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Crohn's &   
   Colitis Foundation of America, the Walter and Idun Berry Foundation, and the   
   Thomas and Joan Merigan Endowment at Stanford.    
      
   About Mayo Clinic    
      
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   http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/mc-gma092513.php    
      
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