New study shows link between intestinal microbiota and maternal ...

coli bacteria that, when living in the guts of female mice, causes them to neglect their offspring.The findings, published January 29, 2021, in the journal Science Advances, show a direct link between a particular microbe and maternal behavior.Although the research was done in mice, it adds to the growing body of science demonstrating that microbes in the gut are important for brain health and can affect development and behavior.To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that the intestinal microbiota is important for promoting healthy maternal behavior and bonding between mom and offspring in an animal model. It adds to the ever-growing evidence that there's a gut-brain connection, and that microbes are important for regulating the behavior of the host that they're inhabiting."Janelle Ayres, Study Senior Author and Professor, Laboratory Head of Molecular and Systems Physiology Laboratory, Salk InstituteThe ways in which the microbiota can impact mental health and neurological disorders is a growing area of research. But it has been difficult to study how individual strains of bacteria exert their influence on human behavior, a connection often called the microbiota-gut-brain axis.In her lab, Ayres uses mice to study how body systems and the brain interact with each other to promote health.