Title |
Infant fungal communities: current knowledge and research opportunities
|
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Published in |
BMC Medicine, February 2017
|
DOI | 10.1186/s12916-017-0802-z |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Tonya L. Ward, Dan Knights, Cheryl A. Gale |
Abstract |
The microbes colonizing the infant gastrointestinal tract have been implicated in later-life disease states such as allergies and obesity. Recently, the medical research community has begun to realize that very early colonization events may be most impactful on future health, with the presence of key taxa required for proper immune and metabolic development. However, most studies to date have focused on bacterial colonization events and have left out fungi, a clinically important sub-population of the microbiota. A number of recent findings indicate the importance of host-associated fungi (the mycobiota) in adult and infant disease states, including acute infections, allergies, and metabolism, making characterization of early human mycobiota an important frontier of medical research. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge with a focus on factors influencing infant mycobiota development and associations between early fungal exposures and health outcomes. We also propose next steps for infant fungal mycobiome research, including longitudinal studies of mother-infant pairs while monitoring long-term health outcomes, further exploration of bacterium-fungus interactions, and improved methods and databases for mycobiome quantitation. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 8 | 21% |
United Kingdom | 4 | 11% |
Spain | 2 | 5% |
Australia | 2 | 5% |
Canada | 2 | 5% |
Finland | 1 | 3% |
Netherlands | 1 | 3% |
Ireland | 1 | 3% |
Belgium | 1 | 3% |
Other | 0 | 0% |
Unknown | 16 | 42% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 19 | 50% |
Scientists | 13 | 34% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 6 | 16% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 2 | 1% |
Israel | 1 | <1% |
United States | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 153 | 97% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 27 | 17% |
Researcher | 25 | 16% |
Student > Master | 24 | 15% |
Student > Bachelor | 19 | 12% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 7 | 4% |
Other | 20 | 13% |
Unknown | 35 | 22% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 32 | 20% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 25 | 16% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 22 | 14% |
Immunology and Microbiology | 19 | 12% |
Nursing and Health Professions | 7 | 4% |
Other | 13 | 8% |
Unknown | 39 | 25% |