Urbanization restricts gut microbiome diversity and delays its maturation in infants

Alterations to the gut microbiome are linked to many increasingly common diseases such as obesity, allergy, and inflammatory bowel disease. Post-industrial lifestyles are thought to contribute to the gut microbiome alterations that cause or aggravate these diseases. Comparing communities across the industrialization spectrum can reveal which gut microbiome alterations are driven by industrialization, what health effects these alterations have and what specific aspect of the post-industrial lifestyle is driving them. In this study, we compare the gut microbiomes of 60 mother and infant pairs from rural and urban areas of Senegal over two time points. We find that urban mothers, who were more frequently overweight, had different gut microbiome compositions than rural mothers, showing an expansion of Lachnospiraceae and Enterobacter. Urban infants, on the other hand, showed a delay in gut microbiome maturation and a higher susceptibility to infectious diseases.