AI Insight
A new study published in PLOS Biology demonstrates that the developing intestine functions as a central regulatory hub for coordinating growth across multiple organs in response to both microbiome composition and nutritional availability. The research reveals how developing animals sense nutritional shortages through enteroendocrine signaling mechanisms originating in the gut. This intestinal sensing system then orchestrates appropriate growth adjustments throughout the organism during development.
Why it matters
Understanding how the gut coordinates developmental growth in response to nutrition and microbiome signals could inform interventions for childhood malnutrition and growth disorders. The findings may also have implications for understanding how early-life nutritional environments and microbiome composition shape long-term developmental outcomes.
Understand the Science
by Julia B. Cordero
How developing animals sense nutritional shortages to adjust growth? A new study in PLOS Biology shows that the developing intestine is a central regulator of animal growth in response to microbiome composition and nutritional deficiency.
How do developing animals sense nutritional shortages and adjust their growth accordingly? A new study in PLOS Biology shows that the developing intestine is a central regulator of a multi-organ signalling coordinating animal growth in response to microbiome composition and nutritional deficiency.
Source: The gut takes it all: Enteroendocrine control of developmental growth