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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Little Rock, Arkansas » Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center » Microbiome and Metabolism Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #423370
Research Project: Early Life Factors and Microbiota Impact on Healthy Development

Location: Microbiome and Metabolism Research

Title: Effect of maternal miRNAs and milk oligosaccharides on regulating the growth behavior of Bifidobacterium longum subspecies infantis

Author
item YAO, TIANMING - Purdue University
item TUNCIL, YUNIS - Necmettin Erbakan University
item BHATTARAI, SAJAL - Purdue University
item Gurung, Manoj
item BODE, LARS - University Of California, San Diego
item Yeruva, Venkat
item LINDEMANN, STEPHEN - Purdue University

Submitted to: Journal of Functional Foods
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/1/2025
Publication Date: 4/6/2025
Citation: Yao, T., Tuncil, Y.E., Bhattarai, S., Gurung, M., Bode, L., Yeruva, V., Lindemann, S.R. 2025. Effect of maternal miRNAs and milk oligosaccharides on regulating the growth behavior of Bifidobacterium longum subspecies infantis. Journal of Functional Foods. 128(2025):106800. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2025.106800.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2025.106800

Interpretive Summary: Human milk has several bioactive components that provide nutrition to infants, promote gut microbiota composition and function in shaping infant immune system, growth and development. One of the bioactives are small RNAs (microRNAs) are understudied in terms of their interaction with gut microbes, microbial gene expression and growth. Thus, to address the knowledge gap, we leveraged the most abundant infant gut microbe (Bifidobacteria infantis) and tested the growth and gene expression in the presence of two substrates (lactose and human milk oligosaccharides) with and without microRNAs. We show that human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) significantly promoted the growth of the organism compared to lactose, the addition of microRNAs had marginal effects on growth profiles. We observed limited gene expression chagnes upon microRNA treatments, with genes unrelated to substrate utilization functions. In contrast, substrate type resulted in extensive transcriptional differences, especially pathways enriched for HMOs-specific metabolism, such as transporters, biosynthesis of amino acids and cofactors, as well as purine and carbohydrate metabolism suggesting impact of substrate on infant microbial growth and function.

Technical Abstract: The interplay between maternal microRNAs (miRNAs) and human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) in influencing infant gut bacteria remains poorly understood. This study investigated how milk miRNAs impact the growth dynamics and gene expression of Bifidobacterium infantis cultured on HMOs and lactose as substrates (1% w/v). The strain was cultured in vitro with either human milk miRNAs or synthetic mimics (500 ng/mL). B. infantis grew significantly faster on HMOs (plateau at 11.23 h) than lactose (12.75 h), but miRNAs showed minimal effects on growth in both substrates. Transcriptome analysis further showed limited differential gene expression upon miRNA treatments, with only 11 overexpressed genes in the HMO-miRNA group, none likely affecting metabolism. In contrast, substrate type drove expression changes in 1986 genes, involving in ABC transporters, amino acid biosynthesis, purine, and carbohydrate metabolism. This research highlighted the stronger effects of HMOs than miRNAs on B. infantis biology, despite both being abundant in milk.