Mapping the Human Milk Microbiome: Impetus for a Long-Awaited Renaissance in Maternal and Infant Nutrition Research?

Researchers have long known that the gastrointestinal (GI) tracts of most, if not all, animals are teeming with micro-organisms. But the understanding of how these microbes get there, what they do, and the impacts of microbial dysbiosis on host health have been limited. As a case in point, when one of the authors of this commentary took her first human nutrition course in the 1980s, her college-level textbook mentioned micro-organisms only 4 times in reference to stomach acidity in infants, legume-associated bacteria and the "fixing" of nitrogen, and vitamin B12 and vitamin K synthesis.