Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Designer fibre meals sway human gut microbes

Understanding how diet affects gut microbes and thereby influences human health might lead to targeted dietary strategies. A clinical trial now provides some steps on the path towards this goal.
  1. Avner Leshem

    1. Avner Leshem is in the Department of Immunology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel, and in the Department of Surgery, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Eran Elinav

    1. Eran Elinav is in the Department of Immunology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel, and in the Division of Microbiome and Cancer, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

There is growing evidence that our normal resident gut microorganisms, termed commensal microbes, can affect human health. Promoting beneficial commensal microbes through a type of nutritional supplement called a prebiotic is an area of intensive scientific and medical research. However, trying to harness a diet with the desired effect is challenging because the gut microbial community (also known as the microbiome) is highly complex, and because dietary responses are modulated by multiple hereditary and non-hereditary factors. Writing in Nature, Delannoy-Bruno et al.1 fill an essential gap in our mechanistic understanding of diet–microbiome interactions by focusing on dietary fibre, a family of substances of pronounced physiological virtues that are predominantly metabolized by commensal microbes. This provides a sequel to the team’s previous work on the development of microbiome-targeting foods2–6.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 595, 32-34 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01601-y

References

  1. Delannoy-Bruno, O. et al. Nature 595,91–95 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Chen, R. Y. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 384, 1517–1528 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Chen, R. Y. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 383, 321–333 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Mostafa, I. et al. BMC Public Health 20, 242 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Patnode, M. L. et al. Cell 179, 59–73 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Gehrig, J. L. et al. Science 365, 139 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Zeevi, D. et al. Cell 163, 1079–1094 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Berry, S. E. et al. Nature Med. 26, 964–973 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. US Department of Health and Human Services and US Department of Agriculture. 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (HHS/USDA, 2015).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Sonnenburg, E. D. et al. Nature 529, 212–215 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Eilam, O. et al. mBio 5, e01526-14 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Healey, G. et al. Br. J. Nutr. 119, 176–189 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Deehan, E. C. et al. Cell Host Microbe 27, 389–404 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Al-Asmakh, M. & Zadjali, F. J. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 25, 1583–1588 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Lundberg, R., Toft, M. F., August, B., Hansen, A. K. & Hansen, C. H. F. Gut Microbes 7, 68–74 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

E.E. is the is the scientific founder of DayTwo and BiomX.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • Postdoctoral fellow at USC (Dr. Jian-Fu Chen lab), Los Angeles

    Two post-doc positions for studying neuroscience and craniofacial biology, crosstalk, and disease using mouse and iPSC models.

    Los Angeles, California

    USC - Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology

  • Associate Editor, Physics of Living Systems

    The Associate Editor will decide on publishing the most exciting and consequential results in the physics of living systems.

    United States (US) - Remote

    American Physical Society

  • Senior Project Manager

    The Senior Project Manager will play a key role in enabling Springer Nature’s OA transformation, and optimising and expanding our OA business.

    London – Hybrid Working Model

    Springer Nature Ltd

  • Senior Commercial Manager (Open Access)

    This position offers a unique opportunity to influence the future of open access publishing.

    London – Hybrid Working Model

    Springer Nature Ltd

  • Postdoctoral Fellow in Immunology at Northwestern University

    Our T cell biology lab is looking for fellows interested in improving immunotherapies for cancer and autoimmune disease through immune engineering.

    Chicago, Illinois

    Choi Laboratory at Northwestern

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links