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Transition from Infant to Adult Gut Microbiota

This study investigates how gut microbiota (GM) is acquired in the transit from childhood to adulthood in human beings. The GM has an important role in the metabolic and immune development of humans. The results suggest that the direct acquisition from mother’s GM is quite low, that there is a continued acquisition of bacteria and that GM is the result of continued interactions between bacteria. Infant GM switches to adult-like GM during the second year of life.