ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2022
The gut microbiome influences host diet selection behavior.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
85 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Meta-analyses of the global impact of non-antibiotic feed additives on livestock performance and health.Journal of advanced research · 2026Pooled it
- Roles of the gut microbiome in weight management.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2023Pooled it
- New methods to unveil host-microbe interaction mechanisms along the microbiota-gut-brain-axis.Gut microbesPooled it
- Trial
- Dysregulated eating behaviour and microbiota-based interventions targeting eating disorders and food addiction.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Seasonal Variation of Gut Bacterial Community in WildEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- Microbial and Metabolic Flexibility in Response to Habitat Disturbance in an Ecologically Specialist Primate.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Sympatric Speciation of Tibetan Loaches (Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Comparative analysis of morphology and gut microbiome underlying trophic niche differentiation in three stomatopod species.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Consistent, Scale-Dependent Differences in the Biogeography of Host-Associated and Free-Living Microbiomes Across Systems.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Hydroxy-α-Sanshools FromFood science & nutrition · 2026Article
- From diet to hypothalamic dysfunction: Neuroanatomical and hormonal integration of the microbiota-hypothalamus-adipose tissue axis.Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders · 2026Review
- Humans as an extended phenotype of their microbiota.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2026Article
- Review
- The elephant (bird) in the room: unknown mechanisms and unresolved impacts of low DNA yields in avian microbiome research.Animal microbiome · 2026Article
- Characterization of a Core Fungal Community and Captivity-Induced Gut "Mycobiome" Change in Fowler's Toad (Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Integrating the Microbiome Into Infection Ecology and Evolution in Wild Animals.Molecular ecology · 2026Review
- Gut Microbiome Mediates the Causal Link Between Autism Spectrum Disorder and Dietary Preferences: A Mendelian Randomization Study.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Microbially derived essential amino acids compensate for dietary deficiencies in an ecologically relevant mammalian host.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Gut microbiome convergence and functional adaptation underlie the evolution of predation in stink bugs (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae).Microbiome · 2026Article
25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Diet selection is a fundamental aspect of animal behavior with numerous ecological and evolutionary implications. While the underlying mechanisms are complex, the availability of essential dietary nutrients can strongly influence diet selection behavior. The gut microbiome has been shown to metabolize many of these same nutrients, leading to the untested hypothesis that intestinal microbiota may influence diet selection. Here, we show that germ-free mice colonized by gut microbiota from three rodent species with distinct foraging strategies differentially selected diets that varied in macronutrient composition. Specifically, we found that herbivore-conventionalized mice voluntarily selected a higher protein:carbohydrate (P:C) ratio diet, while omnivore- and carnivore-conventionalized mice selected a lower P:C ratio diet. In support of the long-standing hypothesis that tryptophan—the essential amino acid precursor of serotonin—serves as a peripheral signal regulating diet selection, bacterial genes involved in tryptophan metabolism and plasma tryptophan availability prior to the selection trial were significantly correlated with subsequent voluntary carbohydrate intake. Finally, herbivore-conventionalized mice exhibited larger intestinal compartments associated with microbial fermentation, broadly reflecting the intestinal morphology of their donor species. Together, these results demonstrate that gut microbiome can influence host diet selection behavior, perhaps by mediating the availability of essential amino acids, thereby revealing a mechanism by which the gut microbiota can influence host foraging behavior.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.