Nursery attendance seeds diversity in infants’ gut microbiomes

A study tracking 43 infants in Italy over their first year found that attending nursery rapidly shifts their gut microbiomes through extensive baby-to-baby transmission; after four months, 15–20% of the microbes were shared with nursery peers, more than those acquired from family, and while diet also plays a role, social interactions greatly boost microbial richness and diversity, with strains like Akkermansia muciniphila moving from mother to infant to other babies and even back to parents.