Diet and microbiome shape small-molecule cytokinin pools in mammals.
Othman EM, Bencurova E, Ferretti P, Bork P, Rodriguez Del Rio A
Plant Signaling
The growth signals coursing through your bean plants after you water them — the same chemical family that drives branching, leaf expansion, and fruit set — are apparently traveling into mammalian bodies through food and gut bacteria, suggesting what you grow and eat carries more biological information than anyone suspected.
Plants use chemicals called cytokinins to control how they grow — when to branch, when to make new leaves, when to set fruit. Scientists just found these same plant chemicals circulating in the blood and organs of mammals, including humans. Two things determine how much you carry: what you eat, and the community of bacteria living in your gut.
Key Findings
Cytokinins were consistently detected in the blood of five mammalian species, with the plant storage form zeatin-O-glucoside predominating — a composition distinctly different from what is found in plant tissue itself
Starvation dramatically reduced cytokinin levels in blood, colon, feces, and urine, confirming that diet is the primary source of these plant compounds in mammals
Germ-free mice raised without any gut bacteria had substantially lower cytokinin levels than conventionally raised counterparts, proving the gut microbiome independently contributes to the mammalian cytokinin pool
chevron_right Technical Summary
Plant growth hormones called cytokinins, long studied in gardens and crops, have been detected circulating in the blood and organs of five mammalian species — and scientists traced the source to what those animals eat and the bacteria living in their guts.
Abstract Preview
Cytokinins (CKs) are adenine-derived metabolites traditionally characterized as plant hormones, yet their origin, distribution, and functions in mammalian systems remain largely undefined. Using in...
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