Microbiome-Guided Maternal and Child Nutrition: A Structured Narrative Review of Indigenous African Foods, Fermented Foods, and Emerging Evidence.
- 1Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Taraba State University, Main Campus, Jalingo 660101, Taraba State, Nigeria.
- 2Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, Qatar Campus, Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar, Education City, Qatar Foundation, Doha Metropolitan Area, Doha P.O. Box 22104, Qatar.
Abstract
The gut microbiota is recognized as important to maternal and child health through associations with immune maturation, metabolic programming, barrier integrity, and early-life disease susceptibility. Indigenous food systems, fermented foods, probiotics, and postbiotics may influence gut microbial communities and functions, suggesting potential avenues for investigation into nutritional resilience, particularly in low-resource settings. This review synthesizes evidence on microbiome-informed maternal and child nutrition, focusing on indigenous foods, fermented foods, probiotics, postbiotics, and microbiome-mediated mechanisms. Literature was searched in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar for studies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses published between 2015 and 2025. Evidence indicates that microbiome-directed nutritional interventions may influence microbial metabolites, particularly short-chain fatty acids, and pathways associated with barrier integrity, immune regulation, and cellular signaling, including adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB), toll-like receptor (TLR), and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR). Artificial intelligence, multi-omics, and precision nutrition may support the investigation and future development of more targeted approaches. However, gaps remain regarding population-specific microbiome profiles, standardized probiotic and postbiotic formulations, longitudinal maternal-infant relationships, and evidence from African and other low-resource settings. The Microbiome-Informed Nutrition Framework (MINF) is proposed as a hypothesis-generating model integrating indigenous food systems, microbiome-directed interventions, precision nutrition, and community-based primary healthcare as potential areas for future research, rather than established clinical or public health interventions.
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BibTeX
@article{mafe2026microbiomeguided,
title = {{Microbiome-Guided Maternal and Child Nutrition: A Structured Narrative Review of Indigenous African Foods, Fermented Foods, and Emerging Evidence.}},
author = {Alice Njolke Mafe and Dietrich Büsselberg},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.3390/ijms27198503},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42883752},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Microbiome-Guided Maternal and Child Nutrition: A Structured Narrative Review of Indigenous African Foods, Fermented Foods, and Emerging Evidence.
AU - Alice Njolke Mafe
AU - Dietrich Büsselberg
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/23
JO - International journal of molecular sciences
DO - 10.3390/ijms27198503
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42883752
AB - The gut microbiota is recognized as important to maternal and child health through associations with immune maturation, metabolic programming, barrier integrity, and early-life disease susceptibility. Indigenous food systems, fermented foods, probiotics, and postbiotics may influence gut microbial communities and functions, suggesting potential avenues for investigation into nutritional resilience, particularly in low-resource settings. This review synthesizes evidence on microbiome-informed maternal and child nutrition, focusing on indigenous foods, fermented foods, probiotics, postbiotics, and microbiome-mediated mechanisms. Literature was searched in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar for studies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses published between 2015 and 2025. Evidence indicates that microbiome-directed nutritional interventions may influence microbial metabolites, particularly short-chain fatty acids, and pathways associated with barrier integrity, immune regulation, and cellular signaling, including adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB), toll-like receptor (TLR), and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR). Artificial intelligence, multi-omics, and precision nutrition may support the investigation and future development of more targeted approaches. However, gaps remain regarding population-specific microbiome profiles, standardized probiotic and postbiotic formulations, longitudinal maternal-infant relationships, and evidence from African and other low-resource settings. The Microbiome-Informed Nutrition Framework (MINF) is proposed as a hypothesis-generating model integrating indigenous food systems, microbiome-directed interventions, precision nutrition, and community-based primary healthcare as potential areas for future research, rather than established clinical or public health interventions.
SN - 1422-0067
ER -