Sponsor
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (DEB1930222, DEB-1930650).
Published In
Cell Metabolism
Document Type
Post-Print
Publication Date
1-22-2026
Subjects
Microbiota -- Chemistry, Volatile organic compounds, Gut microbiome, Gut microbiota
Abstract
The gut microbiota is crucial to health, yet implementation of microbiota-based therapeutics is limited by the lack of rapid diagnostics. We hypothesize that breath contains gut microbe-derived volatile organic compounds (VOCs) reflecting microbiota composition and metabolism. In healthy children, we found that breath VOC composition (or volatilome), assessed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, correlates with gut microbiome composition and function. By capturing exhaled breath from human-stool-colonized and monocolonized gnotobiotic mice, we profiled breath VOCs and discovered that murine breath is also significantly influenced by the gut microbiome. VOCs from cultured gut microbes were identified in vivo in monocolonized gnotobiotic colonized mice. As a proof of principle, we demonstrated that exhaled breath predicts the abundance of a disease-associated bacterium, Eubacterium siraeum, in children with asthma. Altogether, our studies identify microbe-derived VOCs in breath, show that gut bacterial metabolism directly contributes to mammalian breath VOC profiles, and inform the development of non-invasive microbiome diagnostics.
Rights
Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1016/j.cmet.2025.12.013
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44447
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation Details
Hernandez-Leyva, A. J., Berna, A. Z., Bui, M. H., Liu, Y., Rosen, A. L., Lint, M. A., Whiteside, S. A., Jaeger, N., McDonough, R. T., Joardar, N., Santiago-Borges, J., Tomera, C. P., Luo, W., Odom John, A. R., & Kau, A. L. (2026). The gut microbiota shapes the human and murine breath volatilome. Cell Metabolism.
Description
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published as: (2026). The gut microbiota shapes the human and murine breath volatilome. Cell Metabolism.