Deletion of Npas2 in the liver alters the functional gut microbiome at light/dark timepoints

Abstract

In utero exposure of a maternal high fat diet (mHFD) results in the targeted epigenetic reprograming and disruption of circadian clock genes in the fetal liver. However, it is unclear if this disruption of the circadian clock exacerbates the effect of the offspring’s post-weaning high fat diet (oHFD) on the function of its gut microbiome. To understand the interaction of the circadian clock and the offspring gut microbiome with HFD feeding, we disrupted liver Npas2 expression and analyzed the resultant microbiome in light and dark cycles of feeding.