Lr

L. reuteri, or LR, typically resides in the digestive tract, where it generates lactic acid.

Some of the mice were supplemented with LR.

"To our surprise, we found LR treatment prevented delays in male weight gain and helped normalize the timing of tooth eruption in both sexes," said Elena Kozlova, a doctoral student working in Curras-Collazo's lab and co-first author on the paper.

The research team also found that the exposed female offspring showed exaggerated digging and hyperactivity in adulthood; LR mitigated these effects.

Maternal LR supplementation promoted the diversity of gut bacteria in female pups and prevented changes in these bacteria in male pups.