{"doi":"10.1101/2025.05.01.651736","title":"Ontogeny of the vagal gut-brain axis","abstract":"Gut-brain communication is a key component of homeostasis which regulates behaviors such as appetite and reward. Intestinal enteroendocrine cells (EECs) translate nutrient intake into signals which affect sensation and behavior, in part through synapse-like contacts with vagal nodose neurons. This direct neuroepithelial circuit regulates feeding (1-3), yet its genesis and role in higher order behaviors remains unknown. We find that EECs first contact nodose neurons in utero, and these interactions require brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). We show that BDNF regulates the dynamics of these interactions, which underlie EEC-evoked optogenetic excitation of the circuit. In addition to feeding, we discover that this circuit regulates sociability and inhibitory behavioral control. These studies define the ontogeny of a direct gut-brain circuit responsible for early physiology and behavior.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2025,"id":557813,"datarank":0.10397207708399181,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"self_citation_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9508,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1458291,"name":"Jackson C. Knox","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":275071,"name":"Sheryl S. Moy","orcid":"0000-0001-7318-7900","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":407155,"name":"Juliet S. King","orcid":"0000-0003-3865-6956","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":396943,"name":"Scott Williams","orcid":"0000-0001-9975-7334","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":396940,"name":"Kendall J. Lough","orcid":"0000-0001-9663-6983","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":41,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:55:21.727661Z","pmid":"40654952","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}