Extended Data Fig. 5: Validation of NGM community states and driver species across geographies and lifestyles.

All three NGM community states and the driver species (B. breve, B. longum or B. infantis, and E. faecalis) were independently detected in infant gut metagenomic cohorts (0–6 months) from diverse geographical regions and lifestyles. These include Europe (Sweden, days 4–12, N=37), the United States (TEDDY cohort, months 2–6, N=69), the Middle East (Israel, weeks 1–24, N=60), and South Asia (Bangladesh, months 0–2, N=234). In the Bangladeshi cohort, which is a non-industrialised and non-urban population, the B. infantis and E. coli-driven clusters are representative of the B. longum (closely related to B. infantis) and E. faecalis (also facultative anaerobe opportunistic pathogen) community states, respectively. The analysis and visualization methods are consistent with those described in Fig. 1a, b.