We systematically investigated the regulatory effects of the microbiota on the transcriptome and the genome-wide DNA methylation status of IECs from the small intestine of infant, juvenile, and adult mice which were raised in either the presence or absence of a microbiota. This analysis revealed that both the IEC ontogeny and the microbiota affect the epithelial transcriptome signature along with the DNA methylation status and that the microbial effect increases during postnatal development.
