Seal milk oligosaccharides rival human milk complexity and exhibit functional dynamics during lactation

Chunsheng Jin; Jon Lundstrøm; Carmen R. Cori; Shih-Yun Guu; Alexander R. Bennett; Mirjam Dannborg; Patrick P. Pomeroy; Malcolm W. Kennedy; Johan Bengtsson-Palme; Rachel Hevey; Kay-Hooi Khoo; Daniel Bojar

doi:10.1038/s41467-025-66075-2

Seal milk oligosaccharides rival human milk complexity and exhibit functional dynamics during lactation

Chunsheng Jin
, Jon Lundstrøm
, Carmen R. Cori
, Shih-Yun Guu
, Alexander R. Bennett
, Mirjam Dannborg
, Patrick P. Pomeroy
, Malcolm W. Kennedy
, Johan Bengtsson-Palme
, Rachel Hevey
, Kay-Hooi Khoo
, Daniel Bojar^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Milk oligosaccharides are crucial for neonatal development and health in mammals. Yet most milk research focuses on humans, or on domesticated mammals that are poor in milk oligosaccharide complexity. Here, we perform an exhaustive mass spectrometry-driven structural characterization of milk oligosaccharides in a wild mammal, female Atlantic grey seals (Halichoerus grypus), throughout their lactation period. Characterizing and quantifying 332 milk oligosaccharides, including 166 unreported structures, we reveal seals to rival human milk in complexity. We report seal free oligosaccharides to reach up to 28 monosaccharides in size. Paired glycomics and metabolomics time course analysis establishes a concerted regulatory process reshaping the seal milk glycome throughout lactation, similar to human milk. Functional analysis of the structures we here characterized reveals anti-biofilm effects and immunomodulatory functions of seal milk oligosaccharides. Our findings challenge long-held assumptions about milk complexity of non-human mammals and enable insights into the functional relevance of complex carbohydrates in milk.

Original language	English
Article number	10067
Pages (from-to)	1-15
Number of pages	15
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	16
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66075-2
Publication status	Published - 25 Nov 2025

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-025-66075-2

Jin-et-al-2025-Seal-milk-oligosaccharides-rival-NatComms-16-10067-CCBY
Copyright © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/.
Final published version, 1.35 MBLicence: CC BY

Handle.net

Persistent link to portal record

NERC Core Grant: SMRU NERC Core Grant
Hall, A. (PI)
Natural Environment Research Council
1/04/10 → 31/03/23
Project: Standard

Seal milk oligosaccharides rival human milk complexity and exhibit functional dynamics during lactation (code)
Pomeroy, P. (Creator), GitHub, 2025
https://github.com/BojarLab/glycowork
Dataset: Software
Seal milk oligosaccharides rival human milk complexity and exhibit functional dynamics during lactation (dataset)
research-data (Creator) & Pomeroy, P. (Creator), GlycoPost, 2025
DOI: 10.50821/GLYCOPOST-GPST000556
Dataset

Cite this

Jin, C., Lundstrøm, J., Cori, C. R., Guu, S.-Y., Bennett, A. R., Dannborg, M., Pomeroy, P. P., Kennedy, M. W., Bengtsson-Palme, J., Hevey, R., Khoo, K.-H., & Bojar, D. (2025). Seal milk oligosaccharides rival human milk complexity and exhibit functional dynamics during lactation. Nature Communications, 16, 1-15. Article 10067. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66075-2

@article{3a64c2d996644689b8c6a437a0a8d7f1,

title = "Seal milk oligosaccharides rival human milk complexity and exhibit functional dynamics during lactation",

abstract = "Milk oligosaccharides are crucial for neonatal development and health in mammals. Yet most milk research focuses on humans, or on domesticated mammals that are poor in milk oligosaccharide complexity. Here, we perform an exhaustive mass spectrometry-driven structural characterization of milk oligosaccharides in a wild mammal, female Atlantic grey seals (Halichoerus grypus), throughout their lactation period. Characterizing and quantifying 332 milk oligosaccharides, including 166 unreported structures, we reveal seals to rival human milk in complexity. We report seal free oligosaccharides to reach up to 28 monosaccharides in size. Paired glycomics and metabolomics time course analysis establishes a concerted regulatory process reshaping the seal milk glycome throughout lactation, similar to human milk. Functional analysis of the structures we here characterized reveals anti-biofilm effects and immunomodulatory functions of seal milk oligosaccharides. Our findings challenge long-held assumptions about milk complexity of non-human mammals and enable insights into the functional relevance of complex carbohydrates in milk.",

author = "Chunsheng Jin and Jon Lundstr{\o}m and Cori, \{Carmen R.\} and Shih-Yun Guu and Bennett, \{Alexander R.\} and Mirjam Dannborg and Pomeroy, \{Patrick P.\} and Kennedy, \{Malcolm W.\} and Johan Bengtsson-Palme and Rachel Hevey and Kay-Hooi Khoo and Daniel Bojar",

note = "Funding: The authors would like to thank James Urban for facilitating sample acquisition and transport. This work was supported by a Branco Weiss Fellowship – Society in Science awarded to D.B.; by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation; the Hasselblad Foundation; and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. C.C. and R.H. gratefully acknowledge support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (project 320030-231409) and the University of Basel, Switzerland. We thank SciLifeLab and BioMS (Swedish research council) for providing financial support to the Proteomics Core Facility, Sahlgrenska Academy. K-H.K. was supported by Academia Sinica grant AS-IR-113-L04. We thank the Academia Sinica Common Mass Spectrometry Facilities for Proteomics and Protein Modification Analysis funded by the Academia Sinica Core Facility and Innovative Instrument Project grant AS-CFII-108-107, for MS data collection. Sample collection from mother seals on the Isle of May was funded from core support given to the Sea Mammal Research Unit, Scottish Oceans Institute, from the Natural Environmental Research Council (United Kingdom).",

year = "2025",

month = nov,

day = "25",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-025-66075-2",

language = "English",

volume = "16",

pages = "1--15",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "Nature Research",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Seal milk oligosaccharides rival human milk complexity and exhibit functional dynamics during lactation

AU - Jin, Chunsheng

AU - Lundstrøm, Jon

AU - Cori, Carmen R.

AU - Guu, Shih-Yun

AU - Bennett, Alexander R.

AU - Dannborg, Mirjam

AU - Pomeroy, Patrick P.

AU - Kennedy, Malcolm W.

AU - Bengtsson-Palme, Johan

AU - Hevey, Rachel

AU - Khoo, Kay-Hooi

AU - Bojar, Daniel

N1 - Funding: The authors would like to thank James Urban for facilitating sample acquisition and transport. This work was supported by a Branco Weiss Fellowship – Society in Science awarded to D.B.; by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation; the Hasselblad Foundation; and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. C.C. and R.H. gratefully acknowledge support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (project 320030-231409) and the University of Basel, Switzerland. We thank SciLifeLab and BioMS (Swedish research council) for providing financial support to the Proteomics Core Facility, Sahlgrenska Academy. K-H.K. was supported by Academia Sinica grant AS-IR-113-L04. We thank the Academia Sinica Common Mass Spectrometry Facilities for Proteomics and Protein Modification Analysis funded by the Academia Sinica Core Facility and Innovative Instrument Project grant AS-CFII-108-107, for MS data collection. Sample collection from mother seals on the Isle of May was funded from core support given to the Sea Mammal Research Unit, Scottish Oceans Institute, from the Natural Environmental Research Council (United Kingdom).

PY - 2025/11/25

Y1 - 2025/11/25

N2 - Milk oligosaccharides are crucial for neonatal development and health in mammals. Yet most milk research focuses on humans, or on domesticated mammals that are poor in milk oligosaccharide complexity. Here, we perform an exhaustive mass spectrometry-driven structural characterization of milk oligosaccharides in a wild mammal, female Atlantic grey seals (Halichoerus grypus), throughout their lactation period. Characterizing and quantifying 332 milk oligosaccharides, including 166 unreported structures, we reveal seals to rival human milk in complexity. We report seal free oligosaccharides to reach up to 28 monosaccharides in size. Paired glycomics and metabolomics time course analysis establishes a concerted regulatory process reshaping the seal milk glycome throughout lactation, similar to human milk. Functional analysis of the structures we here characterized reveals anti-biofilm effects and immunomodulatory functions of seal milk oligosaccharides. Our findings challenge long-held assumptions about milk complexity of non-human mammals and enable insights into the functional relevance of complex carbohydrates in milk.

AB - Milk oligosaccharides are crucial for neonatal development and health in mammals. Yet most milk research focuses on humans, or on domesticated mammals that are poor in milk oligosaccharide complexity. Here, we perform an exhaustive mass spectrometry-driven structural characterization of milk oligosaccharides in a wild mammal, female Atlantic grey seals (Halichoerus grypus), throughout their lactation period. Characterizing and quantifying 332 milk oligosaccharides, including 166 unreported structures, we reveal seals to rival human milk in complexity. We report seal free oligosaccharides to reach up to 28 monosaccharides in size. Paired glycomics and metabolomics time course analysis establishes a concerted regulatory process reshaping the seal milk glycome throughout lactation, similar to human milk. Functional analysis of the structures we here characterized reveals anti-biofilm effects and immunomodulatory functions of seal milk oligosaccharides. Our findings challenge long-held assumptions about milk complexity of non-human mammals and enable insights into the functional relevance of complex carbohydrates in milk.

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-025-66075-2

DO - 10.1038/s41467-025-66075-2

M3 - Article

C2 - 41290693

AN - SCOPUS:105022829262

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 16

SP - 1

EP - 15

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 10067

ER -

Seal milk oligosaccharides rival human milk complexity and exhibit functional dynamics during lactation

Abstract

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Handle.net

Fingerprint

Projects

NERC Core Grant: SMRU NERC Core Grant

Datasets

Seal milk oligosaccharides rival human milk complexity and exhibit functional dynamics during lactation (code)

Seal milk oligosaccharides rival human milk complexity and exhibit functional dynamics during lactation (dataset)

Cite this