Abstract
Understanding the human gut microbiota has garnered interest from researchers and clinicians to pharmaceutical companies looking at novel mechanisms to manipulate the microbiota for the benefit of the host. Studies on the gut microbiota can be loosely characterized into three areas that include investigating the microbiota's role in the physiology of the healthy gut, in the establishment of gastrointestinal disease, and in extra-intestinal manifestations. With deep sequencing technologies now in routine use in the research environment, novel members of the gut microbiota are coming to light, and our understanding of this complex ecosystem and its relationship to the host is slowly improving.
Highlights
Understanding the human gut microbiota has garnered interest from researchers and clinicians to pharmaceutical companies looking at novel mechanisms to manipulate the microbiota for the benefit of the host
Palm and colleagues who developed a method to sort and sequence members of the intestinal microbiota based on coating with immunoglobulin A (IgA), termed IgA-SEQ, found one member of the Erysipelotrichaceae to be highly coated by IgA relative to other members of the gut microbiota (Palm et al, 2014)
The importance of Erysipelotrichaceae in inflammation-related disorders of the gastrointestinal tract is highlighted by the fact that they have been found to be enriched in colorectal cancer
Summary
Understanding the human gut microbiota has garnered interest from researchers and clinicians to pharmaceutical companies looking at novel mechanisms to manipulate the microbiota for the benefit of the host. Studies on the gut microbiota can be loosely characterized into three areas that include investigating the microbiota’s role in the physiology of the healthy gut, in the establishment of gastrointestinal disease, and in extra-intestinal manifestations. With deep sequencing technologies in routine use in the research environment, novel members of the gut microbiota are coming to light, and our understanding of this complex ecosystem and its relationship to the host is slowly improving. ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Ryan Chandler Johnson, Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, USA Traci Testerman, University of South Carolina, USA.
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