Abstract
Although numerous reports link a decreased diversity of the gut microbiota to a declined health status, to date no mechanistic motivation for this exists. Here, we show by applying first principles basic graph theory on small networks that higher diversity within such a network indeed leads to more efficient systems and redundancy. Our results quantitatively support earlier hypothetical considerations on gut microbiota richness with respect to these parameters. Our simulations show that higher species diversity leads to higher resilience within small microbiological ecosystems, like being present in the gut microbiota. This notion should provide an ingredient when developing new interventional strategies within the domain of microbiota management.
Highlights
The gut microbiota has been a topic of immense interest over the last years, as its composition and diversity seem to be intimately linked to health and disease[1]
Our novel results indicate that a higher diversity of the microbial composition leads to a more efficient system, providing a mechanistic base of the general notion that a more diverse microbiota is associated with improved health status
A higher efficiency upon higher species diversity is for example observed in mercury-reducing biofilms[11]
Summary
Numerous reports link a decreased diversity of the gut microbiota to a declined health status, to date no mechanistic motivation for this exists. Our simulations show that higher species diversity leads to higher resilience within small microbiological ecosystems, like being present in the gut microbiota. This notion should provide an ingredient when developing new interventional strategies within the domain of microbiota management. The gut microbiota harbours a huge number of microorganisms, being approximately equal to the number of human cells[4] It comprises an inherently complex network of microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions[5]. Our novel results indicate that a higher diversity of the microbial composition leads to a more efficient system, providing a mechanistic base of the general notion that a more diverse microbiota is associated with improved health status
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