BACKGROUND The human intestine is host to an enormously complex, diverse, and vast microbial community-the gut microbiota. The gut microbiome plays a profound role in metabolic processing, energy production, immune and cognitive development, epithelial homeostasis, and so forth. However, the composition and diversity of the gut microbiome can be readily affected by external factors, which raise...

Bacteriophage associated with the human gut microbiome are likely to have an important impact on community structure and function, and provide a wealth of biotechnological opportunities. Despite this, knowledge of the ecology and composition of bacteriophage in the gut bacterial community remains poor, with few well characterized gut-associated phage genomes currently available. Here we describ...

The diverse microbial community that inhabits the human gut has an extensive metabolic repertoire that is distinct from, but complements the activity of mammalian enzymes in the liver and gut mucosa and includes functions essential for host digestion. As such, the gut microbiota is a key factor in shaping the biochemical profile of the diet and, therefore, its impact on host health and disease....

BACKGROUND The gut microbiota is associated with several of metabolic diseases, including obesity and type 2 diabetes and affects host physiology through distinct mechanisms. The microbiota produces a vast array of metabolites that signal to host cells in the intestine as well as in more distal organs. SCOPE OF REVIEW Enteroendocrine cells acts as 'chemo sensors' of the intestinal milieu by e...

This study showed that in adult Drosophila melanogaster, the type of sugar-either present within the crop lumen or in the bathing solution of the crop-had no effect on crop muscle contraction. What is important, however, is the volume within the crop lumen. Electrophysiological recordings demonstrated that exogenous applications of serotonin on crop muscles increases both the amplitude and the ...

To reveal the changes in gut microbiota of yellow catfish after being infected by Edwardsiella ictaluri, 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing technology was used to analyze microbial composition and diversity healthy diseased catfish. The richness fish were significantly lower than those fish. predicted function drastically altered infection E. ictaluri. Fusobacteriota, Proteobacteria, Firm...

Aquaporins (AQPs) play a pivotal role in gut homeostasis since their distribution and function is modulated both in physiological and in pathophysiological conditions. The transport of water and solutes through gut epithelia is essential for osmoregulation and digestive and absorptive functions. This passage is regulated by different AQP isoforms and characterized by their peculiar distribution...

Dietary modulation of the gut microbiota impacts human health. Here we investigated the hitherto unknown effects of resistant starch type 4 (RS4) enriched diet on gut microbiota composition and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) concentrations in parallel with host immunometabolic functions in twenty individuals with signs of metabolic syndrome (MetS). Cholesterols, fasting glucose, glycosylated hae...

Gastrointestinal motility and transport of water and electrolytes play key roles in the pathophysiology of diarrhea upon exposure to enteric parasites. These processes are actively modulated by the enteric nervous system (ENS), which includes efferent, and afferent neurons, as well as interneurons. ENS integrity is essential to the maintenance of homeostatic gut responses. A number of gastroint...

It is presently unclear how much individual community members contribute to the overall metabolic output of a gut microbiota. To address this question, we used the honey bee, which harbors a relatively simple and remarkably conserved gut microbiota with striking parallels to the mammalian system and importance for bee health. Using untargeted metabolomics, we profiled metabolic changes in gnoto...