GUT MICROBIOTA AND HOMEOSTASIS

GUT MICROBIOTA AND HOMEOSTASIS

The gastro-intestinal microbiota is a highly diverse bacterial community that performs an important digestive function and, at the same time, provides resistance against colonization by entero-pathogenic bacteria. Commensal bacteria resist pathogens thanks to resources competition, growth inhibition due to short-chain fatty acid production, killing with bacteriocins, and immune responses stimulation, external challenges such as antibiotic therapies can harm the microbiota stability and make the host susceptible to pathogen colonization

The human microbiome plays a key role in a wide range of host-related processes and has a profound effect on human health.

The human body is a complex ecosystem where microbes compete, and cooperate. These interactions can support health or promote disease, e.g. in dental plaque formation.

In nature, organisms rarely live in isolation, but instead coexist in complex ecologies with various symbiotic relationships. As defined in macroecology, observed relationships between organisms span a wide range including win-win (mutualism), win-zero (commensalism), win-lose (parasitism, predation), zero-lose (amensalism), and lose-lose (competition) situations

These interactions are also widespread in microbial communities, where microbes can exchange or compete for nutrients, signaling molecules, or immune evasion mechanisms