Gut Microbiota Essay

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Recommended: Human Gut Microbiota

The human body is actually a complex ecosystem comprising of fauna representing all three major domains of life, namely bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. This is because its various surfaces such as skin, oral cavity, vaginal mucosa, respiratory passages, and, most importantly, the gastrointestinal (GI) tract are colonized by a wide variety of microorganisms. The microbiota “organ” is the central bioreactor of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, populated by a total of 1014 bacteria and characterized by a genomic content (microbiome) which represents more than 150 times the human genome. Nearly 99% of microbes in the human gut belong to 1000–1200 bacterial species, placed in one of the four phyla, namely Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria3 with little representation from the other bacterial phyla. …show more content…

The gut microbiota plays an indispensable role in the maintenance of host's homeostasis. The microbiota acts as a barrier against pathogens and their invasion with a highly dynamic modality, thereby, exerting metabolic multi-step functions and stimulating the development of the host immune system through a well-organized programming, which influences the entire growth and aging processes (1). Alterations in the gut microbiota that is in the nature and relative density of various constituent bacterial species appear to have a role in pathogenesis and progression of several GI and hepatic diseases. Gut microbiota may offer a novel area of therapeutic intervention across a diverse array of GI

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