First set for 2016 of microbiota studies involving the gut or other anatomic sites

Microbe Magazine of ASM (2016. 02)

Here in brief are findings from several recent reports of efforts to understand "how microorganisms in the gut or elsewhere in the body affect the host":

• Depleting the gut microbiota helps to enhance type 2-cytokine signaling and convert M1 into M2 macrophages in host mice—in turn, stimulating development of beige from white fat, helping to keep such animals lean regardless of their food intake (M. Trajkovski, U. Geneva: Nature Medicine, 2015).

• Proteins produced by Escherichia coli in the gut of rodents may signal “fullness” to the host by activating “satiety pathways,” releasing hormones from the gut and also modulating sensory pathways in the brain (S. Fetissov, Rouen U in France: Cell Metabolism, 2015).

• Bacteria in the gut of German cockroaches release pheromones, including volatile carboxylic acids that play a major role in how the cockroaches socialize and communicate (A. Wada-Katsumata, North Carolina State U: PNAS, 2015).

• In mice lacking lymphocytes, the adaptation of E. coli to the gut environment is slowed compared to those bacteria in hosts with intact immune systems (I. Gordo and J. Demengeot, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia in Oeiras, Portugal: Nature Communications, 2015).

• Analyses of the gut microbiomes of American Indians of Cheyenne and Arapaho ancestry indicate a reduced abundance of the anti-inflammatory bacterial genus Faecalibacterium and a fecal metabolite profile consistent with dysbiosis and metabolic disorders (C. M. Lewis, Jr., U. Oklahoma: Current Biology, 2015).

• The gut microbial populations in patients with enteric infections change in similar ways regardless of the specific pathogen responsible for causing their disease. Moreover, blocking increases in E. coli may be important for preventing those bouts of disease. (S. Manning, Michigan State U.: Microbiome, 2015).

• Microbes in the gut convert polyphenols in pomegranate juice into urolithins (6H-dibenzo[b,d]pyran-6-one derivatives), which can protect against Alzheimer's disease (N. Seeram, U Rhode Island, ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 2015).