Gut Microbiota

The symbiosis between the gut microbiota and the host depends on the metabolic and immunologic interaction with the host. Over the last ten years it has become evident that the development of a dysbiosis plays an important role in many diseases. These include metabolisms related diseases such as the metabolic syndrome, and diseases of the intestinal tract such as inflammatory bowel diseases, but there is also a gut–brain–axis that can be influenced by the intestinal microbiota.

With the advent of metagenomics, the question of the composition became addressable and associations between the development of a dysbiosis and an altered composition of the microbiota can now be analyzed. Given the extremely broad range of metabolic functions in the hundreds of species, a mechanistic understanding is key to detect the actual functionalities of the different families and species in the consortia.

In the section Gut Microbiota, we will focus on research questions aiming at the microbial ecology in the community, the functionalities of members of the microbiota, the metabolic and immunological interaction with the host and the role of the microbiota in human diseases. The editorial board will review all manuscripts submitted for publication in this section. However, articles which seem to be outside the scope of the subject matter listed here may be referred to another section of Microorganisms.

• Structure and function of the microbiota
• Microbial community genetics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics
• Interaction within the microbiota
• Metabolic interaction with the host
• Inflammatory diseases
• Interaction with the immune system
• Microbial biodegradation of nutrients and xenobiotics
• Microbial ecology
• Microbial functions in the different habitats within the gut
• Metabolic flux analysis
• Analysis of functionalities by stable isotope probing (DNA, RNA and protein)
• Model systems for studying microbiome biology
• Novel technologies for the analysis of structure and function of the microbiota

Click here to see the Section Editorial Board of "Gut Microbiota".

Click here to see a list of 58 papers published in this section