Gut Microbiome and Human Health

Dear Colleagues,

A growing body of scientific evidence supports an important, if not critical, role for gut microbes in the maintenance of gastrointestinal and general health. Despite this awareness, there are still significant gaps in our knowledge relating to the impacts of diet, lifestyle, genes and the environment on the gut microbiome, and how this translates to beneficial or detrimental health outcomes. Influences on gut microbes during establishment of microbial population profiles during early infancy, and potentially any time thereafter, could lead to susceptibilities to some diseases through development of less than ideal microbial populations. Microbial dysbioses have not only been linked to gastrointestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease but also to a wide range of conditions affecting other parts of the body, and could contribute to obesity and associated metabolic complications, mental health and behavioural problems, and allergies, to name some examples. Understanding what represents a normal or optimal gut microbial profile is challenging given the significant inter-individual variation in these populations but currently available methods such as next generation sequencing, metagenomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics are beginning to shed new light on the composition, activities and products of our complex human microbial populations. We invite submissions to this Special Issue, which use these and other methods to extend our understanding of the role of the gut microbiome and/or their products in human health, and especially submissions which also examine the influence of nutrition. Studies using in vitro systems, animal experimentation and human analysis or intervention are welcome, as are submissions describing the effects of probiotics, prebiotics and other treatments, which modulate gut microbial populations.

Dr. Michael Conlon
Dr. Cuong Tran
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.