Gut Microbiota: Dominated by Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes - Essay Sample

Introduction

The gut microbiota is majorly consisting of the strict anaerobes, and they tend to outnumber the facultative anaerobes. Provided that the presence of over 50 bacterial phyla has always been found in the human gut up to date, there are only two phyla that dominate the microbiota, and they are Firmicutes and the Bacteroidetes. Since the gut microbiota encodes a greater number of genes that are more than its human host, it shows that they are capable of undertaking different metabolic functions that humans are not able to operate or can operate in a limited capacity (Sanchez et al., 2017).

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Alternatively, the bacteria in the gut can synthesize all non-essential and essential amino acids, produce different vitamins, and do bile biotransformation. The gut bacteria also issue an essential biochemical pathway for nondigestible carbohydrates metabolism, including huge polysaccharides- cellulose, pectin's resistant starches, and gums, alcohols from the diet, unabsorbed sugars and some oligosaccharides that tend to escape digestion (Sanchez et al., 2017). These functionalities promote the absorbable substrates and energy recovery for the supply and host of energy as well as nutrients for the proliferation and growth of bacteria.

The specific health condition that is linked to the imbalance of bacteria in the gut is the systemic metabolic diseases that are obesity and type 2 diabetes. The implication of gut microbiota is in the energy harvest and nutrient acquisition and gives birth to exometabolites like SCFAs that regulates the metabolic processes of the host. The SCFAs have been implicated in type 2 diabetes and obesity that are metabolic diseases. The fecal SCFAs high levels majorly the propionate and butyrate have been reported in adults and children that are obese (Sanchez et al., 2017).

The proportion and concentration changes of the individual SCFAs may be in conjunction with the changes in the bacterial phyla that are present. Therefore, the dysbiosis of any kind resulting in a disorder instead of directional alteration in functionality and composition of gut microbes may have a role itself in raising the diseased state susceptibility.

There are different diseases that my peers have addressed, and I can say that the main contribution of the gut microbiota to the different diseases that we have discussed is still not clear. It is because different etiology of gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases has been linked with various microbes, even though there is less information existing about their causal direction.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the gut microbiota evolves throughout life in human beings and seems to play a crucial role in both disease and health. In a state of disease, the gut microbiota is recognized as the environmental factor in interacting with the host's metabolism. It plays a role in systemic pathological conditions -diabetes and obesity. In a healthy condition, the gut microbiota has various positive functions like immune system modulation, protecting the host from invasion by pathogens and energy recovery (Sanchez et al., 2017).

Reference

Sánchez, B., Delgado, S., BlancoMíguez, A., Lourenço, A., Gueimonde, M., & Margolles, A. (2017). Probiotics, gut microbiota, and their influence on host health and disease. Molecular nutrition & food research, 61(1), 1600240. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27500859/