The bacteria that colonize the gastrointestinal tracts of mammals represent a highly selected metagenome that has a profound influence on human physiology by shaping the host's metabolic and immune network activity. Despite the recent advances on the biological principles that underlie microbial symbiosis in the gut of mammals, mechanistic understanding of the contributions of the gut microbiome and the links of variations in the metabotypes to the host health are obscure. Here we mapped the entire biosynthetic potential of the gut microbiome based on metagenomics sequencing data that derived from fecal samples of 267 European individuals. These metabolic signatures were used to study the signaling cascade triggered in humans through chemical (bacterial metabolites)-protein interaction networks and provide evidence of how specific changes in the gut microbial community/metabolism might affect or counteract the development of IBDs, obesity and related diseases.

Studying the chemical interactome space between the human host and the genetically defined metabotypes of our gut

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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