HEALTH
Scientists unveil an ‘atlas’ of the gut microbiome
WORDS EMILY COOKE
Scientists can now predict how individual bacteria in the gut
interact with each other to reveal how they affect our health – for
better or worse. The trillions of microbes and viruses that coexist inside and on the surface of the body are collectively known as the microbiome. The largest concentrations of these microbes are found in the gut. While some perform helpful roles in the body, such as the digestive powers of
Lactobacillus,
others, such as toxic strains of
Escherichia coli, can cause disease. Many microbes survive by consuming nutrients that have been produced by other microbes, and when these interactions break down, it can cause an imbalance between helpful and diseasecausing microbes that leads to conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, until now it has been difficult to map out all of these complex interactions.