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Published January 2016 | Accepted Version
Journal Article Open

Gut biogeography of the bacterial microbiota

Abstract

Animals assemble and maintain a diverse but host-specific gut microbial community. In addition to characteristic microbial compositions along the longitudinal axis of the intestines, discrete bacterial communities form in microhabitats, such as the gut lumen, colonic mucus layers and colonic crypts. In this Review, we examine how the spatial distribution of symbiotic bacteria among physical niches in the gut affects the development and maintenance of a resilient microbial ecosystem. We consider novel hypotheses for how nutrient selection, immune activation and other mechanisms control the biogeography of bacteria in the gut, and we discuss the relevance of this spatial heterogeneity to health and disease.

Additional Information

© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. Published online 26 October 2015. The authors thank E. Hsiao, B. Needham and T. Sampson for critical comments on the manuscript. G.P.D. is supported by a US National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (grant DGE‑1144469). Work in the S.K.M. laboratory is supported by funding from the US National Institutes of Health (grants GM099535, DK078938 and MH100556), the Emerald Foundation and the Simons Foundation. The authors declare no competing interests.

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August 20, 2023
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