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The microbiota is a collective term for the micro-organisms that live in or on the human body. Specific clusters of microbiota are found on the skin or in the gastrointestinal tract, mouth, vagina and eyes.
A study on early life traumatic stress in mice suggest that changes in the fecal microbial community induced by early life stress can be perpetuated from exposed parent to the offspring across two generations.
The study reveals that raising mice at 22 °C boosts gut transit speed by two times compared to 30 °C, primarily due to stress signals from the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and an increase of corticotropin-releasing hormone.
In this Review, Özçam and Lynch examine recent findings reporting the interaction between the gut and the airway microbiomes and explore the role of gut–airway crosstalk in human health and respiratory diseases.
Here, by using a food digestion model in C. elegans, the authors identify a mechanism by which bacterial peptidoglycan (PGN) interacts with Bacterial Colonization Factor-1 (BCF-1) triggering C. elegans to expand its ability to consume a wide range of foods in their natural environment.