Toni Jernfors, Anton Lavrinienko, Igor Vareniuk, Rikard Landberg, Rikard Fristed, Olena Tkachenko, Sara Taskinen, Eugene Tukalenko, Tapio Mappes, Phillip C Watts
Animals host complex bacterial communities in their gastrointestinal tracts, with which they share a mutualistic interaction. The numerous effects these interactions grant to the host include regulation of the immune system, defense against pathogen invasion, digestion of otherwise undigestible foodstuffs, and impacts on host behaviour. Exposure to stressors, such as environmental pollution, parasites, and/or predators, can alter the composition of the gut microbiome, potentially affecting host-microbiome interactions that can be manifest in the host as, for example, metabolic dysfunction or inflammation...
January 4, 2024: Science of the Total Environment