microbiota
Type: organism Aliases: microbiomegut microbiotagut microbiomemicrobial ecosystemmicrobiota shiftsgut flora
- Systems Analogy A busy community of trillions of helpful bacteria living in your digestive tract.
- Formal Definition The collective community of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, archaea, and viruses) residing within a specific ecological niche, such as the human gastrointestinal tract. Note: While 'microbiota' refers to the physical population of microbes and 'microbiome' refers to their collective genomes and habitat, they are functionally used interchangeably in clinical literature.
Mentioned In
- Biological CircuitsFasting, Microbiome Shifts, and Neuroinflammation, Gut Dysbiosis & Microglial Priming in Alzheimer's, Hanski Biodiversity Hypothesis & Immune Training
- Conditioncolorectal cancer, gut dysbiosis
- Moleculefolate, short-chain fatty acids
- Organismmicroglia
- ProcessAlternate Day Fasting, cognitive function, FMT, gut-brain axis, neuroinflammation
Scientific Sources & Literature Citations
- [1] Empirical Study Mela V, et al. Microbiota fasting-related changes ameliorate cognitive decline in obesity and boost ex vivo microglial function through the gut-brain axis. Gut. 2025;74:1828-1846. ↗
"The gut microbiota mediates physiological adaptations and systemic inflammatory signals to the host."