Glossary
Gut microbiota.
Direct answer
The gut microbiota is the community of bacteria, archaea, fungi and viruses that colonises the digestive tract. This community breaks down food components the host cannot process alone, produces metabolites in doing so, and remains in constant exchange with the gut wall and the immune system of the host.
Microbiota and microbiome are frequently mixed up: microbiota refers to the organisms themselves, microbiome to their genes together with the habitat. The split into good and bad bacteria is equally misleading, since composition, diversity and metabolic output in a given context matter more than individual names on a list.
In the horse, colonisation is concentrated in the hindgut and dominated by fibre degraders tuned to a steady supply of forage. In humans, a changing mixed diet shapes the community. Findings from human research therefore do not transfer directly to horses, even when the sequencing methods used are identical.
The evidence letter
Once a month: new syntheses, checked studies, and what has changed in the state of the evidence.