Understanding the Gut Microbiota

This book discusses the community of microbial species (the microbiota, microbiome), which inhabits the large bowel of humans. Written from the perspective of an academic who has been familiar with the topic for 40 years, it provides a long-term perspective of knowledge about this high profile and fast-moving topic. Building on general ecological principles, the book aims to help the reader to understand how the microbiota is formed, how it works, and what the consequences are to humans.

Understanding the Gut Microbiota focuses on conceptual progress made from studies of the human bowel microbiota. Where appropriate, it draws on knowledge obtained from other animal species to provide conceptual enlightenment, but this is essentially a book about humans and their bowel microbes. Particular research approaches are recommended to fill knowledge gaps so that fundamental ecological theory and information about the microbiota can be translated into benefits for human health. The relationship between food for humans and resulting food for bowel bacteria emerges as an important topic for consideration.

This concise scholarly treatise of the microbiota of the human bowel will be of great interest and use as a text and reference work for professionals, teachers and students across a wide range of disciplines, including the health sciences, general biology, and food science and technology. The provision of handy ‘explanation of terms’ means that those with a general interest in science can also read the book with enjoyment.

Professor Gerald W. Tannock is based at the University of Otago and was awarded a Professorial Chair in 1996. He was awarded a Royal Society of New Zealand Silver Medal in 2000 for his contributions to science and technology and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2002.
Professor Tannock's research concerns the communities of bacteria that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract of animals. Research projects include the microbiology of inflammatory bowel diseases, the use of a unique colony of Lactobacillus-free mice in investigating the molecular foundations of gut autochthony using lactobacilli as model bacteria, engineering bowel communities by dietary manipulation, and the impact of bifidobacterial species on the activation of human dendritic cells with respect to atopic diseases. Professor Tannock's expertise has added an important microbiological facet to national and international, multi-disciplinary clinical studies in recent years.