Gut Microbiota Diversity and Human Diseases: Should We Reintroduce Key Predators in Our Ecosystem?

Front Microbiol. 2016 Mar 31:7:455. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.00455. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Most of the Human diseases affecting westernized countries are associated with dysbiosis and loss of microbial diversity in the gut microbiota. The Western way of life, with a wide use of antibiotics and other environmental triggers, may reduce the number of bacterial predators leading to a decrease in microbial diversity of the Human gut. We argue that this phenomenon is similar to the process of ecosystem impoverishment in macro ecology where human activity decreases ecological niches, the size of predator populations, and finally the biodiversity. Such pauperization is fundamental since it reverses the evolution processes, drives life backward into diminished complexity, stability, and adaptability. A simple therapeutic approach could thus be to reintroduce bacterial predators and restore a bacterial diversity of the host microbiota.

Keywords: Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus; chronic human conditions; dysbiosis; ecosystem; predator; western lifestyle.