Dynamic Properties of the Intestinal Ecosystem Call for Combination Therapies, Targeting Inflammation and Microbiota, in Ulcerative Colitis.

Background & Aims: Intestinal microbiota-host interactions play a major role in health and disease. This has been documented at the microbiota level ("dysbiosis" in chronic immune-mediated diseases) and through the study of specific bacteria-host interactions but rarely at the level of intestinal ecosystem dynamics. However, understanding the behavior of this ecosystem may be key to the successful treatment of disease.

Alternative stable states in the intestinal ecosystem: proof of concept in a rat model and a perspective of therapeutic implications.

Background: Chronic immune-mediated diseases are rapidly expanding and notoriously difficult to cure. Altered relatively stable intestinal microbiota configurations are associated with several of these diseases, and with a possible pre-disease condition (more susceptible to disease development) of the host-microbiota ecosystem. These observations are reminiscent of the behavior of an ecosystem with alternative stable states (different stable configurations that can exist under identical external conditions), and we recently postulated that health, pre-disease and disease represent such alternative states.

Humans as holobionts: implications for prevention and therapy.

The human gut microbiota is increasingly recognized for its important or even decisive role in health. As it becomes clear that microbiota and host mutually affect and depend on each other in an intimate relationship, a holistic view of the gut microbiota-host association imposes itself. Ideally, a stable state of equilibrium, homeostasis, is maintained and serves health, but signs are that perturbation of this equilibrium beyond the limits of resilience can propel the system into an alternative stable state, a pre-disease state, more susceptible to the development of chronic diseases.

Horizontal Gene Transfer and Ecosystem Function Dynamics.

Horizontal gene transfer can provide bacteria with new functions that confer an important competitive advantage, and is therefore likely to affect the dynamics of bacterial ecosystems. Two studies by Wolfe et al. and Bonham et al.

Unprecedented large inverted repeats at the replication terminus of circular bacterial chromosomes suggest a novel mode of chromosome rescue.

The first Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus genome sequence revealed the presence of a very large inverted repeat (IR), a DNA sequence arrangement which thus far seemed inconceivable in a non-manipulated circular bacterial chromosome, at the replication terminus. This intriguing observation prompted us to investigate if similar IRs could be found in other bacteria.