Question

WILL RATE YOU

How do some bacteria even survive within our guts?

We have learned so much about microbes and how they can form symbiotic relationships with a variety of organisms, but something that may be overlooked is their ability to survive in hostile environments. For example, the human gastrointestinal tract has a pH ranging from 6 in the small intestine all the way up to 7.4 in the terminal ileum. As we've learned, microbes are at their maximal efficiency within a small range of pH. Some bacteria are able to utilize the enzyme urease in order to make their living environment more hospitable; our kidneys produce a large amount of urea, and urease is able to hydrolyze urea to also produce ammonia which will raise the surrounding pH. Some of these microbes are helpful, while others are pathogenic. For example, some ureases are the culprit of kidney stones. It seems we cannot benefit from the symbiotic ureases without also risking infection of the pathogenic types. What other metabolic processes do you think gut microbes utilize to survive within our volatile bodies?

Please just answer the general question and site any sources! Thank you!

Answer 1

Gut microbes are in a mutualist relationship with humans. Gut microbes help us in the synthesis of vitamins K and B12. They also help in digestion of dietary fibers into simpler acids like acetic acid and butyric acid. They also help in metabolising bile acids and conjugation of xenobiotics. These microbes survive in gut by forming spores and biofilms. They secrete acid by metabolising simpler carbohydrates like glucose to survive in the alkaline environment of lower intestinal tract.