Biomathematics & Statistics Scotland
The growth of bacteria during the fermentation of food in the human gut plays an important role in human health -- for example, bacteria may produce metabolites which help prevent colonic cancer. At any given time each person has their own unique gut bacterial community consisting of several hundred different strains of bacteria. A numerical model of the human gut containing 200 randomly generated strains of bacteria that grow at differing rates on a selection of dietary substrates allows many possible bacterial communities to 'emerge'. Preliminary results indicate that the average properties of these emergent communities compare well with those of the human population, suggesting that the model may be used to estimate changes in gut bacterial communities in response to changes in diet.
Modelled time
evolution of the
concentrations
of bacterial
functional
groups (top)
dietary
substrates
(middle) and
metabolites
(bottom) over 1
day (averaged
over 100 model
realisations).
Further details from: Helen Kettle
