title: Gut microbiota and obesity: lessons from the microbiome.
abstract: The distal gut harbours microbial communities that outnumber our own eukaryotic cells. The contribution of the gut microbiota to the development of several diseases (e.g. obesity, type 2 diabetes, steatosis, cardiovascular diseases and inflammatory bowel diseases) is becoming clear, although the causality remains to be proven in humans. Global changes in the gut microbiota have been observed by a number of culture-dependent and culture-independent methods, and while the latter have mostly included 16S ribosomal RNA gene analyses, more recent studies have utilized DNA sequencing of whole-microbial communities. Altogether, these high-throughput methods have facilitated the identification of novel candidate bacteria and, most importantly, metabolic functions that might be associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes. This review discusses the association between specific taxa and obesity, together with the techniques that are used to characterize the gut microbiota in the context of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Recent results are discussed in the framework of the interactions between gut microbiota and host metabolism.
authors.affiliation: Université catholique de Louvain, LDRI, Metabolism and Nutrition research group, Avenue E. Mounier, 73, PO Box B1.73.11, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium. patrice.cani@uclouvain.be
authors.forename: Patrice D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Cani
mesh_terms: D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000382:microbiology; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D064307:Microbiota / Q000235:genetics; D009765:Obesity / Q000382:microbiology; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
keywords: 16S rRNA; Akkermansia; gut microbiota; metagenomics; obesity; type 2 diabetes