Mounting evidence suggests that the secret to understanding human health and combating metabolic diseases lies hidden within the microscopic world of our gut bacteria. Recent research by scientists at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) and Cornell University reveals that a specific fatty acid produced by gut bacteria directly influences fat metabolism in animals. This research is pivotal as it sheds light on the complex interplay between the diet, gut microbiota, and host metabolic health, offering insights that could open new avenues in our approach to managing metabolic disorders.
The researchers focused on certain gut bacteria that produce fatty acids with a special chemical structure, known as a cyclopropane ring, and showed that these can be converted into signals that turn on fat desaturation in the nematode C. elegans, a model organism often used to study human biology….
