Changes in the Human Gut Microbiota Associated With Colonization by Blastocystis sp. and Entamoeba spp. in Non-Industrialized Populations
Magali Chabé's works, at the CIIL, strongly suggest that Blastocystis and Entamoeba likely act through different mechanisms to interact with the gut bacterial microbiota. The presence of intestinal eukaryotes such as Blastocystis needs to be taken into account when studying the interaction of Entamoeba spp. amoebas with the intestinal bacterial microbiota.
Human gut microbial communities are mainly composed of bacteria, but also include fungi, viruses, archaea, and protozoa, whose role in the gut ecosystem has only recently begun to be recognized. For example, humans colonized by Blastocystis (a gut protozoan with controversial pathogenicity) host a more diverse bacterial microbiota than individuals not carrying it, suggesting that its presence may be beneficial for the host. In parallel, the presence of non-pathogenic Entamoeba spp. has been associated with an increased diversity and compositional shifts in the bacterial microbiota of healthy rural individuals in Cameroon. However, Entamoeba and Blastocystis, the two most prevalent human gut protozoa, have never been studied in the same individuals, preventing the study of their interaction.
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