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Home, sweet home: how mucus accommodates our microbiota
Author(s) -
Wang Benjamin X.,
Wu Chloe M.,
Ribbeck Katharina
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the febs journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.981
H-Index - 204
eISSN - 1742-4658
pISSN - 1742-464X
DOI - 10.1111/febs.15504
Subject(s) - mucus , dysbiosis , biology , human health , microbiome , function (biology) , microbiology and biotechnology , bacteria , human microbiome , immunology , ecology , medicine , bioinformatics , evolutionary biology , genetics , environmental health
Healthy mucus houses a microbiota marked by high diversity and functional stability, but the environmental drivers behind community selection and maintenance are unclear. Mucins are large glycoproteins critical to the structural and biochemical properties of mucus. In this Perspective, we propose several strategies by which mucus may regulate the composition and function of the human microbiota and discuss how compromised mucus barriers in disease can give rise to microbial dysbiosis.