Gut flora

community of microorganisms in the digestive tracts of humans

species of fungus

genus of fungi

microorganisms in or on human tissues and biofluids

Saccharomyces is a genus of fungi that includes many species of yeasts. The name Saccharomyces is from Greek () and () and means sugar fungus. Many members of this genus are considered very important in food production where they are known as brewer's yeast, baker's yeast and sourdough starter among others. They are unicellular and saprotrophic fungi. One example is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is used in making bread, wine, and beer, and for human and animal health. Other members of this genus include the wild yeast Saccharomyces paradoxus that is the closest relative to S. cerevisiae, Sac

biochemical signaling that takes place between the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract) and the central nervous system

Psychobiotics is a term used in preliminary research to refer to live bacteria that, when ingested in appropriate amounts, might confer a mental health benefit by affecting microbiota of the host organism. Whether bacteria might play a role in the gut-brain axis is under research. A 2020 literature review suggests that the consumption of psychobiotics could be considered as a viable option to restore mental health although lacking randomized controlled trials on clear mental health outcomes in humans.

Postbiotics are preparations of dead microorganisms and/or their components that are believed to confer a health benefit on the host. Most such preparations are derived from bacteria believed to be beneficial (so-called probiotics), with most purported benefits having to do with the digestive tract.

CrAss-like phages (crassviruses) are an order of bacterial viruses (bacteriophages) that represent the most abundant viruses in the human gut, discovered in 2014 by cross assembling reads in human fecal metagenomes. In silico comparative genomics and taxonomic analysis have found that crAss-like phages represent a highly abundant and diverse family of viruses. CrAss-like phage were predicted to infect bacteria of the Bacteroidota phylum and the prediction was later confirmed when the first crAss-like phage (crAss001) was isolated on a Bacteroidota host (Bacteroides intestinalis) in 2018. Crass