Tag: microbiome

Personality sits in the Gut!

The roles gut microbes play in health, disease and strategies

Microorganisms are fascinating components in life on earth. Many functions that used to be attributed to bigger life forms or their organs, are actually performed by microorganisms that have adjusted to a specialized niche, and effectively have become part of that life form.

PflanzenkläranlageWhen we observe the water-cleansing properties of a natural or constructed wetland, the filtration happens in the root system of the plants, while the processing of the filtrated substances is done by the microbes attached to the fine roots, and supplying them with nutrients. We talk of symbiosis, but it really is an integrated part of the plant’s organism. This is easier to understand when we perceive even individual beings as ecosystems – intelligent collaborations with buffering systems and multiple methods of self-organization. Continue reading →

New research supports holobiont concept

The META-Health and Permaculture concept of symbiosis into creation of an organism on micro- as on macro-levels is now being supported by the conclusion of new scientific research.

Kiel University investigated how our microbiome development is controlled by the nervous system:
Hydra www.mikrofoto.de
During the development of the nervous system of a hydra from egg stage to a fully-grown organism, it’s microbiome changes drastically in only 3 weeks, until it finally stabilizes in composition and local variations. From that, the researchers deduct original and universally valid principles of the nerve system’s functioning: the nerve cells produce neuropeptides (messengers consisting of amino acids) that suppress or allow the population by certain strains of bacteria. [1]

“Up to now, neuronal factors that influence the body’s bacterial colonisation were largely unknown. We have been able to prove that the nervous system plays an important regulatory role here,” emphasises Professor Thomas Bosch, evolutionary developmental biologist and spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Centre 1182 “Origin and Function of Metaorganisms,” funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG).

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