Comparative Gut Physiology Symposium: The Microbe-Gut-Brain Axis^,

Extract

The Comparative Gut Physiology Symposium titled “The Microbe-Gut-Brain Axis” was held at the Joint Annual Meeting of the American Society of Animal Science and the American Dairy Science Association on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Salt Lake City, UT. The goal of the symposium was to present basic research conducted in the area of gut physiology with focus on the relationship between gut microbiota and health, stress, and neural function in humans as well as in health and production of livestock. From this symposium, 3 of the invited presentations were submitted as a review papers of the topics. Two of the speakers (G. Clarke and J. F. Cryan) combined their talks into a single paper for a total of 2 papers from this symposium.

Dr. G. Clarke (University College of Cork, Ireland) presented a talk entitled “The gut microbiome as a regulator of physiology, brain, and behavior: Implications for the treatment of stress-related disorders.” Data presented focused on the role of the microbiome in the stress response and biochemical mechanisms by which the microbiome communicates with the brain (Wiley et al., 2017). Specifically, the role of gut microbiota on tryptophan metabolism was discussed with regard to serotonin production and other neuroactive compounds produced through the kynurenine pathway. Regulation of this metabolic pathway by the microbiota in the gut could provide a treatment for serotonin-related disorders such as depression.