September 6, 2022
Keio University
A research group led by Professor Yasubumi Sakakibara of the Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, and Mika Uehara, a student in the Doctoral Programs at the university's Graduate School of Science and Technology, in collaboration with the National Institute of Genetics and the Central Institute for Experimental Animals, has developed an analytical method to elucidate functional changes in the gut microbiota at the genetic level along the gastrointestinal tract (biogeographical location). This method has successfully enabled the functional prediction of unknown bacterial genes, which were overlooked by conventional methods, and has made it possible to accurately quantify changes in gene expression levels between different sites. Furthermore, by applying this method to the metatranscriptome analysis of the gastrointestinal tract of the common marmoset, which is anatomically and pharmacologically similar to that of humans, the research group has clarified the functional changes in the gut microbiota in response to changes in the internal environment along the gastrointestinal tract.
The results of this research were published in the American scientific journal "mSystems" on August 25, 2022.
Please see below for the full press release.