The microbe Akkermansia muciniphila is found in many animals and is a common part of the human gut microbiome; three to five percent of all the microbes found in human stool are A. muciniphila. This bacterium has been found to degrade mucin, a major component of mucus. This can pose a problem for people who are receiving chemotherapy. Higher levels of A. muciniphila have also been linked to an increase in symptoms of nausea during pregnancy. But this microbe may have many important and beneficial impacts too; it has also been connected to a lower risk of metabolic disease, and abnormal levels of the microbe have been associated with immune dysfunction, neurological disease, and other disorders.
There is still a lot to learn about A muciniphila, such as what its genes do. About one-third of its genome encodes for proteins with unknown functions. Scientists have now used molecular techniques to reveal the genes in A. muciniphila that might be related to its growth in the gut, how it uses mucin, and how is related to the production of cholesterol. The findings have been reported in Nature Microbiology.
