Abstract
It has long been known that bacteria existing in our intestinal tract affect our health and diseases. Because of difficult in cultivation, culture-based conventional methods have not provided detailed analysis of intestinal bacteria. However, development of genome-based analytical methods using next-generation sequencers allow the analysis of even difficult to cultivate intestinal bacteria. As a result, it has become clear that a greater number of intestinal bacteria are involved in our health than we had imagined, the identification of beneficial bacteria and its application to food and medicine. Furthermore, it has become possible to identify effective bacterial molecules by utilizing metabolome analysis. These technologies applied in various human studies reveal that there are large individual differences in the bacteria in the human intestine, and it is now possible to determine the dietary factors that define these differences, or conversely, to categorize their dietary effects based on the differences in intestinal bacteria. In this special issue, cutting-edge researchers will introduce the background and latest trends involving intestinal bacteria that are attracting attention both academically and socially.
