Home, sweet home: how mucus accommodates our microbiota

As a natural environment for human-microbiota interactions, healthy mucus houses a remarkably stable and diverse microbial community. Maintaining this microbiota is essential to human health, both to support the commensal bacteria that perform a wide array of beneficial functions and to prevent the outgrowth of pathogens. However, how the host selects and maintains a specialized microbiota remains largely unknown. In this viewpoint, we propose several strategies by which mucus may regulate the composition and function of the human microbiota and discuss how compromised mucus barriers in disease can give rise to microbial dysbiosis.

Automated summary

Healthy mucus houses a stable and diverse microbial community, essential for human health to support commensal bacteria and prevent pathogen overgrowth. Mucus may regulate microbiota composition and function through various strategies, while compromised mucus barriers in disease can lead to microbial dysbiosis.