The inflammasome: A remote control for metabolic syndrome

Humans can be divided into roughly three groups with distinct microbial communities in their gastro-intestinal tract. The microbiota contributes to metabolic activity in the gastro-intestinal tract of the host, but what mechanisms shape the composition of the gut microbiota, and how does a person's 'enterotype' affect metabolic processes in distant organs? Flavell and colleagues shed light on these questions by revealing an important role for inflammasomes in modulating the prevalence of colitogenic species, and by demonstrating that dysbiosis influences susceptibility to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and other manifestations of metabolic syndrome.