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Research has shown that gut microbes can influence several aspects of the host s life, including aging. Given the complexity and heterogeneity of the human gut environment, elucidating how a specific microbial species contributes to longevity has been challenging. To explore the influence of bacterial products on the aging process, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University developed a method that uses light to directly control gene expression and metabolite production from bacteria residing in the gut of the laboratory worm Caenorhabditis elegans.
They report in the journal
eLife that green-light-induced production of colanic acid by resident E. coli bacteria protected gut cells against stress-induced cellular damage and extended the worm s lifespan. The researchers indicate that this method can be applied to study other bacteria and propose that it also might provide in the future a new way to fine-tune bacterial metabolism in the host gut to deliver