Recent Advances in the Analysis of Gut Microbiota and their Relationship with Disease

Numerous and complex microbial communities colonize the gastrointestinal tracts of people and animals. In recent years, culture-dependent technology, molecular ecology, and metabonomics methods have been applied to investigate how the composition of this complex system dictates its function and metabolic activity and how it correlates with host health. This article reviews the recent advances in the study gut microbiota and the relationship between some common metabolic diseases and gut microbiota that have identified in recent years.