?How do bacteria help us

How do bacteria help us?

 if you examine people’s gut ecosystems closely, as researchers at the
European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, have done,
you will find something astonishing. The scientists have discovered that
people’s gut ecosystems fall into three distinct types, which they call
enterotypes. And the three categories hold up despite differences in ethnicity,
 sex, weight, height, health, or age. The scientific team is now exploring possible reasons why the three enterotypes exist. It’s all speculation at this point, but it may be because the intestines of newborn infants are randomly colonized by certain collections of pioneering bacteria, and these microbes change the gut so that only certain species can follow or elaborate on them. We will surely find the answer in coming years.
As we know, gut bacteria help in food digestion, work with the immune system, help prevent disease-causing bacteria from gaining a toehold in the gut, and synthesize vitamins by producing enzymes that our bodies can’t produce. Dr. Peer Bork, the leader of the Heidelberg group, and his fellow scientists have found that each of the three enterotypes makes a different balance of these enzymes, and thus produces a different mix of vitamins. For example, the ecosystem they call Enterotype 1 (ET1) has high levels of bacteroides that produce enzymes for manufacturing vitamin B7, also known as biotin. Bacteroides in Enterotype 2 (ET2) were fairly rare, while the genus Prevotella was very common and produced enzymes that make vitamin B1, called thiamine.