Microbial endocrinology and nutrition: A perspective on new mechanisms by which diet can influence gut-to-brain communication

The increasing recognition of the role which microorganisms within the intestinal tract (microbiome) play in reciprocal communication between the gut and brain is now only beginning to be elucidated. Microbiome driven gut-to-brain communication, for example, has been shown to influence cognitive states such as anxiety in humans and anxiety-like behavior in animals. One of the mechanisms that has been proposed to account for the ability of the microbiome to influence gut-to-brain communication has been by the microbial recognition and production of neuroendocrine hormones that otherwise have been exclusively associated with a mammalian nervous system. The study of such neuroendocrine–bacterial interactions is the interdisciplinary field known as microbial endocrinology that operates at the intersection of microbiology and neurobiology. The purpose of this mini-review is to expand the field of microbial endocrinology to nutrition and specifically examine the theoretical basis and evidence for a role of the microbiome in nutrition due to bacterial–neuroendocrine interactions contained within the interdisciplinary field of microbial endocrinology.