Question

please answer 3 and 4!

3. Give an example of a vitamin that is made by the bacteria in our intestinal system. a. What is the importance or function of this vitamin? b. Is it unusual that bacteria would produce an organic compound that is an important vitamin for human metabolic function? 4. Researchers estimate that as much as 10% of the calories we absorb are made available to us by microbial activity in our intestinal system. Explain the activity of microbes in our intestinal system that supplies us with these calories.

Answer 1

Answer to Q.3- Example of a vitamin that is produced by the Gut microbiota is Vitamin K

Importance of Vitamin K—i. Vit K helps in the increased absorption of Calcium in the bone.

                                                ii. Vitamin K is very very essential for the blood clotting process to occur .

                                                iii. It is involved in the Electron Transport chain process.

It is not unusual .This is because the humans cannot synthesize this vitamin and evolution has shaped the gut microbiota in a way that the bacteria relies on the human host for their survival, while they contribute to the human nutrition by providing Vitamins and other macromolecules.

Answer to Q.4- Butyrate is one of the short chain fatty acids, that is produced by the gut microbiota(eg- Bacteroides) . The complex and the branched carbohydrates that are escaped from the digestion process (because of the absence of the appropriate digestive enzymes) are utilised by these bacteria and inreturn they provide macromolecules such as butyrate, which also provides energy upon absorption and assimilation.