Evolutionary Game Theory Acts in the Dysbiotic Gut Microbiota

Abstract

This report primarily discusses how evolutionary game theory can be used to interpret the dysbiotic gut microbiota of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. We will focus on one of two types of IBD - ulcerative colitis (UC). The pathogenesis of UC is believed to be closely related to the shift of the gut microbiota from symbiosis to dysbiosis, and this shift leads to the abnormal activation of the immune system and the occurrence of inflammation. Here, we integrate the principle of evolutionary game theory to formulate the mathematical equations describing how microbes interact with each other in the gut microbiota. These equations found a basis for the reconstruction of informative, dynamic, omnidirectional, and personalized networks (idopNetwork). The topological analysis of idopNetwork can help to identify key microbial interaction pathways underlying the shift of the gut microbiota from the symbiosis to dysbiosis and vice versa. I will demonstrate this idea by analyzing a real dataset of the gut microbiota.