In this video, we're going to talk about how members of our normal microbiome can actually make nutrients for the host and aid in host digestion as well. And so once again, an important feature of the microbiome is its ability to produce essential nutrients for the host. And so down below, we have three examples of how the microbiome can either make nutrients for the host or aid in host digestion. And so intestinal microbiome members can actually produce essential vitamins that are critical for the host. For example, vitamins B and vitamin K that can be absorbed and utilized by the host. Also, intestinal microbiome members can also produce enzymes that are capable of degrading complex carbohydrates for the host, essentially aiding in host digestion, helping the host break down complex carbohydrates so that the host can utilize the smaller segments of those carbohydrates. And then last but not least here, we're also mentioning how fermenting bacteria that are part of the normal microbiome can also produce energy sources for epithelial cells.
And so if we take a look at our image down below, we can get a better understanding of how the microbiome can, once again, make nutrients for the host and aid in digestion. And so notice over here we're showing you a human, and we're zooming in specifically to the gut region here. And, within the gut, you can see that there are going to be many microbiome, many microbes that are part of the microbiome. And so the microbes of the large and small intestine here, which you'll notice, here we have these blue microbes that are producing vitamin B, and here this microbe is producing vitamin K. And so, we can label this as vitamins that are being produced by members of the microbiome. And then, of course, the host can utilize these essential critical vitamins for its own use. Down below over here in the bottom left of our image, we're showing you how some of the members of the microbiome can actually produce enzymes, represented here as these little tiny scissors. And these enzymes are capable of degrading complex carbohydrates into smaller components, and that is going to aid in digestion. And so these enzymes can degrade these complex carbohydrates for the host. And then last but not least here, we're also showing you some fermenting bacteria here that are capable of producing energy sources that can be utilized by epithelial cells allowing them to obtain energy.
And so ultimately, the big takeaway here is that the normal microbiome plays a critical role in making nutrients for the host and aiding in host digestion. And once again, without the members of the normal microbiome, life as we know would not be able to exist. And so we rely on our microbiome to create nutrients and to aid in our digestion. And so this here concludes our brief lesson on this, and we'll be able to get some practice applying this as we move forward. So I'll see you all in our next video.