ABSTRACT
Gut microbiome serves as a critical interface between the host’s cells and the externalenvironment and plays important roles in a variety of health and disease states. Dysbiosis (disruption of healthy microbiome) and eubiosis (restoration of healthy microbiome) is a dynamic bidirectional transitional process which is influenced by a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic agents including heavy metal (HM) ions. Microbiome–HM ion interaction impacts the structure and function of the microbiome leading a variety of consequences such as alteration of the dynamics of pan-genomic metabolism (microbiome-host co-metabolism) and also metabolism and exacerbation or mitigation of toxic activity of HMs by gut microbiome. In this review, we attempted to summarize the current knowledge on the various aspects of heavy metal-gut microbiome interactions and the resultant outcomes of five major HMs, namely arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb), which have emerged as an important area of research.
