Agathobacter rectalis is a gram-positive, butyrate-producing, anaerobic, rod-shaped and non-spore-forming bacterium from the genus Agathobacter. A. rectalis has a single flagellate and it occurs in the rumen content of sheep and cows, and in the gut microbiome of humans. It is suggested that Eubacterium rectale is a synonym of A. rectalis, although this is not universally accepted.
A 2021 study looked at 5,700 gut microbiome samples from humans of various ages around the world; fifty species were found in over 70% of the participants. Of those, A. rectalis was the most abundant species. The study noted that A. rectalis has a large diversity in sequence identity which may be a factor in why the studies found this to be the most abundant bacterium.
Alzheimer's Disease Patients with Alzheimer's disease can have a reduced abundance of short chain fatty acid producing bacteria, including A. rectalis: reduced numbers of A. rectalis in the gut may be a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.
Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease A. rectalis was found to be depleted in the gut microbiome of people with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and can be used as an indicator of MASLD severity.
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