Bridging the gap: <i>Prevotella/Segatella's</i> impact on gut barrier function and advanced cultivation strategies to realize the uses in gut health

<i>Prevotella</i> and <i>Segatella</i> are important, keystone genera in the gut microbiota, renowned for their exceptional fiber-degrading capacity. These genera critically modulate gut microbial composition, influence host metabolic pathways and gut barrier function, and exhibit formidable ecological niche competitiveness, underscoring their pivotal role in gut ecosystem dynamics. While they dominate healthy gut microbiomes, their probiotic potential on epithelial barrier function has been disproportionately overlooked. This review comprehensively elucidates their microbial eco-profiling and the underlying molecular mechanisms in sustaining intestinal barrier function, considering physical, chemical, biological, and microbiological dimensions, thereby providing insights relevant to the prevention and treatment of intestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and metabolic disorders. Most importantly, we have summarized 23 current commercial and research-based isolation and cultivation approaches for <i>Prevotella</i>/<i>Segatella</i>, integrating the emerging high-throughput methodologies to expand the available strain repertoire. We also emphasize the critical need for subsequent research to characterize strain-specific functional profiles through multi-omics approaches, which will be essential for developing targeted and personalized microbial therapeutics.