Fig. 1.

Beneficial compounds and potential mechanisms of postbiotics in gut health and animal production. The components of postbiotics, including exopolysaccharides, wall teichoic acids, lipoteichoic acids, wall polysaccharides, S-layer proteins, unmethylated CpG motifs, metabolites exert beneficial effects on the gut health, mainly through the inhibition of pathogens, reinforce gut barrier function, and immunoregulation mechanisms. Postbiotics can be used as growth promoter and alternative to antibiotics in animal production. CpG, cytosine-guanine dinucleotide in particular base contexts; TLR, Toll-like receptor