Protection of the mouse gut by mucus depends on microbes
The quality of the colon mucus in mice depends on the composition of gut microbiota, reports a Swedish-Norwegian team of researchers from the University of Gothenburg and the Norwegian University of...
View ArticleTwin astronauts provide Earth-bound control for orbital health study
As NASA astronaut Scott Kelly launches for the International Space Station Friday, March 27, Northwestern University scientists will be watching with more than a passing interest. Scott Kelly is half...
View ArticleGiant panda gut bacteria can't efficiently digest bamboo
It's no wonder that giant pandas are always chewing and eating, say Chinese researchers: their gut bacteria are not the type for efficiently digesting bamboo.
View ArticleMicrobe-mediated adaptation to a novel diet
Insects are the most diverse animal group on earth. Many of them feed on plants, and they are constantly challenged by the diverse direct and indirect defenses of their food plants as well as an...
View ArticleMultiple, co-existing groups of gut bacteria keep Clostridium difficile...
Multiple species of bacteria working together in healthy guts are responsible for keeping out nasty bacterial invader, Clostridium difficile, a hospital-acquired culprit responsible for 15,000 deaths...
View ArticleGut microbes enable coffee pest to withstand extremely toxic concentrations...
The coffee berry borer is the most devastating coffee pest in the world. The tiny beetle is found in most regions where coffee is cultivated, and a big outbreak can slash crop yield by 80 percent.
View ArticleGut microbiota regulates antioxidant metabolism
A recently published study shows that gut microbiota regulates the glutathione and amino acid metabolism of the host. Glutathione is a key antioxidant, found in every cell in our body. Deficiency of...
View ArticleResearchers cultivate the majority of bacteria in the laboratory that...
No organism is an island - a fact that also applies to plants. Healthy plants host complex microbial communities comprising over 100 bacterial species which presumably play important roles in plant...
View ArticleBears' seasonal hibernation linked to changes in gut microbes
Each year, as bears prepare to hibernate, they gorge themselves on food to pack on fat. And yet, despite the rapid weight gain, the animals somehow avoid the health consequences so often associated...
View ArticleOur gut microbiome is always changing; it's also remarkably stable
Turnover is to be expected in the gut—as soon as one bacterium leaves, another is ready to divide and take its place. The question, explored in a Review published March 17 in Trends in Microbiology,...
View ArticleMothers' milk and the infant gut microbiota: An ancient symbiosis
Nursing infants' gastrointestinal tracts are enriched with specific protective microbes. Mother's milk, itself, guides the development of neonates' gut microbiota, nourishing a very specific bacterial...
View ArticleAntibodies in breast milk help newborn mice tolerate good gut microbes
From the moment of birth, a newborn's gut is colonized by a diverse array of microbes that aid digestion and boost immunity. But it has not been clear how the newborn's immune system learns to tolerate...
View ArticleReal-time imaging of fish gut ties bacterial competition to gut movements
In recent years, numerous diseases have been tied to variations in gut microbiota. The rapidly growing probiotics industry targets gut and intestinal health by developing products built mostly around...
View ArticleMix and match microbes to make probiotics last
Scientists have tried to alter the human gut microbiota to improve health by introducing beneficial probiotic bacteria. Yet commercially available probiotics do not establish themselves in the gut. A...
View ArticleCanine hyperactivity reflected in the blood count
Professor Hannes Lohi's research group from the University of Helsinki and the Folkhälsan Research Centre has studied the blood count of hyperactive and impulsive dogs, together with the LC-MS...
View ArticleMinimum dose with maximum effect
LMU researchers have shown that a defined set of 15 bacterial species protects mice from Salmonella infections as effectively as does the natural gut microbiota. The system will facilitate studies of...
View Article'Pedal bin machine' of gut bacteria revealed
Researchers shed new light on the functioning of human gut bacteria, revealing how nutrients are transported into the bacterial cell.
View ArticleSocial bees have kept their gut microbes for 80 million years
About 80 million years ago, a group of bees began exhibiting social behavior, which includes raising young together, sharing food resources and defending their colony. Today, their descendants—honey...
View ArticleSynthetic biologists engineer inflammation-sensing gut bacteria
Synthetic biologists at Rice University have engineered gut bacteria capable of sensing colitis, an inflammation of the colon, in mice. The research points the way to new experiments for studying how...
View ArticleNew tools visualize where bacterial species live in the gut, control their...
Gut microbes play wide-ranging roles in health and disease, but there has been a lack of tools to probe the relationship between microbial activity and host physiology. Two independent studies in mice...
View ArticleResource availability drives person-to-person variations in microbes living...
The collection of microbial species found in the human body varies from person to person, and new research published in PLOS Computational Biology suggests that a significant part of this variation can...
View ArticleWhat fly guts could reveal about our health
Increasingly understood to be vital for wellbeing, gut microbiota are the trillion of microorganisms that live in the digestive tract of humans and other animals. Known to affect a range of...
View ArticleHunter-gatherers' seasonal gut-microbe diversity loss echoes our permanent one
More evidence that our intestinal microbes are profoundly influenced by the foods we eat—or don't: The gut ecosystems of members of a small group of hunter-gatherers inhabiting Tanzania's Rift Valley...
View ArticleGut microbiota of larvae has an impact on mosquito's ability to transmit...
Researchers have demonstrated that differential bacterial exposure during the development of mosquito larvae (Aedes aegypti) can influence adult traits related to the transmission of arboviruses. This...
View ArticleWhat's the latest on gut microbiota? Concordia microbiology undergrads...
How many undergraduate classes in microbiology—or any scientific field, for that matter—can say they're published in a peer-reviewed journal?
View ArticleDoes the titanium dioxide in food and nanomaterials affect the gut microbiome?
A new study has shown that the titanium dioxide (TiO2) frequently used in foods, coatings, pigments, and paints that is ingested can affect both the types of bacteria present in the human gut and the...
View ArticleGut bacteria from wild mice boost health in lab mice
Laboratory mice that are given the gut bacteria of wild mice can survive a deadly flu virus infection and fight colorectal cancer dramatically better than laboratory mice with their own gut bacteria,...
View ArticleMetagenomic analysis software reveals new causes of superbug emergence
Researchers from ITMO University and Center of Physical and Chemical Medicine have developed an algorithm capable of tracking the spread of antibiotic resistance genes in gut microbiota DNA and...
View ArticleRed-bellied lemurs maintain gut health through touching and 'huddling' each...
Scientists have found a direct link between physical contact and gut bacteria in red-bellied lemurs. Likely passed through 'huddling' behaviour and touch, the findings suggest implications for human...
View ArticleHow honey bee gut bacteria help to digest their pollen-rich diet
The honey bee gut is colonized by specialized bacteria that help digest components of the floral pollen diet and produce molecules that likely promote bee health. In a study publishing 12 December in...
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