Tag Archives: human gut

Some Bacteria Have Lived in the Human Gut Since Before We Were Human

AUSTIN, Texas — Some of the bacteria in our guts were passed down over millions of years, since before we were human, suggesting that evolution plays a larger role than previously known in people’s intestinal-microbe makeup, according to a new study in the journal Science. (more…)

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Obesity-Related Gut Bacteria Higher in People in Northern Climes

People living in northern latitudes have more gut bacteria linked to obesity compared with people living in southern latitudes, a new study has found.

People living in cold, northern latitudes have bacteria in their guts that may predispose them to obesity, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of California, Berkeley. (more…)

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Revealing the Secrets of Motility in Archaea

Scientists from Berkeley Lab and the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology analyze a unique microbial motor

The protein structure of the motor that propels archaea has been characterized for the first time by a team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Germany’s Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Terrestrial Microbiology.

The motility structure of this third domain of life has long been called a flagellum, a whip-like filament that, like the well-studied bacterial flagellum, rotates like a propeller. But although the archaeal structure has a similar function, it is so profoundly different in structure, genetics, and evolution that the researchers argue it deserves its own name: archaellum. (more…)

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Gut Microbe Networks Differ From Norm in Obese People, Systems Biology Approach Reveals

For the first time, researchers have analyzed the multitude of microorganisms residing in the human gut as a complex, integrated biological system, rather than a set of separate species. Their approach has revealed patterns that correspond with excess body weight.

The senior author of the paper, Elhanan Borenstein, assistant professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington, said, “Our research introduces a novel framework, applying systems biology and in-silico (computer) modeling to study the human microbiome – the complex ensemble of microorganisms that populate the human body – as a single cohesive system.” (more…)

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A Bug Like a Russian Doll

*A former UA postdoctoral fellow has discovered amazing relationships between organisms: a bacterium living inside a bacterium living inside an insect. Evolving together, the organisms depend on each other for survival, and each contributes a subset of the enzymes needed in shared metabolic pathways.*

Sure, many bacteria cause disease, but most people don’t realize how beneficial they can be. The human gut, for example, brims with bacteria that play critical roles in everything from immune system development and extracting energy from food to providing necessary nutrients.

They get a nice comfy home living inside people, and in return they help us. It’s a symbiotic relationship. However, these beneficial partnerships are nothing compared to the complex relationships between bacteria and citrus mealybugs recently discovered by a team of biologists led by former UA researcher John McCutcheon, who recently took a position as an assistant professor at the University of Montana. (more…)

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