Originally published in Science Express on 22 May 2008
Science 20 June 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5883, pp. 1647 - 1651
DOI: 10.1126/science.1155725

Evolution of Mammals and Their Gut Microbes
Ruth E. Ley, Micah Hamady, Catherine Lozupone, Peter J. Turnbaugh, Rob Roy
Ramey, J. Stephen Bircher, Michael L. Schlegel, Tammy A. Tucker, Mark D.
Schrenzel, Rob Knight, Jeffrey I. Gordon
Mammals are metagenomic in that they are composed of not only their own gene
complements but also those of all of their associated microbes. To
understand the coevolution of the mammals and their indigenous microbial
communities, we conducted a network-based analysis of bacterial 16S
ribosomal RNA gene sequences from the fecal microbiota of humans and 59
other mammalian species living in two zoos and in the wild. The results
indicate that host diet and phylogeny both influence bacterial diversity,
which increases from carnivory to omnivory to herbivory; that bacterial
communities codiversified with their hosts; and that the gut microbiota of
humans living a modern life-style is typical of omnivorous primates.

Source: Science
1155725
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek