Worlds within worlds: evolution of the vertebrate gut microbiota

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 months 1 day (www.nature.com)

This article is a writeup of an analysis of published 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences to compare the bacterial assemblages that are associated with humans and other mammals, metazoa and free-living microbial communities that span a range of environments. The composition of the vertebrate gut microbiota is influenced by diet, host morphology and phylogeny, and in this respect the human gut bacterial community is typical of an omnivorous primate. However, the vertebrate gut microbiota is different from free-living communities that are not associated with animal body habitats

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