Love the one you're with: vertebrate guts shape their microbiota.
Using germ-free animals, Rawls et al. (2006) reveal that the gut of a given host can be colonized by the microbiota of another vertebrate. Remarkably, the recipient host then shapes the composition of the non-native microbiota to more closely resemble that of its native consortium.
McFall-Ngai
Margaret
M
Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 53706, USA. mjmcfallngai@wisc.edu
D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005856:Germ-Free Life; D008660:Metabolism / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice / Q000382:microbiology*; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D013559:Symbiosis; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000382:microbiology*