GUT BUGS: Bacteroides species crowd the human gut, where they degrade the hemicelluloses that would otherwise go undigested.CDC/DR. V.R. DOWELL, JR. (PHIL #3087), 1972/WIKIPEDIA
In the midst of his graduate training at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dylan Dodd spent a good chunk of time examining bacteria from cow stomachs. He characterized a suite of enzymes that allow one species, Prevotella bryantii, to break down the polysaccharide xylan, a major constituent of plant cell walls.
Along with his adviser, microbiologist and animal scientist Isaac Cann, Dodd was “prospecting” for enzymes that might be conscripted for biofuel production. Searching for related enzymes in other organisms, he uncovered genes from several species of Bacteroides—common microbial inhabitants of the human colon (J Bio Chem, 285:30261-73, 2010).
Even though Bacteroides and Prevotella belong to the same phylum, the similarity was unexpected, Dodd says: “Although they both [inhabit] gastrointestinal environments, they are rather ...
