Bacteroides
- Public and Environmental Health Microbiology | SpotlightEcological and Technical Mechanisms for Cross-Reaction of Human Fecal Indicators with Animal Hosts
Identifying human sources of fecal pollution is critical to remediate sanitation concerns. Large financial investments are required to address these concerns; therefore, a high level of confidence in testing results is needed. Human fecal marker genes validated in this study showed high specificity in both sequencing data and qPCR results. Human marker sequences were rarely found in individual animals, and in most cases, the animals had...
- Enzymology and Protein Engineering | SpotlightAdaptation of Syntenic Xyloglucan Utilization Loci of Human Gut Bacteroidetes to Polysaccharide Side Chain Diversity
The catabolism of complex carbohydrates that otherwise escape the endogenous digestive enzymes of humans and other animals drives the composition and function of the gut microbiota. Thus, detailed molecular characterization of dietary glycan utilization systems is essential both to understand the ecology of these complex communities and to manipulate their compositions, e.g., to benefit human health. Our research reveals new insight...
- Public and Environmental Health Microbiology | SpotlightHighly Specific Sewage-Derived Bacteroides Quantitative PCR Assays Target Sewage-Polluted Waters
Bacteroides are major members of the gut microbiota, and host-specific organisms within this genus have been used extensively to gain information on pollution sources. This study provides a broad view of the population structure of Bacteroides within sewage to contextualize the well-studied HF183 marker for a human-associated Bacteroides. The study also delineates host-specific sequence patterns across...
- Environmental MicrobiologyPersistence of Bacteroides Species Populations in a River as Measured by Molecular and Culture Techniques