Editor's Summary
21 December 2006
Inside story
Our gut microbes do us a service by performing metabolic chores that we have not evolved to do for ourselves. In a sense their genes are part of the 'metagenome' that is Homo sapiens. That is illustrated by two related papers in this issue that present evidence for a microbial component to obesity. A study of the abundance of the two dominant groups of bacteria in the gut of obese individuals shows that increased numbers of Bacteroidetes bacteria correlate with weight loss. And a study of genetically obese mice reveals that their gut microbial community has a greater capacity for harvesting energy than that of lean littermates: the trait is transmissible by transplanting the community into germ-free mice. This work suggests that the gut microbiome associated with obesity might be a biomarker and possibly a therapeutic target.
News and Views: Physiology: Obesity and gut flora
The intestinal bacteria in obese humans and mice differ from those in lean individuals. Are these bacteria involved in how we regulate body weight, and are they a factor in the obesity epidemic?
Matej Bajzer & Randy J. Seeley
doi:10.1038/4441009a
Brief Communications: Microbial ecology: Human gut microbes associated with obesity
Ruth E. Ley, Peter J. Turnbaugh, Samuel Klein & Jeffrey I. Gordon
doi:10.1038/4441022a
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (234K) | Supplementary information
Article: An obesity-associated gut microbiome with increased capacity for energy harvest
Peter J. Turnbaugh, Ruth E. Ley, Michael A. Mahowald, Vincent Magrini, Elaine R. Mardis & Jeffrey I. Gordon
doi:10.1038/nature05414
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (228K) | Supplementary information
