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Biological Chemistry

Human stomach hosts microbial diversity

January 9, 2006 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 84, Issue 2

The human stomach is like a churning pouch of battery acid, so it takes a hardy bacterium to live there. The most prevalent stomach microbe known, Helicobacter pylori, causes most peptic ulcers. Now, an analysis of DNA extracted from stomach biopsies of 23 patients has unearthed genetic signs of another 128 microbial species (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2006, 103, 732). "The work might lead to a better understanding of how the stomach's microbial communities protect us," comments principal investigator David A. Relman of Stanford University School of Medicine. It also might uncover microbes that are causative agents of still poorly understood ailments, such as inflammatory bowel disease, adds team member Paul B. Eckburg. Like the explorations of 19th-century naturalists to discover previously unknown species in faraway places, this new investigation of stomach microbiota "is an effort to see who are the parties at the table," Relman says. Next, scientists hope to learn what roles the various stomach microbes might have in sickness and in health.

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