Team finds novel vehicle for antibiotic resistance

Antibiotic resistance is a significant and growing medical problem worldwide. Researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and collaborators have found a novel genetic arrangement that may help a common bacterium ...

Understanding how microbiota thrive in their human hosts

A research team lead by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biology, Tübingen, Germany, has now made substantial progress in understanding how gut bacteria succeed in their human hosts on a molecular level. They ...

Researchers develop basic computing elements for bacteria

The "friendly" bacteria inside our digestive systems are being given an upgrade, which may one day allow them to be programmed to detect and ultimately treat diseases such as colon cancer and immune disorders.

Bacteroides

Bacteroides is a genus of Gram-negative, bacillus bacteria. Bacteroides species are non-endospore-forming, anaerobes, and may be either motile or non-motile, depending on the species. The DNA base composition is 40-48% GC. Unusual in bacterial organisms, Bacteroides membranes contain sphingolipids. They also contain meso-diaminopimelic acid in their peptidoglycan layer.

Bacteroides are normally mutualistic, making up the most substantial portion of the mammalian gastrointestinal flora, where they play a fundamental role in processing of complex molecules to simpler ones in the host intestine. As many as 1010-1011 cells per gram of human feces have been reported. They can use simple sugars when available; however, the main sources of energy for Bacteroides species in the gut are complex host-derived and plant glycans .

One of the most important clinically is Bacteroides fragilis.

Bacteroides melaninogenicus has recently been reclassified and split into Prevotella melaninogenica and Prevotella intermedia.

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