Vultures are scavengers that fill a key ecosystem niche, in which they have evolved a remarkable tolerance to bacterial toxins in decaying meat. Here we report the first deep metagenomic analysis of the vulture microbiome. Through face and gut comparisons of 50 vultures representing two species, we demonstrate a remarkably conserved low diversity of gut microbial flora. The gut samples containe...

The alimentary tract at birth is either sterile or contains only a few micro-organisms (Wilson and Miles, 1955). Within a few days of birth a profuse flora is established in the mouth and large intestine. However, the small intestine remains relatively free from micro-organisms throughout life (Cregan and Hayward, 1953; Anderson and Langford, 1958a). Thus in health it seems that some antibacter...

The alimentary tract at birth is either sterile or contains only a few micro-organisms (Wilson and Miles, 1955). Within a few days of birth a profuse flora is established in the mouth and large intestine. However, the small intestine remains relatively free from micro-organisms throughout life (Cregan and Hayward, 1953; Anderson and Langford, 1958a). Thus in health it seems that some antibacter...

Eighty-one stool samples from Taiwanese were collected for analysis of the association between the gut flora and obesity. The supervised analysis showed that the most, abundant genera of bacteria in normal samples (from people with a body mass index (BMI) ≤ 24) were Bacteroides (27.7%), Prevotella (19.4%), Escherichia (12%), Phascolarctobacterium (3.9%), and Eubacterium (3.5%). The most abundan...

Indicine N-oxide, a pyrrolizidine alkaloid N-oxide that exhibits antitumor activity without some of the toxic effects associated with other pyrrolizidine alkaloids, is metabolized to indicine in rabbits and humans. Indicine can be detected in the plasma and is excreted in the urine in a dose-dependent manner following the i.v. administration of indicine N-oxide. The p.o. administration of indic...

A vibrant and healthy gut flora is essential for preventing the proliferation of Clostridium difficile, a pathogenic bacterium that causes severe gastrointestinal symptoms. In fact, most C. difficile infections (CDIs) occur after broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment, which, by eradicating the commensal gut bacteria, allows its spores to proliferate. Hence, a C. difficile specific antibiotic that...

The susceptibility of Anopheles mosquitoes to Plasmodium infections relies on complex interactions between the insect vector and the malaria parasite. A number of studies have shown that the mosquito innate immune responses play an important role in controlling the malaria infection and that the strength of parasite clearance is under genetic control, but little is known about the influence of ...

Obesity is currently a pandemic of worldwide proportions affecting millions of people. Recent studies have proposed the hypothesis that mechanisms not directly related to the human genome could be involved in the genesis of obesity, due to the fact that, when a population undergoes the same nutritional stress, not all individuals present weight gain related to the diet or become hyperglycemic. ...

probiotic products highly affect the health of consumers by reducing the risk of heart attacks and improving the desirable microflora in the intestinal tract. in this study the effect of yogurt (500g/d for 3 wk) enriched with either bifidobacterium bifidum or lactobacillus acidophilus on the level of cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (ldl) and high density lipoprotein (hdl) of serum and ...