Volume 28, No 2, Feb 2018
ISSN: 1001-0602
EISSN: 1748-7838 2018
impact factor 17.848*
(Clarivate Analytics, 2019)
Volume 28 Issue 2, February 2018: 135-136
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Wild gut microbiota protects from disease
Francesca S Gazzaniga1,Dennis L Kasper1
1Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Correspondence: Dennis L Kasper(dennis_kasper@hms.harvard.edu)
Wild mice are genetically similar to laboratory mice, but have a distinct gut microbiota that protects from disease.
There is no doubt that the trillions of bacteria that inhabit the mammalian gut play crucial roles in health and disease. It seems that for every disease or condition, gut bacteria influence the outcome. Therefore, many scientists are dedicated to finding the good bacteria that make our bodies healthier. We control as many environmental factors as we can to try to determine how one bacteria influences a certain condition. However, in doing so, we eliminate the natural variation that occurs outside of the laboratory and potentially overlook important factors that influence host-microbe interactions. In a recent paper published in Cell, Rosshart et al. [1] investigate the genetic and microbial differences between laboratory mice and wild mice and demonstrate that these differences have a profound effect on disease.
10.1038/cr.2017.150
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