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Science 2 June 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5778, p. 1273
DOI: 10.1126/science.312.5778.1273g
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This Week in Science

At least 10 trillion microorganisms inhabit our lower intestinal tract; without them, we could not process the bulk of our food, and we would be vulnerable to the damaging effects of ingested toxins. Gill et al. (p. 1355) present a detailed metagenomic analysis of human intestinal microflora. Colonic bacteria and archaea not only help to keep the gut wall intact and healthy; they supply us with a suite of glycoside hydrolases to digest plant carbohydrates, trophic chains of organisms for fermentation of fiber to short chain fatty acids, methanogenesis for hydrogen scrubbing, the means to synthesize amino acids and vitamins, and pathways for the transformation of xenobiotic compounds from plant phenolics to tetrachloroethene.




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