THREE-QUARTERS of the bacterial species living in our intestines have never
been identified.
Antonia Suau of the Jouy-en-Josas laboratory of INRA, the French agricultural
research organisation, studied an elderly man鈥檚 faeces. With help from fellow
researchers at the University of Reading, she analysed the samples with a DNA
probe that recognised variants of the gene for 16S RNA, a bacterial nucleic acid
involved in the manufacture of proteins.
When the researchers sequenced these genes, 20 came from known species. But
there were 78 other variants that couldn鈥檛 be identified. 鈥淣ow we know they鈥檙e
here, we can try to isolate them,鈥� says Suau.
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It鈥檚 possible that some of the bacteria could cause disease, but Suau expects
that the vast majority will be harmless passengers.
