Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
From Structure To Function: The Ecology Of Host-Associated Microbial Communities, Courtney Jaime Robinson, Brendan J M Bohannan, Vincent Bensan Young
From Structure To Function: The Ecology Of Host-Associated Microbial Communities, Courtney Jaime Robinson, Brendan J M Bohannan, Vincent Bensan Young
Courtney Robinson
In the past several years, we have witnessed an increased interest in understanding the structure and function of the indigenous microbiota that inhabits the human body. It is hoped that this will yield novel insight into the role of these complex microbial communities in human health and disease. What is less appreciated is that this recent activity owes a great deal to the pioneering efforts of microbial ecologists who have been studying communities in non-host-associated environments. Interactions between environmental microbiologists and human microbiota researchers have already contributed to advances in our understanding of the human microbiome. We review the work …
Antibiotic Administration Alters The Community Structure Of The Gastrointestinal Micobiota, Courtney Jaime Robinson, Vincent Bensan Young
Antibiotic Administration Alters The Community Structure Of The Gastrointestinal Micobiota, Courtney Jaime Robinson, Vincent Bensan Young
Courtney Robinson
We recently demonstrated that antibiotic administration has a reproducible effect on the community structure of the indigenous gastrointestinal microbiota of mice. In this addendum we report on additional experimentation using the antibiotic vancomycin. In accord with our previous findings, vancomycin administration results in consistent alteration of the microbiota of the cecal contents and the cecal mucosa. These alterations are largely reversed by a three-week period of recovery without antibiotics. In contrast to our previous results using other antibiotics, the alterations in community structure associated with vancomycin occured without a significant decrease in the overall bacterial biomass. These results indicate that …