Gut Bacteria Give Super Seaweed-Digestion Power to Japanese

[n2doc]

By Brandon Keim April 7, 2010 | 1:00 pm | Categories: Biology, Food


The old adage, “You are what you eat,” has a bacterial component.

In a neat confluence of human history, stomach bacteria and food, researchers have found that the intestinal microbes of Japanese people may be souped up for eating seaweed.

“In a marine bacteria, we identified an enzyme that is very specialized for degrading algal cell walls,” said Mirjam Czjzek, a biologist at France’s Station Biologique de Roscoff. “The only other place we find this enzyme is in the human-gut bacteria of Japanese individuals.”

The discovery, described April 7 in Nature, started with Roscoff biologist Jan-Hendrik Hehemann’s analysis of Zobellia galactanivorans, a common marine bacteria. In it, he found an enzyme that breaks down porphyran, a carbohydrate found in the cell walls of red algae.

The gene that codes for the enzyme has been found in one other place: the genome of Bacteroides plebeius, a microbe found in human intestines. However, not all B. plebeius strains produce the algae-crunching enzyme. It has only been found in Japanese people.



Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/sushi-guts/

[bridgit]

1. I'm still not real big on sushi

[theoldman]

2. I have eaten seaweed with no ill effects.

What goes in must go out.

[slackmaster]

3. That looks really, really delicious

I think I need to go eat some now.

[applegrove]

4. Since I have been taking Sea Kelp pills I find that I don't gain weight when I cheat

on my diet. I think my metabolism is higher.

[Hekate]

5. Humans in every locale have slightly different gut flora; one reason for travellers' trots...

... is that your gut has to get in sync with the local offerings in the food and water. I'm not talking about illnesses like e coli or cholera, of course.

Hekate

[lunasun]

6. evolution adaption to enviroment,,,I dont get much red algae anyway these days,,,,

so won't miss what I ain't got