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Tag Archives: Guts
Some guts are better than others at harvestin
image: Associate professor Henrik Roager in the lab.
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Credit: University of Copenhagen.
New research from the University of Copenhagen suggests that a portion of the Danish population has a composition of gut microbes that, on average, extracts more energy from food than do the microbes in the guts of their fellow Danes. The research is a step towards understanding why some people gain more weight than others, even when they eat the same.
Unfair as it, some of us seem to put on weight just by looking at a plate of Christmas cookies, while others can munch away with abandon and not gain a gram. Part of the explanation could be related to the composition of our gut microbes. This, according to new research conducted at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports.
Researchers studied the residual energy in the faeces of 85 Danes to estimate how effective their gut microbes are at extracting energy from food. At the same time, they mapped the composition of gut microbes for each participant.
The results show that roughly 40 percent of the participants belong to a group that, on average, extracts more energy from food compared to the other 60 percent. The researchers also observed that those who extracted the most energy from food also weighed 10 percent more on average, amounting to an extra nine kilograms.
“We may have found a key to understanding why some people gain more weight than others, even when they don’t eat more or any differently. But this needs to be investigated further,” says Associate Professor Henrik Roager of the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports.
May increase the risk of obesity
The results indicate that being overweight might not just be related to how healthily one eats or the amount of exercise one gets. It may also have something to do with the composition of a person’s gut microbes.
Participants were divided into three groups, based on the composition of their gut microbes. The so-called B-type composition (dominated by Bacteroides bacteria) is more effective at extracting nutrients from food and was observed in 40 percent of the participants.
Following the study, the researchers suspect that a portion of the population may be disadvantaged by having gut bacteria that are a bit too effective at extracting energy. This effectiveness may result in more calories being available for the human host from the same amount of food.
“The fact that our gut bacteria are great at extracting energy from food is basically a good thing, as the bacteria’s metabolism of food provides extra energy in the form of, for example, short-chain fatty acids , which are molecules that our body can use as energy-supplying fuel. But if we consume more than we burn, the extra energy provided by the intestinal bacteria may increase the risk of obesity over time,” says Henrik Roager.
Short travel time in the gut surprises
From mouth to esophagus, stomach, duodenum and small intestine, large intestine and finally to rectum, the food we eat takes a 12-to-36-hour journey, passing several stations along the way, before the body has extracted all the food’s nutrients.
The researchers also studied the length of this journey for each participant, all of whom had similar dietary patterns. Here, the researchers hypothesized that those with long digestive travel times would be the ones who harvested the most nutrition from their food. But the study found the exact opposite.
“We thought that there would be a long digestive travel time would allow more energy to be extracted. But here, we see that participants with the B-type gut bacteria that extract the most energy, also have the fastest passage through the gastrointestinal system, which has given us something to think about,” says Henrik Roager.
Confirms previous study in mice
The new study in humans confirms earlier studies in mice. In these studies, it was found that germ-free mice that received gut microbes from obese donors gained more weight compared to mice that received gut microbes from lean donors, despite being fed the same diet.
Even then, the researchers proposed that the differences in weight gain could be attributable to the fact that the gut bacteria from obese people were more efficient at extracting energy from food. This is the theory now being confirmed in the new study by the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports.
“It is very interesting that the group of people who have less energy left in their stool also weigh more on average. However, this study doesn’t provide proof that the two factors are directly related. We hope to explore this more in the future,” says Henrik Roager.
About gut bacteria:
- Everyone has a unique composition of gut bacteria – shaped by genetics, environment, lifestyle and diet.
- The collection of gut bacteria, called the gut microbiota, is like an entire galaxy in our gut, with a staggering 100 billion of them per gram of stool.
- Gut bacteria in the colon serve to break down food parts that our body’s digestive enzymes can’t, e.g., dietary fibre.
- Humans can be divided into three groups based on the presence and abundance of three main groups of bacteria that most of us have: B-type (Bacteroides), R-type (Ruminococcaceae) and P-type (Prevotella).
About the study
- The energy content of stool specimens from 85 overweight Danish women and men was examined.
- Participants included men and women from 22 to 66 years old.
- 40 percent of participants fell into a special group, characterized by having a lower diversity of gut bacteria and faster travel time for food through their digestive tracts.
- This group was also found to have less residual energy in their stool compared to the other two groups, which could not be explained by differences in habitual diet.
- The researchers also observed that the group with less energy in their stool also weighed more than the other groups.
Contact:
Henrik Roager
Associate Professor
Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports
University of Copenhagen
hero@nexs.ku.dk
+45 35 32 49 28
+45 25 48 06 99
Michael Skov Jensen
Journalist and team coordinator
The Faculty of Science
University of Copenhagen
+ 45 93 56 58 97
msj@science.ku.dk
Article Title
Stool energy density is positively correlated to intestinal transit time and related to microbial enterotypes
Article Publication Date
12-Dec-2022
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
Ravenous meat-eating dinosaur’s guts preserved in exceptionally rare fossil
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More than 100 million years ago, a fearsome birdlike dinosaur was swept into a lake and transformed into an exceptional fossil in what is now China, preserving one of the few intact gut remnants known from nonavian dinosaurs, a new study finds.
Paleontologists knew they had unearthed something special when they saw “a large bluish layer in the abdomen” of the fossilized beast, which belongs to the newly discovered species Daurlong wangi, as well as a dinosaur lineage called the dromaeosaurids, which includes the ancestors of modern birds. This bluish layer had “exceptional preservation” of the dinosaur’s gut, the researchers wrote in the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports (opens in new tab) on Nov. 19.
The finding offers valuable insight into both bird and dinosaur gut evolution, giving researchers a clearer window into dinnertime during the Lower Cretaceous (145 million to 100.5 million years ago).
Related: These 125 million-year-old fossils may hold dinosaur DNA
Dromaeosaurids — also known as “raptors” — like D. wangi were mostly small, feathered and carnivorous. This group roamed the Earth from the mid-Jurassic period (about 167 million years ago) until the end of the Cretaceous period (66 million years ago). Their ranks included some of the most famous pop culture dinosaurs, such as Velociraptor and Deinonychus. But despite their popularity, little is known about their actual guts.
Soft tissue preservation is rare for any fossil, and intestinal preservation is particularly uncommon in dinosaurs. “This is the first case among dromaeosaurids,” study co-author Andrea Cau, an independent paleontologist based in Parma, Italy, told Live Science in an email.
Fossilization conditions have to be just right in order to prevent decay-causing bacteria from eating away delicate soft tissues, such as cartilage and organs. The newly described D. wangi specimen was likely buried very quickly under soft, fine sediments at the bottom of a body of water in what is now the Jehol Biota — an area known for well-preserved fossils in modern-day Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in northern China. There, in the low-oxygen environment where aerobic bacteria could not survive, the dinosaur’s remains mineralized into fossils.
The researchers named the dinosaur’s genus, “Daurlong,” after the Daur people of Inner Mongolia and “long,” the Chinese word for “dragon.” The species name, “wangi,” honors Wang Junyou, the director of the Inner Mongolian Museum of Natural History.
The remarkable preservation provides insight into how D. wangi lived, and what it could have eaten. From what the researchers could tell, its intestinal tract appears similar to the very few other remnants known from meat-eating dinosaurs, suggesting that more omnivorous dromaeosaurid gut plans didn’t evolve until after the dawn of modern birds following the Cretaceous period. It also appears that D. wangi ate small prey, such as mammals (which were no larger than badgers during the Mesozoic era), fish, other small dinosaurs and possibly amphibians. “Given the abundance of frogs and other amphibians in the Daurlong locality,” it’s possible that this dromaeosaurid hunted frogs and salamanders, Cau said.
Although D. wangi‘s guts were preserved, its stomach was not. Perhaps the “extremely acid environment of the stomach immediately after the death of the animal” prevented it from mineralizing and turning into a fossil, the researchers wrote in the study.
Contrary to their depiction in the 1993 movie “Jurassic Park,” most dromaeosaurids were relatively small and lightweight. D. wangi itself was a little less than five feet (1.5 meters) long from tip to tail, about the size of a pony. And, like other members of its family, it sported feathers.
In the future, Cau and his team plan to examine the specimen more closely to glean insight about its feathers, life, and possibly its death. “Our hope is to determine some information about its plumage color in life and to better reconstruct the peculiar conditions which led to soft tissue preservation,” he said.
Alien shopping-bag ocean weirdo has glowing Cheetos for guts
Resembling an alien shopping bag with guts made of glowing Cheetos, a bizarre creature took center stage in new footage captured by a remotely operated vehicle deep in the Pacific Ocean.
Gliding through the sea at a depth of some 7,221 feet (2,201 meters), the ocean weirdo — actually an unknown species of sea cucumber — had its innards on display in the new clip, taken in March by an ROV exploring part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument southeast of Honolulu. The ROV was gliding over an unexplored seamount at the Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll when operators spotted the creature, said Megan Cook, the director of education and outreach at The Ocean Exploration Trust’s Nautilus Live.
“These are always so exciting and spectacular to see because — just, what an incredible animal,” Cook told Live Science.
Sea cucumbers, or holothurians, are a diverse group, with many species distributed across the Central Pacific, Cook said. The one spotted by the ROV linked to the research vessel E/V Nautilus crew belongs to a family called Elpidiidae, she said. These deep-sea cucumbers are scavengers that feed on marine snow, a shower of skin cells, poop and bits of dead animals that filters down to the ocean floor.
Related: 10 weird creatures found in the deep sea in 2021
Many species in the Elpidiidae family have appendages that look like fins or sails that let them swim for short distances. This is a useful adaptation that allows the sea cucumbers to cover more ground and search for new grazing spots, Cook said.
To eat, the animal oozes across the seafloor, using its sticky tentacles — the leaf- or star-shaped red fringe around its mouth — to pick up a mix of sand and organic material, which it then brings to its mouth. The bright orange intestine — the glowing “Cheetos” — seen inside the transparent creature then digests the organic material, excreting the non-edible sand.
This turns out to be an important storage system for carbon. The ocean floor is the largest carbon sequestration system on Earth, with carbon-rich organic material getting scooped up by bottom-dwellers like sea cucumbers and remaining deep in the ocean for long periods of time.
“They are this great scavenger/recycler on the seafloor,” Cook said of the deep-sea sea cucumbers.
Some sea cucumber species can eject their digestive systems through their anuses when startled, a method that often lets them escape hungry predators. (The organs soon grow back.) However, it’s unknown if the species in the new video has that trick up its sleeve (or its anus), Cook said.
The EV Nautilus livestreams its ROV dives, and the current season runs through late October. The team will continue to explore the Central Pacific, including many unexplored spots in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument and its surroundings. Viewers can follow along on Twitter @EVNautilus, on Instagram at @NautilusLive, on TikTok @NautilusLive, on Facebook @NautilusLive or on YouTube at /EVNautilus.
“Our next ROV dives will be to Johnston Atoll, which is one of the most remote atolls in the whole planet,” Cook said.
Originally published on Live Science.
Antibiotics Can Lead to Life-Threatening Fungal Infection Because of Disruption to the Gut’s Immune System
Hospital patients that are prescribed antibiotics are more likely to get fungal infections because of disruption to the immune system in the gut. Immune-boosting drugs could reduce the health risks from complex infections.
Patients prescribed antibiotics in the hospital are more likely to get fungal infections because of disruption to the immune system in the gut.
Using immune-boosting drugs alongside the antibiotics could reduce the health risks from these complex infections, according to a new study from the
Candidiasis is a fungal infection caused by a yeast (a type of fungus) called Candida. Some species of Candida can cause infection in people; the most common is Candida albicans. Candida normally lives on the skin and in places on the body, such as the mouth, throat, gut, and vagina, without causing any problems. Candida can cause infections if it grows out of control or if it enters deep into the body (for example, the bloodstream or internal organs like the kidney, heart, or brain).
A team in the University’s Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, in conjunction with researchers at the National Institutes of Health, discovered that antibiotics disrupt the immune system in the intestines, meaning that fungal infections were poorly controlled in that area. Unexpectedly, the team also found that where fungal infections developed, gut bacteria were also able to escape, leading to the additional risk of bacterial infection.
The study, published in Cell Host and Microbe, demonstrates the potential for immune-boosting drugs, but the researchers also say their work also highlights how antibiotics can have additional effects on our bodies that affect how we fight infection and disease. This in turn underscores the importance of careful stewardship of available antibiotics.
Lead author Dr. Rebecca Drummond said: “We knew that antibiotics make fungal infections worse, but the discovery that bacterial co-infections can also develop through these interactions in the gut was surprising. These factors can add up to a complicated clinical situation – and by understanding these underlying causes, doctors will be better able to treat these patients effectively.”
In the study, the team used mice treated with a broad-spectrum antibiotic cocktail and then infected these animals with Candida albicans, the most common fungus that causes invasive candidiasis in humans. They found that although infected mice had increased mortality, this was caused by infection in the intestine, rather than in the kidneys or other organs.
“These factors can add up to a complicated clinical situation – and by understanding these underlying causes, doctors will be better able to treat these patients effectively.”
— Dr. Rebecca Drummond, Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy
In a further step, the team pinpointed what parts of the immune system were missing from the gut after antibiotic treatment, and then added these back into the mice using immune-boosting drugs similar to those used in humans. They found this approach helped reduce the severity of the fungal infection.
The researchers followed up the experiment by studying hospital records, where they were able to show that similar co-infections might occur in humans after they have been treated with antibiotics.
“These findings demonstrate the possible consequences of using antibiotics in patients who are at risk of developing fungal infections,” added Dr Drummond. “If we limit or change how we prescribe antibiotics we can help reduce the number of people who become very ill from these additional infections – as well as tackling the huge and growing problem of antibiotic resistance.”
Reference: “Long-term antibiotic exposure promotes mortality after systemic fungal infection by driving lymphocyte dysfunction and systemic escape of commensal bacteria” by Rebecca A. Drummond, Jigar V. Desai, Emily E. Ricotta, Muthulekha Swamydas, Clay Deming, Sean Conlan, Mariam Quinones, Veronika Matei-Rascu, Lozan Sherif, David Lecky, Chyi-Chia R. Lee, Nathaniel M. Green, Nicholas Collins, Adrian M. Zelazny, D. Rebecca Prevots, David Bending, David Withers, Yasmine Belkaid, Julia A. Segre and Michail S. Lionakis, 13 May 2022, Cell Host & Microbe.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2022.04.013
Berserk Crossover Art Sees Guts Battle Elden Ring’s Godrick
The dark world of Berserk is so referenced in games from From Software that video game players continue to find Easter Eggs throughout the latest entry, Elden Ring. With items such as Guts’ Dragon Slayer and the nefarious Brand making their way into the “Soulsborne” games made by From, one fan has gone the extra mile by created art work that imagines the Black Swordsman Guts diving into the video game world to fight against one of the biggest bosses from Elden Ring.
Godrick the Grafted is one of the earliest big bosses of Elden Ring, being a member of royalty who took the opportunity to increase his power by grafting body parts from humans and beasts alike, disfiguring his body to the point where he appears to look far from any regular human being navigating Limgrave. While not exactly an Apostle, Godrick would fit right in with some of the terrifying creatures that Guts has fought against throughout Kentaro Miura’s epic franchise. With Miura’s passing last year, the future of Berserk’s manga is up in the air, as the publishers at Young Animal has yet to say whether the series has come to an end or if Miura’s assistants will take over.
Reddit User HSTHE shared this impressive fan art from a Japanese artist, imagining how a fight between Guts and Godrick might look considering the two characters definitely seem as if they were born from the same universe thanks in part to Berserk’s influence on the universe of Elden Ring:
Well, I’m back in black Yes, I’m back in black. Art made by 黑短髮眼鏡R on pixiv from
Berserk
Elden Ring is easily the most popular video game from From Software to date, with the latest “Soulsborne” game having already surpassed twelve million units. With the creator of Elden Ring stating that the world of the Two Fingers will “expand beyond the realm of games”, fans are left wondering if we’re set to see this From Software game become a television series and/or movie in the future. With George R.R. Martin of Game of Thrones fame responsible for some of the writing in this video game, it could definitely translate to other mediums.
What do you think of this brutal crossover art? Do you think Guts could take down Godrick in a fight? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of the Band of the Hawk.
These meat-eating bees have acid in their guts
Scientists have observed a little-known species of meat-eating bee that sports an extra tooth for biting flesh.
According to a recent paper on the bees, they use their extra tooth to pull and gather meat. Doug Yanega, an entomologist with UC Riverside says that these are the only bees in the world that have evolved beyond using food sources produced by plants.
These meat-eating bees have guts like vultures
Typically, bees don’t rely on meat as a food source. However, these stingless bees in Costa Rica, have evolved. Not only do they have that extra tooth for eating flesh, but their guts also more closely resemble those of vultures.
“Unlike humans, whose gut changes with every meal, most bee species have retained these same bacteria over roughly 80 million years of evolution,” Jessica Maccaro, a UCR entomology doctoral student said. (via SciTechDaily)
Most stingless bees, as well as honeybees and bumblebees, all have the same five core microbes in their guts. The bacteria found in the gut of these bees, though, was much different from that of a typical vegetarian bee. One of the bacteria found in the bees is Lactobacillus. This is often found in fermented food, like sourdough. The scientists also found Carnobacterium, a bacteria associated with flesh digestion.
Digging deeper
The researchers headed to Costa Rica to get a closer look at the bees. Once there, they set up bait using raw chicken coated in petroleum jelly—to help keep ants away. Then they waited. The bait successfully attracted vulture bees and some related species of opportunistic meat-eating bees. Stingless bees normally have a basket on their hind legs for collecting pollen. Instead, these carrion-feeding bees used those baskets to collect the chicken.
To help add to the research, the scientists also collected stingless bees that feed on both meat and flowers. They also collected bees that feed only on pollen. They found that the microbiomes in the bees that exclusively eat meat harbored the most extreme changes.
Quinn, McFrederick, another UCR entomologist with the study, says that the vulture bee’s microbiome is enriched with acid-loving bacteria that the others don’t have. It’s similar to the microbiomes found in vultures, as well as other carrion-feeders like hyenas.
The scientists say that the honey produced by these meat-eating bees is still sweet and edible. The bees store the meat they gather in a separate area from the honey. Additionally, they keep those chambers sealed off for two weeks before they even access them. The researchers plan to dig deeper into the microbiomes of the vulture bees. They’re hopeful that they can learn more about the larger role those microbes play in the bee’s overall health.
Meat-Eating “Vulture Bees” Sport Acidic Guts and an Extra Tooth for Biting Flesh
A little-known species of tropical bee has evolved an extra tooth for biting flesh and a gut that more closely resembles that of vultures rather than other bees.
Typically, bees don’t eat meat. However, a species of stingless bee in the tropics has evolved the ability to do so, presumably due to intense competition for nectar.
“These are the only bees in the world that have evolved to use food sources not produced by plants, which is a pretty remarkable change in dietary habits,” said UC Riverside entomologist Doug Yanega.
Honeybees, bumblebees, and stingless bees have guts that are colonized by the same five core microbes. “Unlike humans, whose guts change with every meal, most bee species have retained these same bacteria over roughly 80 million years of evolution,” said Jessica Maccaro, a UCR entomology doctoral student.
Given their radical change in food choice, a team of UCR scientists wondered whether the vulture bees’ gut bacteria differed from those of a typical vegetarian bee. They differed quite dramatically, according to a study the team published on November 23, 2021, in the American Society of Microbiologists’ journal mBio.
Raw chicken baits attracting vulture bees in Costa Rica. Credit: Quinn McFrederick/UCR
To track these changes, the researchers went to Costa Rica, where these bees are known to reside. They set up baits — fresh pieces of raw chicken suspended from branches and smeared with petroleum jelly to deter ants.
The baits successfully attracted vulture bees and related species that opportunistically feed on meat for their protein. Normally, stingless bees have baskets on their hind legs for collecting pollen. However, the team observed carrion-feeding bees using those same structures to collect the bait. “They had little chicken baskets,” said Quinn McFrederick, a UCR entomologist.
For comparison, the team also collected stingless bees that feed both on meat and flowers, and some that feed only on pollen. On analyzing the microbiomes of all three bee types, they found the most extreme changes among exclusive meat-feeders.
“The vulture bee microbiome is enriched in 
Individual from the Trigona family of stingless bees, some of which eat meat. Credit: Ricardo Ayala
The researchers noted that these bees are unusual in a number of ways. “Even though they can’t sting, they’re not all defenseless, and many species are thoroughly unpleasant,” Yanega said. “They range from species that are genuinely innocuous to many that bite, to a few that produce blister-causing secretions in their jaws, causing the skin to erupt in painful sores.”
In addition, though they feed on meat, their honey is reportedly still sweet and edible. “They store the meat in special chambers that are sealed off for two weeks before they access it, and these chambers are separate from where the honey is stored,” Maccaro said.
The research team is planning to delve further into vulture bee microbiomes, hoping to learn about the genomes of all bacteria as well as fungi and viruses in their bodies.
Ultimately, they hope to learn more about the larger role that microbes play in overall bee health.
“The weird things in the world are where a lot of interesting discoveries can be found,” McFrederick said. “There’s a lot of insight there into the outcomes of natural selection.”
Reference: “Why Did the Bee Eat the Chicken? Symbiont Gain, Loss, and Retention in the Vulture Bee Microbiome” by Laura L. Figueroa, Jessica J. Maccaro, Erin Krichilsky, Douglas Yanega and Quinn S. McFrederick, 23 November 2021, mBio.
DOI: 10.1128/mBio.02317-21