Detection of unknown bacterial viruses in the human intestine

2010/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Mikrobiologia

Microbiologists who study human body microorganisms have detected unknown viral genes in feces. 80% of the observed virus DNA sequences were new.

Researchers have found that the composition of these intestinal viruses is constant over time and unique in each person. That is, twins that share many intestinal bacteria have a different composition of intestinal viruses. The journal Nature has unveiled the discovery made by Australian and American researchers.

In addition, according to the researchers, the existence between bacteria and viruses is more peaceful than outside. In fact, many of the genes that carry and transfer bacteriophage viruses have seen that they are beneficial to bacteria, among other things, can help them repair their cell walls.