Bacterioidetes Firmicutes Other Mother Biologe How Life Works, Second Edition 20

Question

Bacterioidetes Firmicutes Other Mother Biologe How Life Works, Second Edition 2016 w.H. Freeman and Company The microbes that coevolve with plants arrive by infection of root tissue. The microbiota that coevolve with humans colonize human tissues after birth. Below is a chart showing the distribution of the gut microbiota in a human female Panels (a) and (b) below depict two scenarios for the distribution of the gut microbiota in her son. The son maintains a similar diet in both scenarios and has not undergone recent antibiotic treatment (which would decimate and/or alter the entire gut community). Which of the two scenarios supports the hypothesis that microbiota in the son arrive by infection? Which suggests the microbiota are inherited by offspring?

Explanation / Answer

Taking into account that microbiota that coevolves with humans colonize human tissues after birth and that the normal human gut has the two phyla shown in the graphs Bacteroidetes (rose) and Firmicutes(green), the first scenario (graph a), supports inheritance as the percentage of Firmicutes (green) in the son must be lower than the percentage of Firmicutes in the mother as the son is younger and will get more microbiota of the Firmicute phyla over time. The second scenario supports infection because is impossible for the son to inherit more Firmicute than the one the mother has, therefore the rest of Firmicute microbiota was gotten by the son through infection after birth.

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