New gut bacteria can expand the diet of animals like koalas and rhinoceroses.
Koalas are among the world’s fussiest eaters, consuming only the leaves of eucalyptus trees — and just a few varieties of eucalyptus at that. Research now suggests that the animals’ discriminating diet is determined in part by the bacteria that live in their guts, which seem to restrict an individual koala’s ability to digest certain species of eucalyptus.
The finding, which was presented on 8 June at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in Atlanta, Georgia, comes amid a growing interest in how an animal’s microbiome
influences its ability to adapt to environmental change. Researchers studying koalas and other vulnerable species are trying to find out whether
altering an animal’s gut bacteria through changes in diet — or even faecal transplants — can increase its chance of survival.
