Why wasDesulfovibrio fairfieldensisnot found in faecal DNA from patients with gastric disease?

Abstract

We recently compared the diversity and approximate abundance of sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in faeces from gastric disease patients with those from a healthy control group (Jia et al. , 2012). Major conclusions from that study included that relatively few species of sulphate-reducing bacteria are associated with human faeces and that there was no correlation between the species detected and the disease state: Crohn's disease; ulcerative colitis; or irritable bowel syndrome. However, as noted by one anonymous reviewer, a surprising result was our failure to detect widespread occurrence of Desulfovibrio fairfieldensis , a species that …