You Are A Unique Person

I always knew we were all unique. This LiveScience.com article demonstrates just how special we all really are.

Your Poop Is Unique: Gut Viruses Different in Every Person

By LiveScience Staff

Like a fingerprint, the virus communities in the human gut are unique to each individual. Even identical twins have very different collections of viruses colonizing their lower intestines.

This is in contrast to bacterial communities, which are similar in related individuals, the researchers say. (While bacteria can live and reproduce on their own, viruses consist of genetic material packaged inside a capsule structure and can only reproduce inside a host.)

The study sheds light on the largely unexplored world of viruses living in the lower intestine. Most of these "friendly" viruses, which don't cause diseases, make their home inside bacteria already living in the gut. These viruses are thought to influence the activities of gut microbes, which among their other benefits, allow us to digest certain components of our diets, such as plant-based carbohydrates, that we can't digest on our own.

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