Figure 41.2

Figure 41.2: The Microbial Communities of Genetically Obese Mice Contribute to Their Obesity Mice (Mus musculus) that are homozygous (ob/ob) for a particular gene, Lep^ob, are obese, but their ob/+ and +/+ littermates are lean. Like obese humans, ob/ob mice host a gut microbial community that is relatively rich in bacteria of the phylum Firmicutes and poor in Bacteroidetes. Does this gut community contribute to the obesity of ob/ob mice, or does it simply reflect their greater food consumption?^a