Gnotiobiotic and Axenic Animals

An important area of modern microbiology is to understand the way that consortia of microbes adapt to different habitats. A particularly important example of this, which is highly relevant to us as higher mammals, is the enormous number of commensal microbes that are present in our lower intestines. Whereas the microbial densities found in soils, or other geological or marine habitats, typically reach densities of up to 108 microbes per gram, …