Fermentative Digestion in Herbivorous Lizards: Marine Iguanas from the Galapagos Islands
Thursday, October 30, 2008 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Presenter: Dr. Rod Mackie, Dept of Animal Sciences and Division of Nutritional Sciences, Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois / Herbivory in lizards is rare. Cultivation- and
cultivation-independent molecular approaches have been applied to the detection, identification and quantification of gut bacterial populations in iguanas endemic to the Galapagos Islands. The
results strongly support the contention that these unique herbivorous lizards are largely dependent on the presence and metabolic activities of a resident bacterial population in order to hydrolyze
and ferment plant polymers that are indigestible to the host.
