Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcot.co.j.j, that's y-A-K-U-L-T-C-O-J-P.

When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

This is Scientific American 60-second science.

I'm Christopher indalata.

Got a minute?

In this age of cheap DNA technology, scientists are sequencing every sample they can get their hands on.

They've IDed the microbes in mosquito guts, coral mucus, and frog skin, in polar ice, even floating in the Earth's atmosphere.

But it turns out some of the bugs reported to belong to those unusual microbiomes could unfortunately be contaminants from non-sterell lab reagents and DNA extraction kits.

So says a study in the journal BMC Biology.

Researchers sequenced a pure sample of just one type of bacteria, but depending

which kit they used, which reagents, which lab, their results contain DNA from up to 270 different

bacterial strains. Many of those contaminating strains are commonly found on human skin, a lab

technicians maybe, or in soil or water, which could

explain why one recent study turned up soil bacteria in samples of breast cancer tissue, the

researchers say. Another study found that infant's throat bacteria change as they get older,

but these researchers say the changing bacterial communities in that study

were due not to age, but to changing the brand of DNA kit over time.

Study author Alan Walker of the University of Aberdeen says contamination is only a problem if you're

working with samples that aren't already rich in bacteria.

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