Whether you like it or not, your gut is host to over one-hundred trillion ooey-gooey microbes. That means that for every one cell in your body there are ten microbial cells livin' large in your intestines.

Luckily, these little guys perform a whole whack of great services for the body, such as the digestion of hard-to-break-down materials. But where exactly do these abdominal amigos come from? A recent article in PLoS Biology discusses research by Palmer et al. that aims to answer that question.

To explore the development of the microbial community found in the human gut, the researchers conducted DNA microarray analyses of fecal samples from babies. This is one of those rare and beautiful occasions where someone gets to take a dump in the lab for the glory of science.

Pooey-diapers aside, the researchers findings were far from fetid. They found striking variation in early microbial community composition between individuals, and suggested that this variation was attributable to differences in chance encounters with microbial species. Other interesting findings included twins (who presumably share the same environment) having similar gut-community profiles, and babies delivered by caesarean section having lower-than usual microbial diversity in their guts (which could be due to them bypassing the rich and fragrant microbial flora the vaginal canal).

For more on pooing in the lab, check out this story over at Everyday Scientist.