Raffinose Family Oligosaccharide utilization by Bacteroides

The study is aimed at describing the genes required by the model gut anaerobe Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron to utilize dietary oligosaccharides called Raffinose Family Oligosaccharides (RFOs). Regulation of these genes are also investigated. RFOs are widely found in plants and are not digested by humans. So, they are potentially an important energy source for gut commensals and studying how these organisms utilize RFOs is important.