B. thetaiotaomicron and its relatives
are equipped with an extensive repertoire of saccharolytic
enzymes and serve as primary fermenters of host-, diet-, or
microbially-derived polysaccharides (Martens et al., 2008).
Moreover, members of Bacteroidetes, the phylum to which
B. thetaiotaomicron belongs, were among the most stable components
of the human gut microbiota in a 5-year longitudinal
study (Faith et al., 2013), making them useful candidates for
long-term cellular diagnostics and therapeutics in the gastrointestinal
tract.