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5 days agoM. Morganii is not at fault here. It’s a contaminant, DEA (diethanolamine). Good old Morgan, a normal dweller among healthy gut microbiome, only mistakes the molecules of this bitch for sugar alcohol and incorporates them in the substance it produces triggering a response in the immune system. It’s all in the article.
No, the DEA is a contaminant coming from out of the organism— it’s used in many industrial processes from the oil industry to production of many consumer products, lots of them things you put on your body like soaps, cosmetics, conditioner… The contaminant molecules just happen to fit in the gap of other substance molecules and take their place, they aren’t synthesized by the bacteria.