show Abstracthide Abstract<P><B><I>Parabacteroides merdae</I> ATCC 43184</B>. Formerly <I>Bacteroides merdae</I>, this strain was isolated from human feces. This is the type strain and is part of a comprehensive, sequence-based survey of members of the normal human gut microbiota. A joint effort of the WU-GSC and the Center for Genome Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine, the purpose of this survey is to provide the general scientific community with a broad view of the gene content of 100 representatives of the major divisions represented in the intestine's microbial community. This information should provide a frame of reference for analyzing metagenomic studies of the human gut microbiome.