Biological Dark Matter: Is your gut the new frontier?

[leela]

40-50% of the genetic information in your gut doesn't match anything that we've ever seen before -- no plant,
animal, fungus, virus or bacteria!

http://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_wolfe_what_s_left_to_explore/transcript

 

[Sasha]

 

[Keela Too]

His talk is well worth seven minutes:
http://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_wolfe_what_s_left_to_explore?language=en

 

[Martial]

I guess my stomach really is a black hole

 

[Bob]

Interesting.
Is it me, or did he hint that the unidentified DNA could belong to unidentified species other than bacteria, viruses, and fungi etc.?
I felt that perhaps that was a bit of hyperbole, to add a bit of mystery to the talk to make it more tantalising.
But I couldn't work out any reason why the unidentified DNA couldn't belong to unknown species of bacteria, viruses and fungi etc.
Interesting nonetheless.

 

[Little Bluestem]

I think all bacteria have certain genes in common, all viruses have certain genes in common, etc. These organisms must not have the common genes of any known species.