Phocaeicola plebeius

Phocaeicola plebeius, formerly Bacteroides plebeius, is a microbe found in the human gut, most commonly in Japan natives. It is able to digest porphyran, a polysacchide from Porphyra seaweed (nori) that humans cannot digest on their own. The porphyranase-encoding gene Bp1689 is believed to have been derived from the microbe Zobellia galactanivorans via horizontal gene transfer, as part of a gene cluster containing other carbohydrate-active enzymes.