Bacteria can make a living from a very wide range of food sources. This ability makes them, for example, essential symbionts in animal digestive tracts where they assist their hosts in breaking cellulose fibers up into compounds degradable by the animal metabolism. Today, human gut bacteria, part of the human microbiome, are one of the hottest research topics in medicine. Gut bacteria face a particularly tough job in the rumen of the cow where they digest hardy cellulose fibers of grasses. Key to the job, taking place in a constantly moving fluid, are molecular tentacles, so-called cellulosomes, on the surface of the symbiotic bacteria. The cellulosomes develop a tight grasp on and then effective cleavage of cellulose. In a joint experimental-computational study researchers have investigated how in case of the bacterium Ruminococcus flavefaciens cellulosomes are built in a modular way, with molecular modules easily binding and unbinding during cellulosome construction, but sticking extremely strongly together during cellulosome digestive activity. As reported recently, single molecule force microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations using NAMD could show that under strain the adhesive bonds between cellulosome modules become stronger than seen in any other biomolecular system, in fact, become nearly as tight as strong chemical bonds. While the experimental data revealed bond strength and other characteristics, simulations reproducing the observed data provided a detailed view of the adhesive bond at atomic resolution, thereby revealing the physical mechanism underlying the uniquely adhesive property of cellulosomes. Gut bacteria and cellulosomes can be employed in 2nd generation biofuel generation (see highlight Waste into Fuel). More on gut bacteria and cellulosomes on our biofuels website.