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Graphic depicting the human skin microbiota, with relative prevalences of various classes of bacteria. The human microbiome is the aggregate of all microbiota that reside on or within human tissues and biofluids along with the corresponding anatomical sites in which they reside, [1] [2] including the gastrointestinal tract, skin, mammary glands, seminal fluid, uterus, ovarian follicles, lung ...
Human microbiota are microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi and archaea) found in a specific environment. They can be found in the stomach, intestines, skin, genitals and other parts of the body. [1] Various body parts have diverse microorganisms. Some microbes are specific to certain body parts and others are associated with many microbiomes.
The microbiome and host emerged during evolution as a synergistic unit from epigenetics and genetic characteristics, sometimes collectively referred to as a holobiont. [7] [8] The presence of microbiota in human and other metazoan guts has been critical for understanding the co-evolution between metazoans and bacteria.
As phages, viruses, plasmids, prions, viroids, and free DNA are usually not considered as living microorganisms, [80] they do not belong to the microbiota. [1] The term microbiome, as it was originally postulated by Whipps and coworkers, [62] includes not only the community of the microorganisms but also their "theatre of activity". The latter ...
In 2014, the Earth Microbiome project proposed a broad initiative to identify the diversity and importance of the microbiota in different ecosystems across the planet, including free-living microbiota (in water and terrestrial systems) and host associated-microbiota (associated with plants and animals).
[33] [34] The ways the microbiome influences human and animal health, as well as methods to influence the microbiome are active areas of research. [35] Research has suggested that microorganisms could be useful in the treatment of cancer. Various strains of non-pathogenic clostridia can infiltrate and replicate within solid tumors. Clostridial ...
The gut microbiota can vary between research facilities which can be a confounder in experiments and be a cause of lack of reproducibility. [24] Several control microbiomes have been developed which correct the major health defects commonly present in germ free animals and can act as a reproducible control community.
Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron is a common bacterium in the human gut microbiome that has evolved alongside humans to support digestion and general health. Over time, this bacterium developed the ability to break down complex carbohydrates into simple sugars, which helps the host species get more energy from the food it eats.