Microbiome
Encyclopedia
Microorganism
A microorganism or microbe is a microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters, or no cell at all...
, their genetic elements (genomes), and environmental interactions in a defined environment
Environment (biophysical)
The biophysical environment is the combined modeling of the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables, parameters as well as conditions and modes inside the Earth's biosphere. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories:...
. A defined environment could, for example, be the gut of a human being or a soil sample. Thus, microbiome usually includes microbiota and their complete genetic
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
elements. The human microbiome contains over 10 times more microbes than genetically human cells.
The expression "microbiome" was coined by Joshua Lederberg
Joshua Lederberg
Joshua Lederberg ForMemRS was an American molecular biologist known for his work in microbial genetics, artificial intelligence, and the United States space program. He was just 33 years old when he won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that bacteria can mate and...
. In his opinion, the microorganisms should be included as part of the human genome
Genome
In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
, because of their influence on human physiology.
An enterotype
Enterotype
An enterotype is a classification of living organisms based on its bacteriological ecosystem in the human gut microbiome. The discovery of three human enterotypes was announced in the April 2011 issue of Nature by Peer Bork and his associates....
is a classification of living organisms based on its bacteriological ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
in the human gut microbiome. Three human enterotypes have been discovered.
See also
- Human microbiome projectHuman microbiome projectThe Human Microbiome Project is a United States National Institutes of Health initiative with the goal of identifying and characterizing the microorganisms which are found in association with both healthy and diseased humans . Launched in 2008, it is a five-year project, best characterized as a...
- BiomeBiomeBiomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems. Some parts of the earth have more or less the same kind of abiotic and biotic factors spread over a...
- Omics
- Skin floraSkin floraThe skin flora are the microorganisms which reside on the skin. Most research has been upon those that reside upon the 2 square metres of human skin. Many of them are bacteria of which there are around 1000 species upon human skin from 19 phyla. The total number of bacteria on an average human has...
- Gut floraGut floraGut flora consists of microorganisms that live in the digestive tracts of animals and is the largest reservoir of human flora. In this context, gut is synonymous with intestinal, and flora with microbiota and microflora....