Mining microbes: The bacterium Helicobacter pylori (pictured above) lives in the human gut and has been linked to an increased risk of stomach ulcers and a decreased risk of esophageal disease. Scientists say that studying the many microorganisms that live in our bodies will shed light on human health.
P. Hawtin / Photo Researchers, Inc.
A proposed project to sequence the microorganisms that inhabit our bodies could have a huge impact on human health.
Much as we might like to ignore them, microbes have colonized almost every inch of our bodies, living in our mouths, skin, lungs, and gut. Indeed, the human body has 10 times as many microbial cells as human cells. They're a vital part of our health, breaking down otherwise indigestible foods, making essential vitamins, and even shaping our immune system. Recent research suggests that microbes play a role in diseases, such as ulcers, heart disease, and obesity.
While microbes make up such an intimate part of us, most of our microbial inhabitants remain a mystery. The bacteria in the human body are very difficult to study, since only about 1 percent of them can be grown in the lab. Now a proposed new project to sequence all our microbial residents could change that.
"This is completely unexplored territory that is likely to have a large impact on our understanding of human health and disease," says George Weinstock, codirector of the Human Sequencing Center at the Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston. "We hadn't been able to approach it because of the scale of the problem. But now we are finally able to open that door."
Thanks to ever-improving methods to sequence DNA, scientists can now analyze the genomes of entire microbial communities, a field known as metagenomics. By comparing microbial communities in people of different ages, origins, and health statuses, researchers hope to find out precisely how microorganisms prevent or increase risk for certain diseases and whether they can be manipulated to improve health.
Several metagenomics projects are under way or have been completed, including analysis of the microbes living in the human gut and on the skin. But a true snapshot of our microbial menagerie will require a massive effort, along the lines of the Human Genome Project. "Even though a microbial genome is one-thousandth the size of the human genome, the total number of microbial genes in [the human] body is much greater than human genes because you have so many different species," says Weinstock.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is now considering such a project. Metagenomics experts and government officials met last week to determine if the proposal, dubbed the human microbiome, will become an NIH "Roadmap" initiative. These NIH-wide programs identify major gaps in biomedical research and provide financial support on a much larger scale than typical grants. A final decision is expected this month.
"At the end of the day, we'll end up with another perspective on the evolution of our species, our human-microbial selves," says Jeffrey Gordon, a microbiologist at the Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis.
Researchers sequence more than 200 strains of the bug and find a catalog of ways they evade drugs and vaccines.
Variation in our microbial inhabitants could help tailor efforts to treat illness.
Salmonella bacteria grown on the space shuttle showed odd genetic activity, becoming much more virulent.
It seems inevitable to me that given that kind of cell ratio, we have long since evolved specific DNA-based interdependencies with or dependencies on these microbes. Some would be negative, like our inability to make vitamin K without certain gut bacteria. Which also makes me wonder if we couldn't introduce a new symbiosis with a vitamin C-making bug. (E.g. Maybe the whole panoply of vitamins could be eliminated from our diet with proper manipulation of gut bacterial colonies.)
Wow! Yeah!! So maybe we can reprogram them suckers so's we can eat JUST WHAT WE WANT -- like all french fries and burgers, or nuttin' but carrots, or just drink wine and eat a little fois gras. Let the bugs take care of the rest.
Or-- maybe not.....wunner what ee-voll-you-shun was doin' on this one all this time?
Ten times as many microbe cells as human? I would expect that many of the Prokaryotes will be MUCH smaller than human eukaryotes, but that isn't the case for the multi-cellular organisms that are also part of the mix. Seem's there would be a shear question of the mass/volume a 10x claim would represent.
There is already a problem that should be noted by the community with regard to cataloging all microbes. There are doctors and scientists that actually believe that there is ONE organism on earth that cannot be typed or shown in DNA PCR .That organism is Borrelia Burgdorferi. If you dare to enter this argument you will find the Infectious Disease Society of America humiliating themselves with their limiting beliefs about this particular spirochete. The sole purpose of the fight over this organism appears to be motivated by greed.
The Infectious Disease Society of America along with our CDC publicly state that Borrelia has NO AVAILABLE BLOOD DNA with an active infection. Any positive blood DNA PCR tests are not credited towards real data collection on this illness.
Borrelia is a devastating lifelong obviously incurable infection. Why else would it take an RN like myself over thirty years to find out that instead of the misdiagnosis of Lupus I have been carrying around, perhaps a spirochete workup would have been more appropriate. As a traveling nurse, I will go on record that doctors never look for this illness. So if you do not look, how often do you find?
Borrelia is more likely a silent epidemic albeit one without DNA. That kinda blows a hole in your information Miss Singer.
Guest (badger9799)
Borrelia burgdorferi is a bacterium with DNA just like any other bacterium. There are very few detectable organisms in an infected person, but PCR has been used successfully to detect the DNA of this bacterium in patients' blood and/or synovial (joint) fluid samples.
Guest (Stretch)
How long before tattooing and body piercing is supplemented with glow in the dark or luminescence?
Or electric eel like properties?
Stretch
The EU-funded project MetaHIT (Metagenomics of the Human Intestinal Tract) has an official website available at: www.metahit.eu
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zippo
24 Comments
Wow, imagine if you could re-engineer some microbes to consume and digest harmful ones, even producing useful substances for the human body? What if they could digest your "bad" cholestorol?
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ippisl
2 Comments
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there is already a company working on germs to kill the teeth damaging germs in our mouth and replace them.
if there idea would work as promised , it could mean an end to dentist treatments , daily tooth brushing , etc...
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zippo
24 Comments
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Now that's what I wanna hear!
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cretin001
35 Comments
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i had like 20 something cavities when i was smaller... I hope they figure it out soon caus pulling teeth out hurts
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