Our Genome and Our other Genome: Understanding humans as Symbionts with Microbes

Heenam Stanley Kim

doi:10.4167/jbv.2012.42.2.101

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Kim: Our Genome and Our other Genome: Understanding humans as Symbionts with Microbes

Review Article

Journal of Bacteriology and Virology

Journal of Bacteriology and Virology 2012; 42(2): 101-107.

Published online: 22 June 2012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4167/jbv.2012.42.2.101

Our Genome and Our other Genome: Understanding humans as Symbionts with Microbes

Heenam Stanley Kim

The Laboratory of Human-Microbial Genomics, Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Korea University, Anam-Dong, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Heenam Stanley Kim, Ph. D. Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Korea University, Anam-Dong, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul 136-705, Korea. Phone: +82-2-920-6422, hstanleykim@korea.ac.kr

Received 3 May 2012 Revised 17 May 2012 Accepted 23 May 2012

Abstract

One of the most significant discoveries in life sciences and medicine in recent years is that we humans are symbionts with a large number of microbes. These microbes reside on all over our surface, with the major portion of the population being in the digestive tract. The gut microbiota (microbial community) consists of up to 1,000 species of bacteria and its number exceeds ten-times of that of the human cells. Throughout the history of co-evolution, humans and microbes have become dependent on each other, and as the result developed a complex web of specific interactions. Recent development of the fast and cost-effective next generation sequencing (NGS) technology enabled the researchers to dissect the structure and function of the gut microbiota and their associations with human physiology in much detail. This newly-blooming field of human-microbial genomics will completely change the way we see and treat ourselves.

Keywords: Gut microbiota, Next generation sequencing, Genomics, Metagenomics

Figures and Tables

Figure 1

The human-microbe symbiotic cycle in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Humans are born without symbiotic microorganisms, but soon receive microorganisms mostly from kinship and the normal microbiota is gradually established.

Figure 2

The research of the human microbiota. The NGS technology enabled the 16S rDNA and metagenomics analysis of the microbiota in a high-throughput way. The rich information obtained can be used for the estimation of the structure and the function of the microbiota. Further development of the research field will lead us to the new medicine, which uses the status of the microbiota as the target for diagnosis and treatments.

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