When we think about spreading bugs, we often focus on pathogens and disease. The truth is, there’s probably an element of spreading health through this microbiome.
- Trevor Lawley
Becky Allen writes:
Their microbial quarry gives Dr Trevor Lawley and Professor Gordon Dougan an interesting take on the world and human interaction. When we meet at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, where they both lead research groups, we shake hands. For me, it’s a social norm; for them, it’s a chance to swap bugs.
“When we shook hands, you probably got some of my spores and I got some of yours. It’s a form of kinship that we are just starting to understand,” says Lawley. “When we think about spreading bugs, we often focus on pathogens and disease. The truth is, pathogens are a tiny proportion of the whole community of diverse microorganisms that are on and within us and there’s probably an element of spreading health through this microbiome.”
The microorganisms live on our skin, up our noses and – in particularly large numbers – in our gut. The average human intestine harbours some 100 trillion bacteria from 1,000 species. They have around three million genes and make up 3% of our body weight. “We’re coated with microorganisms – bacteria, viruses, fungi – they outnumber human cells by at least three to one, so we’re more microbial than eukaryotic,” he explains.
So what are they all doing there? Although much remains a mystery, we know that changes in the microbiome appear to be linked with health and disease. They produce vitamins we cannot make ourselves and break down food to extract essential nutrients; and they help our immune systems develop and defend us against harmful bugs.
Read more in Research Horizons magazine
Image credit: Jonathan Settle
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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