The world within: living with our microbial guests and guides.
The world within: living with our microbial guests and guides.
复制标题
内部世界：与我们的微生物客人和向导一起生活。
DOI：
10.1016/j.trsl.2012.05.005
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发表时间：
2012
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Frank,DanielN
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Janoff,EdwardN;Gustafson,Claire;Frank,DanielN
From the moments after our birth1 and throughout our lives, humans serve as reservoirs for extremely complex and dynamic communities of microorganisms of varying origins. These microbes include archaea, bacteria, viruses, bacteriophage, and eukaryotes (uni-and multicellular parasites). Although constituting a potential threat to health and well-being through parasitism, these microbial communities have co-evolved over millions of years with the healthy human host to provide a range of beneficial, and often essential, services. Although still rudimentary, our understanding of the beneficial roles played by the human microbiome has grown appreciably in recent years, as high-throughput, culture-independent technology and related molecular technologies have been adapted to complement the role of traditional microbiologic cultures to facilitate the study of the human ecosystem. Most studies identify individuals within complex populations by focusing on molecular characterization of DNA from bacterial 16S ribosomal genes, a sequence that distinguishes each organism by its phylum, genus, and even species, depending on the length of the sequence. By studying communities in their native habitats, rather than in liquid broth or on Petri plates, we have gained significant insight into the dynamic, multi-factorial interactions that occur among host, pathogen, commensal community, and environment. Under normal, healthy circumstances, these interactions occur across both the integument and mucosal surfaces (eg, airways, intestinal, reproductive tracts, mouth), the surfaces of the human body exposed to the environment that are the primary sites of microbial residence. As thoughtfully reviewed in this issue of Translational Research, the authors consider the microbial ecology of the intestine, 2 the lung, 3 and the female reproductive tract, 4 each of which supports diverse bacterial communities and, more recently appreciated, viruses5 that engage the host on multiple levels. Indeed, even skin has now been exposed to reveal an abundance of microbial species, 6–8 well beyond the Staphylococcal and Streptococcal species we were taught to expect, and with heretofore unanticipated effects on host response. 9Of particular relevance are the host and environmental factors that determine the constituents, diversity, and stability of the microbiome (Table I). The microbiome occupies a unique ecological niche at each bodily site. This niche can be described as an “ndimensional hyper-space” in which multiple factors coalesce to support or limit the selection of its members and to demarcate its boundaries. These factors can include temperature,
