Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 312, Issue 5778, Pages 1355-1359Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1124234
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Funding
- NIAID NIH HHS [AI51259, R01 AI051259, R01 AI051259-04] Funding Source: Medline
- NIDDK NIH HHS [DK70977] Funding Source: Medline
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The human intestinal microbiota is composed of 10(13) to 10(14) microorganisms whose collective genome (microbiome'') contains at least 100 times as many genes as our own genome. We analyzed similar to 78 million base pairs of unique DNA sequence and 2062 polymerase chain reaction amplified 16S ribosomal DNA sequences obtained from the fecal DNAs of two healthy adults. Using metabolic function analyses of identified genes, we compared our human genome with the average content of previously sequenced microbial genomes. Our microbiome has significantly enriched metabolism of glycans, amino acids, and xenobiotics; methanogenesis; and 2-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate pathway - mediated biosynthesis of vitamins and isoprenoids. Thus, humans are superorganisms whose metabolism represents an amalgamation of microbial and human attributes.
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