Sign-In for Good Health: Human Microbial Signatures

Deoxyribonucleic  acid or DNA is rightly referred to as the molecule which accounts for 'Unity in Diversity' in living organisms and this molecule has provided valuable biological insights including human and animal health, biodiversity, agriculture, forensics, evolution, and much more.

- Dr. Jaspreet Kaur

The list of applications continues to expand with the availability of DNA or RNA sequences of different organisms through new generation sequencing technologies. So, the biological information present in the order of nucleotides of the genetic material or 'genome' of an organism includes the presence of different genes and proteins and their interaction for the overall functioning of an organism. But, the complete biological information about an organism comes not only from its 'genome' but from its 'microbiome' as well. Yes, microbes are part of every organism and every organism is part of them including humans. In fact, the density of microbial cells in a human gut amounts to ~ 1012 cells/ml which can be stated as an additional organ, the genome of which exceeds the size and metabolic function of the host itself. The human microbiota consists of around 150 times more genes than are found in the entire human genome (Goodrich et al. 2017).