Human Microbiome 1 Flashcards
What is microbiota?
The microorganisms of a particular site, habitat, or geological period
What is microbiome?
The combined genetic material of the microorganisms in a particular environment
Is the microbiota of the skin different to the microbiota of the gut?
Yes
What are microbiomics?
Are various disciplines in biology whose names end in -omics, such as genomics, proteomics, metabolics
How mnay human cells are in the body?
30
How mnay microbial cells are in the body?
39
What is considered a host-microbiome supraorganism?
The human microbiome
How many microbes are in the human body?
39 trillion
What are the benifits of knowing a persons microbiome?
Biomarkers for predicting predisposition to disease
Design of therapies targetting selected microbial species
Personalised drug therapies
Tailor made probiotics
What are the negatives to culture based techniques?
Only a subset of organisms grow in lab conditions
Slow
Old fashioned
Viable but non culturable organisms
What are the positives to culture based techniques?
Cheap
Easy
Quantative and qualitive infomation
Bacteria isolated in pure culture
What are the negatives to culture independent techniques?
Expensive and technically complex
Specialist equiptment
Training and computing skills
Organisms not isolated in pure cultures
What are the positives to culture independent techniques?
Captures all organisms present
Includes those that dont grow in the lab
High throughout
New
Fast
What technique can microbial communities be studied by looking at their DNA and doesn’t require cultureing?
Nucleic Acid sequencing
What is metagenomics?
The analysis of pooled DNA or RNA from an environment
What is meant by the genome?
Total gene content of an organism
What is meant by metagenome?
The total gene content of a microbial community
What is meant by metagenomics?
Functional characterisation of the entire microbime
Is DNA of the entire community sequenced directly?
Yes
What sequencing has been used to mapp human microbiota?
16s rRNA sequencing
What is it meant by the structure of a microbial community?
A catalogue of whichh microbes are present
Relative abundance of each
What is sequencing of the 16s gene?
Culture independent method
No cultivation required
Like a barcode for each bacteri
RNA component of the small ribosomal subunit
Coserved in all bacteria
Where do most human microbed reside in?
The large intestine
Where do the majority of human microbed belong to?
Two two phylogenetic groups of bacteria
Why do we want to study the microbiome?
Important in maintaining human health, can contribute to disease
Understand the mix of microbes on and within us
To know what is healthy, what is present and what are the microbes doing
What do micobiomes do?
Functional potential
What can 16s tell us?
Who is there and how many
What are the problems of 16s sequencing?
OTU identified belonging to E.coli
OTU identified belonging to P.acnes
What do metatranscriptomics do?
Measure which genes are being expressed at a specific point or under certain conditions
What are RNA transcripts conterted to?
cDNA
What and why do metatranscriptomics comoare with?
Metagenome to see which potential functions are actually expressed
