The Human and Oral Microbiomes Flashcards
what is a habitat?
specific site of organism growth
what is a microbial community?
the micro-organisms that are present in a given habitat
What is microbiota?
the total collection of micro-organisms within a microbial community
what is microbiome?
The microbiota and all of its associated genes.
what is the metagenome?
the total genomic DNA of all the organisms within a community
what is a biofilm?
A physically (often temporally) structured aggregate of micro-organisms, adhered to each other and/or a defined substrate (ie. dental plaque attached to a tooth/gum margin).
What is the human microbiome made up of?
“we are an organism made up of numerous mutually interdependent smaller organisms and their genomes ”.
* There are 10X moremicrobial cells in the human bodythan human cells
* 10,000 The number of different species identified to-date within the human body
* ~ 22,000 The number of genes in the human genome
* 3.3 million The number of genes in the human gut microbiome
Why is the human microbiome is important?
- Health: Specific microorganisms are protective against disease, and pathogenic bacterial species
- Disease: changes in the composition of the microbiome are associated with disease. Examples: Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Obesity, Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Microbial Genes: Modulate fundamental human physiological processes. Examples: Metabolism, Energy acquisition, Immune modulation, Neurological development
what are two methods to study the microbiome?
- The Traditional Culture Approach
- The New Molecular Approach
how do you carry out a The Traditional Culture Approach?
Grow microbes directly from sample
Requires phenotypic identification of isolates:
* Morphology / Motility
* Biochemical
* Antibody / Serological
* Metabolic
how do you carry out the new molecular approach?
- Identifies organisms by gene sequence homology
- Extract microbial DNA from samples
- Sequence analysis of DNA by targeted sequencing (16s rRNA) or Shotgun Metagenomics sequencing
what are the positives of the traditional cultivation approach?
cheap
what are the negative of the traditional cultivation approach?
- Labour intensive [> 24 hours for org ID]
- Only gross species discrimination possible
- Not many species can grow (only 50% of known oral bacteria are currently cultivable in the laboratory)
- Need to know what species to expect to be able to use the right growth conditions for them.
what are the positives of the new molecular approach?
- Tells you what is present not just what you can grow
- Can tell you what genes are present able to determine whether a particular bacteria is pathogenic or not
- Higher discriminatory power for species identification
what are the negatives of the new molecular approaches?
- Sequence bias due to primer specificity
- Expensive
- Time consuming and Computational taxing
what is the 16s rRNA gene?
- 1542 bp gene
- Encodes the small subunit of the ribosomal complex, necessary for protein synthesis