How The Human Body Can Be Understood As An Ecologically Diverse Landscape

The relationship between the human gut microbiome to health and disease is strong. Human physiology, metabolism, nutrition, and immune function are all affected by the composition of the gut. If the composition of the gut microbiome is altered in a way that any of these functions are negatively affected, this can lead to disease. The developments of the microbiome, its complexity, and its functionality in health and disease have been extensively studied. In addition, the way in which it is altered has many implications in the cause of diseases, such as bowel disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer.

Analysts have been concentrating among the dynamic parts of supportive microorganisms inside the human body, and they found out that: “In fact, most of the cells in the human body are not human at all. Bacteria cells in the human body outnumber human cells 10 to one.” (Jennifer Ackerman, 2012, p. 38) Ackerman also expresses that

Bacteria are ubiquitous; they can be found on the skin, in the soil, and inside the body. Because of the very nature of this ubiquity, it is important to be able to determine between different strains of bacteria. An example of this is determining the causative agent for a disease so that the patient will be treated with the appropriate antibiotics. It may be important to determine the bacteria in a certain region, because like with enteric bacteria, it is normal to find them in the digestive tract as they are in a symbiotic relationship with our bodies in this area; however, they also cause opportunistic infections in places outside of the digestive tract to our detriment, such as with a urinary tract infection. Some strains of bacteria are common to nosocomial infections, and identifying these bacteria as such helps create the guidelines for healthcare workers in antiseptic technique. All of the morphology and characteristics of each strain of bacteria help us to better understand the role of bacteria in the body as well as helps us understand how they can cause illness, and what treatment regimen to set in place. In lab this semester, a sample of unknown

The article “Some of My Best Friends are Germs,” by Michael Pollen was a very interesting and informative read. Pollen explains that our bodies house 100s of trillions of microbes. More than 99 percent of our genetic information is microbial. The large number of bacteria that inhabits us weighs many pounds, forming a massive, unexplored world that scientists are just starting to document. These bacteria affect our health as much as if not more than the genes we receive from our parents.

The gut microbiota is extremely diverse – consisting of over 1,000 identified unique species of bacteria. It is indeed difficult to wrap one’s head around it – despite bacteria being microscopically small, and having an undetectable mass, the bacteria of the gut in a human can weigh over 2 pounds! This incredibly diverse mass of bacteria is also mostly unique on an individual basis – over 70% of the bacteria per gut are unique to each person [1]. Thus, the gut microbiota of each individual can effectively function as a unique source of identity.

Before, biologists assumed all microbes are bad for the human body (automatically thought of pathogens), caused many diseases and harm our body fundamental systems. In addition, the biologists think that our body is already built which had all the functions required to maintain our health. However, the attitude has changed over the last decade. The biologists characterized the most prevalent species of microbes in the body, and found out that these collective microbes do not threaten us, and they also are important part of human bodies.

There are major effects in the United States and Europe to help identify the role of microbial communities in the human body. The colon requires a balance of microbial agents that assist with various functions of the body. An imbalance can lead to C.diff., irritable bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), neurological disorders, and obesity just to list a few. Many of these problems have grown to an epidemic proportion. Both the United States and Europe have started projects aimed at the microbial communities of the body and their roles in our health.

Unique microbiota could suggest a human’s current health or if there is any forthcoming chronic disease (Ley, 2006). Families with shared healthy microbes may be able to help relatives who suffer from gastrointestinal disease; but the extant to which the microbiome is shared across generations is not readily known and more research is needed. The core trends for current research revolve around control of obesity, treatment of gastrointestinal diseases such as Crohn’s, and hormonal manipulation in cases of depression. It is imperative to learn to eat for optimal health, to evolve along with the commensals (Turner et al., 2013) as human diets influence diversity of microbes present (Ley et al., 2008). This is a relatively new field with exciting prospects of positive outcomes for some of society’s more chronic

Identifying microbes using a series of biochemical tests, like those performed by students, is used in a clinical settings for several important reasons other than taxonomy. It is used to determine susceptibility to antimicrobial drugs, gain information for future treatments, identify pathogens in terms of their potential danger, aid epidemiologists in tracing sources of infections, and to accumulate data of interest to those studying infectious diseases (Tortora, G. J., Funke, B. R., & Case, C. L., 2016).

There is a large number of species of microbes found on the human body. This bacterial organism are found in the skin, mouth, or nose. This lab consisted of the collection of skin bacterial organisms and amplification of the 16s rRNA to construct a small molecular phylogeny of the human body microbiome, or the community of microorganisms that reside in the epithelia of humans. This information could only be acquired through processes such as DNA extraction, amplification of specific genetic target by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), agarose gel electrophoresis, restriction enzyme digestion, cloning of DNA fragments into plasmid vector, transformation and blue/white clone colony screening. Through the phylogenetic tree analysis

With the influence of “micro-evolution,” science is evolving at a relatively fast pace. We as humans, are also evolving at a rate in which we still today have many unanswered questions; pushing us to make this new technology to learn more. Our own health is always changing across decades, keeping us up to date on finding new information about the human body. Our bodies are composed of human and microbial components, making us supraorganisms. (Costello et al 2012) Meaning we have advanced functions and work in units, to make us superior to other organisms on the Earth. (Turnbaugh)

One of the most astonishing things on earth is the human body. They consist of many organs that work together to maintain the person alive. The humans body composition is complex, but what was the origin? How did we become who we are today? These are the questions that intrigued me, and allowed me to understand how the human body evolved over the years. By the examination of our ancestors, and our body we will understand how we look today.

The human gut microbiota has become the subject of researches in recent years and our knowledge of the resident species and their potential functional capacity is rapidly growing. Our gut harbors a complex community of over 100 trillion microbial cells. Therefore, our gut microbiota evolves with us and plays a pivotal role in human health and disease. This has clear effects on physiologic, immunologic, and metabolic processes in human health, aberrations in the gut microbiome and intestinal homeostasis have the capacity for multisystem effects. Changes in microbial composition are implicated in the increasing for a broad range of inflammatory diseases, such as allergic disease, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), obesity, and associated

Life on this planet began with microorganisms. Through millions of years microorganisms have found ways to successfully adapt and survive. These adaptations have created a wide biodiversity, allowing them to basically populate in all places. Why are these microbes so important? Because they shape the history of our world. Some microbes can be deathly to humans while some others are favorable, for example, bacteria that lives in the gut of both humans and animals and helps during the process of digestion (Alfred Brown & Heidi Smith, 2006). Understanding these interactions help scientists to find ways to protect humans from potential deathly pathogens. In order to observe microbes, microscope proficiency and microorganisms’ identification are crucial skills in a microbiology lab. During this laboratory session, samples of environmental and human organisms were inoculated into two different rich media and incubated to their according temperature. After this, appropriate use and calibration of the microscope was performed. Lastly, morphology and size of different species of bacteria, algae, fungi and protozoan were recorded.