Intial Findings

Bacterial Distribution by Body Site

Image source: http://genome.cshlp.org

            In 2012 multiple reports were published sharing the exciting results of this 5 year study. One of the first facts that astounded many was the enormous amount of species identified. It was previously estimated that at most there was a few hundred species inhabiting the human body, but the HMP found more than 10,000 microbial species. The project believes they have identified about 81%-99% of all the microbes in human body. What was one of the most important findings of the study was the realization that peoples normal microbial communities vary from one another. A microbe that would be consider a pathogen in one person can exist within another as part of a microbial community and cause no harm. This has raised questions that the medical community is eager to explore including how and why a microbe becomes deadly. This is significant because once these questions are addressed the views on how microbes actually cause disease will be completely changed. Furthermore, the project has shown that there is strong correlation between the shifts in the normal microbial communities and the occurrence of disease and the physiological state of a person (NIH, 2012).

            Beyond these microbial communities simply coexisting in our bodies and the occasional illness that can come from a few of the species, there has been an array of new findings that illustrate just how essential these microorganisms are to human survival. They perform such tasks as digesting foods and excreting vital nutrients that the body can absorb (30% of the nutrition we digest comes from food that bacteria digests within us), they produce vitamins that the body uses, and provide anti-inflammatories that are a major role in the immune system response (Birren, 2010).   They perform such tasks as digesting foods and excreting vital nutrients that the body can absorb, they produce vitamins that the body uses, and provide anti-inflammatories that are a major role in the immune system response. Many of these tasks are enabled by the protein coding genes within the microbes. A human has approximately 22,000 protein coding genes that carry out various tasks within the body, while the human microbiome contains 8 million protein coding genes that enable them to take on such major roles in the bodily functions of humans. From these initial results microbial communities are being extensively studied and compelling evidence is mounting that these communities are effecting human life much more than could have ever been imagined.