REVIEW

The human microbiome

Chaplin AV1, Rebrikov DV2,3, Boldyreva MN4
About authors

1 Department of Microbiology and Virology, Pediatric Faculty,
Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Russia

2 Institute of Translational Medicine,
Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Russia

3 Laboratory for Cell Technologies,
Kulakov Research Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology, Moscow, Russia

4 Research and Development Department,
DNA-Technology LLC, Moscow, Russia

Correspondence should be addressed: Andrey Viktorovich Chaplin
ul. Ostrovityanova, d. 1, Moscow, Russia, 117997; moc.liamg@kidemoloko

About paper

All authors' contribution to this work is equal: selection and analysis of literature, planning of the manuscript's structure, data interpretation, drafting of the manuscript, editing.

Received: 2017-04-16 Accepted: 2017-04-22 Published online: 2017-05-27
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The symbiotic relationship with the microbial flora inhabiting our bodies plays an immense role in maintaining our vitality. The microbiota protects us from pathogens, hardwires our immunity, and engages in the production of essential micronutrient components. The human microbiota encompasses several thousands of fungi, eubacteria, archaea and viruses, with eubacterial cells alone totaling over 10 trillion and outnumbering our body cells 100 to 1. Next generation sequencing has allowed researchers to comprehensively assess the diversity of microbial species in the human microbiota and to estimate their proportions with stunning accuracy. This has led to a breakthrough in our understanding of associations between human health and the microbiota. This review focuses on the current state of research on key microbial communities inhabiting the human body: those of the gastrointestinal and genitourinary systems. Less studied microbial communities colonizing the nose, nasopharynx, auditory canal, eye, and skin, as well as some others, are not included in the review.

Keywords: next generation sequencing, microbial community, gut flora, genitourinary, periodontal, metagenome

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