Millions of previously unknown genes from microbial communities in the human gut, skin, mouth, and vaginal microbiome have been identified and are detailed in a Nature paper published yesterday.
The study, from researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and the University of California San Diego, triples the amount of data previously analyzed in this project.
"This new data really expands our appreciation for the fingerprint created by microorganisms that make up each human's microbiome," says Owen White, professor of epidemiology and public health and associate director at the Institute for Genome Sciences at UM SOM. "These organisms play a crucial role in many key aspects of our health. The more we know about them and their role, the more likely it is that we will be able to manipulate them to improve our health."
This study is part of the National Institutes of Health Human Microbiome Project and is a continuation of work published in Nature in 2012.
In the new study, the researchers analyzed an additional 1,635 new microbiome samples, for a total of 2,355 sampled from 265 people over time. The scientists used DNA sequence analysis tools to identify which organisms are present in various body sites, determine whether they change or stay relatively stable over time, and explore their function. This study also provides one of the largest profiles of non-bacterial.
Although the new study illuminates a great deal about the microbiome, an enormous amount remains unknown. Learning more about it will take time, said Anup Mahurkar, the executive director of software engineering & information technology at IGS. "These communities of organisms are tremendously complex. In one sense, this study is a great advancement for the research community," he said. However, he was also cautious, saying "On the other hand, it still just moves the needle. There will always be more we can learn."