Every person may have at least 160 different species of microorganisms in their gut, according to the results of this study, which could be helping with digestion and health or may be causing disease in some cases.
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PARIS: A census of microbes in the human digestive tract found at least 1,000 microbes, many previously unknown, and could lead to new cure for gut ailments with the help of personal microbial profiles.
"This completely changes our vision," said Stanislav-Dusko Ehrlich, a researcher at France's National Institute for Agricultural Research, after the study was published in the journal Nature.
Knowing which core bacteria populate a healthy intestine should lead to more accurate diagnosis and prognosis for diseases ranging from ulcers to irritable bowel syndrome to Crohn's, which also causes painful inflammation, he said.
Your personal microbial profile
"In the future, we should be able to modify the (microbial) flora to optimise health and well being," he said.
"This also opens up the possibility of prevention through diet, and treatments tailored a person's genetic and microbial profile."
More than 100 researchers working over two years found some 3.3 million distinct genes spread across at least 1,000 species of single-celled organisms, virtually all bacteria.
Previously unknown bacteria
"The study is a blueprint," said co-author Jeroen Raes, a scientist at Vrije University in Brussels.
"The vast majority of bacteria found were not known before. But now we can start sorting out what they do in terms of function, and how they might relate to disease," he said.
The intestinal census was carried out on 124 adults – some healthy, others obese or suffering from IBD – from Denmark and Spain.
Surprising overlap between people
Using new DNA sequencing techniques, scientists gathered a mass of data equivalent to 200 complete human genomes, Raes said. The number of bacteria discovered is double many previous estimates.
But the big surprise was not the diversity, said researchers, but the fact that most humans – despite different diets and environments – appear to share a sizeable least common denominator of microbial flora.
Previous studies had suggested that there was relatively little overlap, especially from different corners of the globe.
Each individual in the study had at least 160 different species of microorganisms, adding up to more than half-a-million separate genes, the researchers found.
