Contribution of the Intestinal Microbiota to Human Health and Disease

The term ‘microbiome’ was coined by Joshua Lederberg, who argued that microorganisms inhabiting the human body should be included as part of the human genome, because of their influence on human physiology.The human microbiome (formerly known as human microbiota) is the aggregate of microorganisms that resides on the surface and in deep layers of skin, in the saliva and oral mucosa, in the conjunctiva, and in the GIT.Human-associated bacterial species comprise the vast majority of the humanmicrobiome in terms of microbial DNA content and cell count.To realize that such things as our mother’s weight, the way we are born, and what we are fed can determine the degree of bacterial diversity that we will have early in life, which in turn will affect our immune system, metabolism, etc., adds more reasons to pay particular attention to what happens in the first 1,000 days of existence.