What's a microbiome and why are microbes important?
Microbes are fundamental to human and ecosystem health. They mediate biogeochemical and nutrient cycling, are integral to the productions of crops, livestock and textiles, are responsible for disease and its treatment, provide clean drinking water and the means to mitigate waste/pollution.
A microbiome is the simply all of the microorganisms in a particular environment - either around us (e.g. in soil, water, on your food or your toothbrush); on us (e.g. on your skin); or in us (in our mouth, our gut etc).
Below is a picture of a natural community of bacteria growing on a single grain of sand collected from intertidal sediment on a beach near Boston, USA in September 2008 and imaged using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). You can see that this grain of sand is positively teeming with microbes of different shapes and sizes!
A microbiome is the simply all of the microorganisms in a particular environment - either around us (e.g. in soil, water, on your food or your toothbrush); on us (e.g. on your skin); or in us (in our mouth, our gut etc).
Below is a picture of a natural community of bacteria growing on a single grain of sand collected from intertidal sediment on a beach near Boston, USA in September 2008 and imaged using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). You can see that this grain of sand is positively teeming with microbes of different shapes and sizes!
 |
|
Comments
Post a Comment