Studying the Microbiome & Recipe for Raw Taco Salad
Genes make proteins which carry out the work of the cells. How many genes does it take to make a human? Given that a mouse has 23,000 genes, wheat has 26,000 genes, and a worm has 20,500 genes, how many genes would you guess a human would have? As it turns out, the human genome is not much bigger than that of the worm, coming in at 21,000, less than that of a water flea! The interesting thing about us humans is that the 21,000 genes are not the only genes that are running our bodies. We are a community of organisms that live together and cooperate to run the body that sustains us all. Our human cells, although larger, are outnumbered ten to one by the cells of the microbes that live on or in us. There are 100 trillion microbes that make up our microbiota, mostly made up of single cell bacteria, but also viruses and fungi. The microbes living on the human body contain 4.4 million genes - this is our microbiome. These genes ...