What are the consequences of the disappearing human microbiota?

The increase in allergic diseases that has occurred in developing countries in recent years has been attributed to a decrease in exposure to the microorganisms in the environment. Blaser and Falkow reflect that this increase, as well as the ongoing obesity epidemic and increased susceptibility to in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature reviews. Microbiology Vol. 7; no. 12; pp. 887 - 894
Main Authors Blaser, Martin J, Falkow, Stanley
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.12.2009
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects
Animals
Asthma
Biodiversity
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Conserved Sequence
DNA, Bacterial
DNA, Ribosomal
essay
Evolution, Molecular
Host-bacteria relationships
Host-Pathogen Interactions
Human populations
Humans
Indicator species
Infectious Diseases
Intestinal Mucosa - microbiology
Life Sciences
Macroecology
Medical Microbiology
Microbiology
Microbiota
Microbiota (Symbiotic organisms)
Microorganisms
Niches
Obesity
Parasitology
Pathogens
Phylogeny
Physiological aspects
Physiology
Symbiosis
Virology
United States
United States > US
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Summary:The increase in allergic diseases that has occurred in developing countries in recent years has been attributed to a decrease in exposure to the microorganisms in the environment. Blaser and Falkow reflect that this increase, as well as the ongoing obesity epidemic and increased susceptibility to infectious disease, might instead be the result of changes in the human microbiota. Humans and our ancestors have evolved since the most ancient times with a commensal microbiota. The conservation of indicator species in a niche-specific manner across all of the studied human population groups suggests that the microbiota confer conserved benefits on humans. Nevertheless, certain of these organisms have pathogenic properties and, through medical practices and lifestyle changes, their prevalence in human populations is changing, often to an extreme degree. In this Essay, we propose that the disappearance of these ancestral indigenous organisms, which are intimately involved in human physiology, is not entirely beneficial and has consequences that might include post-modern conditions such as obesity and asthma.
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SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:1740-1526
1740-1534
DOI:10.1038/nrmicro2245