Nearly 46 Million Genes in the Human Microbiome
The human genome comprises about 20,000 genes, but that pales by comparison to the millions of genes in the human microbiome, according to a Harvard study. “To determine this quantity, the researchers conducted a meta-analysis of metagenomes from the human mouth and gut among 3,655 samples from 13 unique studies.” They wrote, “We found staggering genetic heterogeneity in the dataset, identifying a total of 45,666,334 non-redundant genes (23,961,508 oral and 22,254,436 gut) at the 95% identity level.” But that’s just a rough estimate. As one researcher commented: “There may be more genes in the collective human microbiome than stars in the observable universe, and at least half of these genes appear to be unique to each individual,. . . .” MORE
Image Credit: Harvard Microbiome Diversity Study