How much of you is you?
Well in cell counts, only half of you is...well - you. The other half is microorganisms.
Image taken from Cho, I., Blaser, M. The human microbiome: at the interface of health and disease. Nat Rev Genet 13, 260–270 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3182.
This image is taken from a peer reviewed article- The Human Microbiome; at the interface of health and disease - published in 2012. I think this image is one of the best for getting the point across quickly. It shows only bacteria though - not the fungi we also need. It has long been established that we aren't merely carriers for these colonists. Nor are we simply symbiotic! As humans, we cannot survive without these bacteria. Yet for some reason - it has been an uphill struggle to undo the damange of the 1950's germaphobic attitude towards these little guys that were suddenly so 'dangerous'. The idea that the fungi penecillin could kill pathogenic bacteria in the body, suddenly dawned a new idea....what if we could kill all of them? And be all healthy and....cleaaaannnnn. Lets just take lots of 'anti' biotics.
Well, here we are - there is no faster reproducer and adaptor than bacteria for example. Their main super power is being able to switch things on and off that will save them. Not like us, we have our bodies and they can't really change that quickly- it takes us thousands, millions of years. In the world of bacteria for example, due to it's rapid reproduction rate, it can pretty much grow the equivalent of 6 more lungs, 10 more toxic outlet pumps and 100 new attack modes- per cell within a couple of hours. Now I speak loosely here, just to get a point across.
But here's some facts - we have over 10,000 species on our bodies. Whilst we have around 20,000 human genes, these species make up up to 20 million genes. So we have a human genome, and also a microbiotic genome. Each of us with a unique stamp.
I intend on writing some blog pieces about the biology of seeing our bodies as part of the world, part of history and needing to rely on the outdoors to keep us healthy.