What is gut flora?
Q: What is gut flora?
A: Gut flora consists of microorganisms that live in the digestive system of animals. It is the largest reservoir of microbes in the human microbiome.
Q: How many cells are in the human body?
A: The human body consists of about 100 trillion cells.
Q: How many genes do gut flora have compared to the human genome?
A: It is estimated that these gut flora have around 100 times as many genes in aggregate as there are in the human genome.
Q: What percentage of dry mass does bacteria make up in faeces?
A: Bacteria make up most of the flora in the colon and up to 60% of the dry mass of faeces.
Q: How many species typically live in a person's gut?
A: Somewhere between 300 and 1000 different species live in the gut, with most estimates at about 500. However, it is probable that 99% of the bacteria come from about 30 or 40 species.
Q: What type of relationship exists between humans and their gut flora?
A: Research suggests that the relationship between gut flora and humans is not merely commensal (a non-harmful coexistence), but rather a symbiotic relationship.
Q: What benefits do good bacteria provide for humans?
A:Though people can survive without gut flora, these microorganisms perform a host of useful functions, such as fermenting unused energy substrates, training the immune system, preventing growth of harmful, pathogenic bacteria, regulating development of the gut, producing vitamins for their hosts (such as biotin and vitamin K), and producing hormones to direct their hosts to store fats.
