The Genome Institute, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63108, USA.
Nature. 2012 Sep 13;489(7415):250-6. doi: 10.1038/nature11553.
The human body is colonized by a vast array of microbes, which form communities of bacteria, viruses and microbial eukaryotes that are specific to each anatomical environment. Every community must be studied as a whole because many organisms have never been cultured independently, and this poses formidable challenges. The advent of next-generation DNA sequencing has allowed more sophisticated analysis and sampling of these complex systems by culture-independent methods. These methods are revealing differences in community structure between anatomical sites, between individuals, and between healthy and diseased states, and are transforming our view of human biology.
人体被大量的微生物定植，这些微生物形成了特定于每个解剖环境的细菌、病毒和微生物真核生物群落。由于许多生物体从未被独立培养过，因此必须将每个群落作为一个整体进行研究，这带来了巨大的挑战。下一代 DNA 测序技术的出现，使得通过非培养方法对这些复杂系统进行更复杂的分析和采样成为可能。这些方法揭示了解剖部位之间、个体之间以及健康和疾病状态之间的群落结构差异，正在改变我们对人类生物学的认识。
