{"id":18510,"date":"2022-07-22T07:26:47","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T05:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/?p=64196"},"modified":"2022-07-22T07:53:13","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T05:53:13","slug":"microbiomes-what-they-are-where-they-are-found-and-why-theyre-important","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/microbiomes-what-they-are-where-they-are-found-and-why-theyre-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Microbiomes: what they are, where they are found, and why they\u2019re important"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By JV Chamary\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 22 July 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Any defined habitat, from the soil beneath a plant to the surface of human skin, will contain a community of microorganisms living together: the microbiome.<\/p>\n

When those microbes occur in and around an animal\u2019s body, they form an ecosystem that can have a huge influence on their host\u2019s physiology, health and even behaviour.<\/p>\n

Do all animals have microbiomes?<\/h2>\n

Probably. Although microbiomes haven\u2019t yet been surveyed across the whole animal kingdom, even simple Hydra<\/em> (distant relatives of jellyfish) have microbial communities living on their surface.<\/p>\n

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A light micrograph of a <\/em>Hydra. \u00a9 Choksawatdikorn\/Science Photo Library\/Getty<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

More complex creatures will also carry microbes inside their digestive tract. To potentially help humans, the most well-studied are bacteria that live in the gut of mammals.<\/p>\n

Are gut bacteria harmful?<\/h2>\n

Some can cause disease because they\u2019re opportunistic pathogens, parasites that take advantage of weakened hosts, but most gut microbes are harmless or helpful.<\/p>\n

Those \u2018germs\u2019 include the \u2018friendly bacteria\u2019 in yogurt adverts, which can be commensal<\/a> (neither good nor bad) or mutualist<\/a> species that exist in a symbiotic relationship that\u2019s mutually beneficial to microbe and host.<\/p>\n

Biological terms glossary: definitions, with examples<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Clear as mud? Check out our glossary of scientific definitions of biological terms.<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/div> <\/section>

How can germs be helpful?<\/h2>\n

Friendly bacteria protect animals indirectly, by outcompeting harmful microbes for resources, or by producing molecules via metabolism \u2013 metabolites \u2013 that stimulate the host\u2019s immune defences or serve as anti-microbial factors that attack disease-causing species directly to provide pathogen resistance.<\/p>\n

On the flipside, an animal\u2019s gut may release substances such as glycan sugars that promote the growth of desirable members within their microbial community.<\/p>\n

Microbiomes can improve a host\u2019s health in other ways: gut bacteria in the thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus<\/em>) are able to recycle essential nitrogen from urea, enabling the animals to keep making proteins while fasting during hibernation.<\/p>\n

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The thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus<\/em>) is native to North America. \u00a9 Getty<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Do animals prefer specific microbes?<\/h2>\n

It depends on the host. While some animals (such as humans) harbour thousands of different gut bacteria, others only tolerate one.<\/p>\n

For example, the Hawaiian bobtail squid has a symbiotic partnership with a single species, Vibrio fischeri<\/em> \u2013 a bioluminescent bacterium that lives inside the squid\u2019s special light organs.<\/p>\n

Such a stable relationship over evolutionary time is known as phylosymbiosis. It\u2019s more common on some branches of the animal tree of life, including insects and mammals, though bats have relatively few bacteria and their gut microbiome closely resembles that of birds, which suggests that lower microbial diversity is an adaptation that has been favoured by natural selection in two very distinct groups of flying vertebrates.<\/p>\n

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