Molecular insight to discover The Second Brain in the body, The Gut Microbiome

The human intestine has a vast variety of microorganisms, and their balance is dependent on several factors. Antibiotics affect microbial ecosystems and allow natural opportunists to multiply. Their disturbance may cause a variety of diseases or abnormal physiological states.

The human gut collective genome of microbes is estimated to contain approximately 100 times more genes than the human genome influencing extra-intestinal sites and is considered as a second brain in the body.

Gut Microbiome, The Second Brain

Culturing of these microbes is the gold standard technique in the field of microbiology but it fails to represent the complete information of intestinal microbiota which comprises many non-cultivable bacteria. In contrast, molecular methods based on the direct analysis of environmental DNA without any culture step have been developed to study microbial communities.

Recent advancements in molecular analysis of bacterial species have provided new tools to discover a highly diverse intestinal ecosystem and these are used to study their structure and evolution from the gastrointestinal tract. This technique is useful for analyzing the bacterial diversity profile in different disease conditions.