Effect of Interactions of Bacteria, Viruses, and Eukaryotes in Health and Diseas

Effect of Interactions of Bacteria, Viruses, and Eukaryotes in Health and Diseas


We have only recently started to appreciate that the human body is home to far more than human cells: we harbor at least 100 trillion (1014) microbial cells and a quadrillion viruses in and on us.

Collectively, the microbial associates that reside in and on the human body constitute our microbiota, and the genes they encode is known as our microbiome. This complex community contains taxa from across the tree of life, bacteria, eukaryotes, viruses, and at least one archaeon, that interact with one another and with the host, greatly impacting human health and physiology. Only a small minority of these can be cultured, and recently, culture-independent high-throughput sequencing has greatly expanded the repertoire of known microbes both in our bodies and in the environment