The human genome may have been sequenced back in 2004, but that was a far cry from documenting all the genes inside us. Our bodies are home to a dizzying number and variety of bacteria, and in a study published in this week's Nature, researchers have used metagenomic sequencing to catalog the genes that belong to the microbes living in our guts. The project, which sampled 124 European people, found that each individual had at least 160 species of bacteria living in his or her digestive tract, and there's a lot of overlap between our guts.
At least 57 species of bacteria were present in just about everybody. Overall, the researchers cataloged about 1,000 different bacteria species and figure there's another 150 or so they haven't found [AP]
. Researcher Jeroen Raes reminds us that no matter if we're grossed out by the fact that bacteria infest our body, we ...
