Ratio between number of genes in microbiome and in human

Range 50-100 unitless
Organism Human Homo sapiens
Reference Sears CL. A dynamic partnership: celebrating our gut flora. Anaerobe. 2005 Oct11(5):247-51.PubMed ID16701579
Primary Source Hooper LV, Gordon JI. Commensal host-bacterial relationships in the gut. Science. 2001 May 11292(5519):1115-8.PubMed ID11352068
Method Assuming an average microbial genome size of 5 million base pairs (bp) and 4000 genes per genome, the 2.5-billion- to 5-billion-bp intestinal microbiome may contain 2 million to 4 million genes
Comments ‘microbiome’ - the collective genome of our indigenous microbes. See Round & Mazmanian 2009 PMID 19343057 p.321 left column bottom paragraph: "Although it has been known for decades that we harbour millions of commensal bacteria, recent studies have only just begun to reveal the extraordinary complexity and diversity of the human microbiota. This consortium of bacteria contains tenfold more cells than the human body, 100 times the number of genes than the human genome and has the metabolic capacity of the human liver [refs 90, 91 therein]."
Entered by Uri M
ID 102388