What is the microbiome?

To cite: Amon P, Sanderson I. Arch Dis Child Educ Pract Ed Published Online First: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/archdischild2016-311643 INTRODUCTION There has been an explosion in our understanding of the human microbiome (the genome of all our microbes) in the recent years. Advances in genome sequencing technologies and metagenomic analysis (genetic study of genomes taken directly from environmental samples) have enabled scientists to study these microbes and their function and to research microbiome–host interactions both in health and disease. The human microbiome has an estimated 100 trillion microbes, the bulk of which live in our gut. This summary gives an overview about what is known about the microbiota (microbial community) in paediatric practice. This short article is written for the practising paediatrician. For a scientific overview, the reader is referred to reviews. 2 An understanding of this complex ecological community is important as it affects our patients, and manipulation of the gut microbiome has the potential to be used in the treatment of childhood diseases in the future.