Scientists at Stanford University found that most of the microbes that make up the human microflora are unknown to science. This is reported by the publication ScienceAlert.
The researchers analyzed DNA fragments that were contained in a 1351 blood sample taken from 188 patients. Biologists sequenced, that is, read the nucleotide sequences by the shotgun method, in which molecular chains are broken down into separate cloned parts. The structure of the whole fragment (contig) is determined by the computer program on the basis of a set of individual readings (reads).
A total of 7,190 contigs were sequenced, more than half of which (3761) had no similarity to the bacterial DNA sequences stored in the database. Scientists have determined that the fragments belong to microorganisms from unknown taxa – groups of living things that unite similar species or taxa of lower ranks.
