What is "microbiota"

n. The microbial flora harbored by normal, healthy individuals.

Microbiota may refer to:

• Microbiota decussata, a genus of coniferous plants in the family Cupressaceae
• Microbiota, the microflora and microfauna in an ecosystem

A '''microbiota '''is "the ecological community of commensal, symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms that literally share our body space". Joshua Lederberg coined the term, emphasising the importance of microorganisms inhabiting the human body in health and disease. Many scientific articles distinguish microbiome and microbiota to describe either the collective genomes of the microorganisms that reside in an environmental niche or the microorganisms themselves, respectively. However, by the original definitions, these terms are largely synonymous.

There are trillions of microbes in the human microbiome, although the entire microbiome only accounts for about for 1-3% total body mass, with some weight-estimates ranging as high as 3 pounds (approximately 48 ounces or 1,400 grams). Research into the role that microbiota in the gut might play in the human immune system started in the late 1990s. The microbiome of the gut (the gut flora) has been characterised as a "forgotten organ", and the possibility has been raised that "the mammalian immune system, which seems to be designed to control microorganisms, is in fact controlled by microorganisms". The human microbiome may have a role in autoimmune diseases like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, and perhaps some cancers. A poor mix of microbes (that is, a dysbiosis) in the gut may also aggravate common obesity. Since some of the microbes in the human body can modify the regulation of some neurotransmitters, it may be possible to use certain microorganisms to supplement treatments for depression, bipolar disorder and other stress-related psychiatric disorders.

The microbes being discussed are generally non-pathogenic (they do not cause disease unless they grow abnormally); they exist in harmony and symbiotically with their hosts. The microbiome and host may have emerged as a unit by the process of integration.