A team of researchers dug into 60 different people’s belly buttons and turned up bacterial diversity and microbial mystery. All in all, they identified more than 2, 000 species of bacteria as well as two species of archaea, the ancient predecessors of bacteria. Some of the species frequently occurred in multiple belly buttons, while others were confined to just a few participants. According to The Scientist:
Each volunteer harbored an average of 67 different types of bacteria, and the vast majority of the 2, 188 species found were only present in six or fewer belly buttons. One of the volunteers, Dunn said, had not bathed in years, which yielded a belly button sample that not only had bacteria present, but two species of archaea, which were rare in the study.
The researchers are stumped over what causes this diversity and difference. Writing in Scientific American’s guest blog, the study’s lead author, Rob Dunn, ponders the mystery:
We began to more seriously wonder what explained the differences from one person to the next. We were finding hundreds and then thousands of species, many of which appear new to science. They included strange species, such as one species found on my body that appears to prefer to break down pesticides.
One can imagine many
factors that influence which bacteria are on your skin; whether you were
born c-section or vaginally, gender, age, weight, whether you are an
innie or an outie, whether you live in a city or the country, what
climate you live in, whether or not you have a dog, and maybe even where
you grew up or where your mother lived when she was pregnant with you.
一個繁茂的細菌群落正生長在你的肚臍里
一組研究人員探查了60個人的肚臍后,，發(fā)現(xiàn)了其中細菌的多樣性和神秘性?？偟膩碚f,，他們辨認出了2000多種細菌，還有2種古生菌（細菌的古老前輩）,。其中一些細菌頻繁地出現(xiàn)在多人的肚臍中,，其他的細菌則只在少數(shù)幾個參與者的肚臍中現(xiàn)身。據(jù)《科學家》雜志介紹：
共發(fā)現(xiàn)了2188種細菌,，平均每位志愿者攜帶67種,。這些細菌中的絕大部分只在6位或者更少的志愿者的肚臍中出現(xiàn)。一位名為鄧恩的志愿者自稱幾年沒有洗澡,，在他的肚臍中不僅發(fā)現(xiàn)了細菌,，還發(fā)現(xiàn)了在研究中很罕見的2種古生菌。
研究人員正在探求造成如此多樣性和差異性的原因,。這項研究的首席作者——羅布·鄧恩,，在《科學美國人》的特邀博客上寫道：
我們開始更嚴肅地探求造成此差異性的原因。我們發(fā)現(xiàn)了成百上千的細菌種類,，其中很多種類在科學界是首次被發(fā)現(xiàn),。這些首次亮相的細菌中有一些很特別，比如在我的肚臍里找到的一種細菌似乎更喜歡分解殺蟲劑,。
關于哪些細菌會出現(xiàn)在你的皮膚上,，你可以猜想出許多會產(chǎn)生影響的因素：你是自然生產(chǎn)的還是剖腹產(chǎn)的，你的性別,、年齡,、體重，你的肚臍是內(nèi)凹的還是外凸的,，你住在城市還是鄉(xiāng)村,，你的居住地的氣候，你是否養(yǎng)狗,，甚至于你在哪里長大或者你的母親在懷著你的時候住在哪里,。
研究團隊從北美各地采集到了600多個新的肚臍樣本，他們正寄望于由這些樣本獲取到的數(shù)據(jù)能夠解開這個謎團,。值得一提的是,，他們還沒有觸及潛伏在我們鼻子、眉毛,、腳趾甲和腋窩中的細菌森林呢,，至少現(xiàn)在還沒有。
