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## Meet the editor

Dr. Nar Singh Chauhan is currently a teaching faculty in the Department of Biochemistry, Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, India. His doctor of philosophy degree, with thesis research on "Arsenic detoxification mechanisms in unculturable bacteria using function metagenomics" at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, was granted by Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India. His current research focus is

on the metagenomic characterization of diverse microbiome for their native community structure, physiological functions, survival strategies under abiotic stress, colonization factors, and host-microbial interactions. In this direction, he has established an association of the human microbiome with the onset of celiac disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Dr. Chauhan is the author of a number of peer-reviewed research publications in reputed international journals (*Genome Biology & Evolution*, *Scientific Reports*, *Frontiers in Microbiology*, etc.) and has also been awarded many research patents.

Contents

**Section 1**

**Section 2**

**Section 3**

*by Nar Singh Chauhan*

**Preface III**

Introduction **1**

**Chapter 1 3**

Gut Microbes **7**

**Chapter 2 9**

Microbes in Health and Diseases **35**

**Chapter 3 37**

**Chapter 4 55**

Introductory Chapter: Human and Microbes in Health and Diseases

The Therapeutic Potential of the "Yin-Yang" Garden in Our Gut

*by Shabarinath Srikumar and Séamus Fanning*

The Role of Leather Microbes in Human Health

Extra Pulmonary Tuberculosis: An Overview

*by Richard O. Oruko, John O. Odiyo and Joshua N. Edokpayi*

*by Onix J. Cantres-Fonseca, William Rodriguez-Cintrón, Francisco Del Olmo-Arroyo and Stella Baez-Corujo*

## Contents


Preface

The human body is colonized by a vast number of microorganisms that live on and in humans, which are collectively called the "human microbiome." The scientific expedition to define the human microbiome started with the efforts of Antonie van Leewenhoek to compare oral and fecal microbiota in 1680. Since then, several attempts have been made to identify the role of microbes in human health and in the onset of infectious diseases. A number of discoveries have been made to identify, classify, and characterize microbes responsible for host health and the onset of diseases, factors affecting their pathogenicity, microbial physiology during the onset of diseases, as well as the role of antibiotic resistance in survivability. Simultaneously, it was found that the number of microbes defining the human microbiome was almost tenfold higher than human cells, which collectively codes for approximately 3.3 million genes compared to ~22,000 host-encoded genes. These outcomes redefine the human body as a "supraorganism" harboring a vast collection of microbial and human cells working in close coordination for a healthy host physiology. This book is aimed at providing an overview of the role of microbes in human health and diseases, the functional role of microbes in the maintenance of human health, and various scientific discoveries made to answer questions such as "what are human commensals and pathogens?", "how can a disequilibrium in microbiome structure lead to the onset of diseases?", and "how can the human microbiome function and negotiate with pathogenic microbes to prevent diseases?" I hope this book will enrich the knowledge domain of readers and answer their questions on the human microbiome and its function in host health and diseases.

**Nar Singh Chauhan**

Rohtak, Haryana, India

Department of Biochemistry, Maharshi Dayanand University,
