Recently, the teams of Professor She Junjun and Professor Ding Xiaoming from the First Affiliated Hospital (FAH) of Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) and Professor Yu Jun from the Chinese University of Hong Kong have made significant progress in the study of human microbiome, providing theoretical basis for developing interventional measures for human microbiome.

In this 5-year study, the teams led by Professor She Junjun, Professor Ding Xiaoming and Professor Yu Jun collected 1,608 microbial samples from 53 anatomical sites of 7 surface organs (oral cavity, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, appendix, large intestine and skin), deciphered bacterial landscape in human surface organs (intra-surface-digestive tract; inter-surface-skin) by using 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing and PacBio 16S rRNA gene full-length HiFi sequencing and identified the common core microbiota of human surface organs and characteristic microbiota across different sites, revealing the diversity and specificity of microbial composition and distribution in different sites of human body. Based on these findings, they also investigated microbial flow and translocation patterns at different sites of digestive tract and between mucosa and contents of digestive tract. By assessing in-depth effect of oral microbiota on the formation of microbiota in digestive tract, they demonstrated the key role of a series of microorganisms with specific translocation tendency in shaping characteristic microbiota in different sites of digestive tract. Finally, the teams unraveled the universality and specificity of microbial interaction at different sites in digestive tract, and found significant spatial heterogeneity even in the same microbe across different anatomical and physiological sites. This study provides reference for the study of human microbiome, and offers theoretical basis for understanding of functional traits of microbiota among different organs and developing interventional measures for human microbiota.

These research results were published as an Article entitled Defining the biogeographical map and potential bacterial translocation of microbiome in human surface organs in Nature Communications. Professor She Junjun and Professor Yu Jun are the co-corresponding authors. Department of General Surgery of FAH of XJTU is the first and corresponding affiliation. Department of Kidney Transplantation of FAH of XJTU is the co-first affiliation. Center for Gut Microbiome Research of Med-X Institute Center and Department of Talent Highland provide experimental support for this study. This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China and High-end Foreign Experts Introduction Plan of Ministry of Science and Technology.

DOI：https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-44720-6