Planet Human Body serves as an introductory guide to the subject because scientists have only recently begun to deal in a scientific way with the complex bacterial populations found in and on humans. It includes chapters on new approaches to characterizing complex microbial populations, the human diseases that might be caused by shifts in the composition of these populations, and the potential for interventions that help restore the microbiota, and the role of horizontal gene transfer in shaping the activities of microbial populations. It examines and explains new research and coordinates it with information from older studies.
- Planet human body: the sites where microbes are normally found and the general characteristics of these populations
- Taking a census of the microbial populations that inhabit planet human body
- Going from "who's there" to "what are they doing". From census to activities
- Sex in the "cities": Horizontal gene transfers among bacteria in the normal microbiota and the significance of these transfers for areas as far-flung as agricultural use of antibiotics and transgenic plants
- Other microbial planets: nonhuman primates and other animals
- Prospects for managing the bacterial populations of the human body. Probiotics, prebiotics and antibiotic interventions
Abigail Ann Salyers is a professor of Microbiology at the University of Illinois in Urbana. She obtained her doctorate in physics from George Washington University and furthered her education at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.