Question

Summarize the possible role of archaea in human health and disease

Answer 1

Q.1

Ans. A decade ago a hypothesis was proposed that, similar to bacteria and eukarya, the archaeal domain of life might harbor certain species capable of causing disease. The last decade witnessed a massive use of molecular ecology tools in clinical microbiology, these data can be inspected for the potential involvement of the archaea in various infectious diseases in human. Unlike the bacteria, diversity of the archaea in the human body is substantially lower, including representatives of only one phylum, Euryarchaeota. An association of archeae with human gastrointestinal disease was seen in patients with Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and primary pneumatosis intestinal displayed a significantly lower incidence of methane excretion compared to healthy subjects. Since then, there have been a number of studies and one with using molecular markers of ecology, such as 16rRNA and mcrA genes, which have confirmed that these two initial observations. That is, in conditions characterized by extended transit time in the intestine, the incidence, rate of methane production are higher, while the diarrheal conditions of human gastrointestinal disease result in the opposite trend with lower incidence of methanogenic archeae and lower rates of methane production.