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microbiota

Type: organism
Aliases: microbiome gut microbiota gut microbiome microbial ecosystem microbiota shifts gut flora
Systems Analogy

A sprawling internal ecosystem of specialized biological workers processing raw harvests into essential regional nutrients.

The collective community of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, archaea, and viruses) residing within a specific ecological niche, such as the human gastrointestinal tract. Note: While 'microbiota' refers to the physical population of microbes and 'microbiome' refers to their collective genomes and habitat, they are functionally used interchangeably in clinical literature.

Scientific Sources & Verbatim Definitions