FIG. 1.

An illustration of the human supraorganism represented as a human body surrounded by a “microbiome cloud” at two health states, using Leonardo da Vinci's classic “Vitruvian Man.” From a genomic perspective, a human can be viewed as a relatively stable gene pool surrounded by a fluid microbial cloud or aura made up of a highly diverse set of microbes. In spite of evidence of memory that preserves the composition of an individual's microbiome, one's microbiome still varies continually with time, space, health state, and other intra-individual factors. Here, two different microbiome patterns are shown on the right and left of the same individual, representing variation in types and abundance of microbial species.