A belly button microbial 'portrait'
We’ve been hinting for weeks now… through our tweets and updates to the Belly Button Biodiversity project website…
And now it’s official! We just published our first findings from the Belly Button Biodiversity project in the scientific research journal PLOS ONE (It’s an open access journal so you can read and download the whole thing right here).
We approached the data collected from this first batch of 60 navels much like an explorer approaches a newly discovered patch of rainforest; we started by asking very basic questions, namely what and how many species live there.
Turns out, belly buttons are a jungle of microbial biodiversity: we detected over 2300 species! And get this, only eight of those 2300 species– we call them oligarchs – were quite frequent and abundant, present in more than 70% of the individuals we sampled.
Our fearless leader Rob Dunn shares his thoughts on what these results mean and what mysteries remain to be solved (hint: there are many) in a new post on the Scientific American Guest Blog.
Check out our photo gallery of the oligarchs, those frequent and abundant navel-dwellers, as well as our gallery of belly button bacteria ‘portraits.’ Perhaps yours is in the mix?
And here’s some more great news coverage on the paper from:
- The Abstract (NC State’s news blog), Matt Shipman: Navel-Gazing Researchers ID Which Species Live In Our Belly Buttons (But Don’t Know Why)
- Inkfish, Elizabeth Preston: Belly Button Safari: Who’s Living in There?
- News release from NC Museum of Natural Sciences: Navel-Gazing Researchers ID Which Species Live In Our Belly Buttons (But Don’t Know Why)
- PLOS ONE Community Blog, Souri Somphanith: Plunging into the Unknown: Belly Button Bacteria and You
- The Loom, Carl Zimmer: On the Occasion of My Belly Button Entering the Scientific Literature
- Wired.Co.UK, Philippa Warr: Belly button bacteria oligarchs dominate our navel’s ecosystem
- Ars Technica, John Timmer: Belly Button Biodiversity finds no two navels are quite the same
- The Scientist, Beth Marie Mole: Navel Bugs
- Daily Beast, Andrew Sullivan: It’s a Jungle Down There
- Smithsonian SmartNews Blog, Rachel Nuwer: A Flourishing Community Dwells Within Your Belly Button
- National Geographic Daily News, Shannon Fischer: What Lives in Your Belly Button? Study Finds “Rain Forest” of Species
- New Scientist Short Sharp Science, Joanna Carver: Belly button samples reveal wonderland of fluffy fauna
- Boston Globe Brainiac, Elizabeth Manus: Hey, there are oligarchs in my navel!
- Daily Mail (UK), Damien Gayle: What really lives in your belly button – researchers reveal ‘rainforest’ of bacteria
- The Body Odd on NBCNews.com, Cari Nierenberg: You may be surprised by what’s living in your navel!
And as always, we’re eager to hear what you think – Were the results surprising to you? What factors do you think might explain individual variation in belly button microbes? Join the conversation by commenting below or sharing your thoughts on Twitter #bellybutton.
Would love to be a participant in this study. please advise, this is so interesting.
Hi Tammy! Alas we’re no longer accepting samples for the Belly Button Biodiversity project, but we’d love to include you in our home microbiome study – Sign up using our webform here: http://yourwildlife.org/projects/wild-life-of-our-homes/
Very intriguing topic! Have you thought about how microbial populations on the belly button change over time with particular individuals? I know there was a PNAS paper recently which suggested that bacteria from human skin (hands) could be used for forensic studies. I am wondering how specific these bacteria really are to individuals. I think it could be interesting to observe whether there are differences in biodiversity of belly button microbes when the same individual is sampled at different time points on the order of hours, weeks, or even months.
Where do i find my results? I submitted a swab over a year ago…Thanks! Can’t wait to hear…
Hey James! If you participated in our project by mailing in your swab, we’re still working on analyzing those results (we’re in the process of extracting and sequencing microbe DNA). We hope to be sharing those results with participants in the next few months. If you participated at a “live” event at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, go to http://www.wildlifeofyourbody.org/?page_id=514 where you can locate your belly button’s bacterial “portrait.”
Did you take samples of cadaver belly buttons to see if there are living bactirium on those and how they differ? Or if the whole community of bactirium on cadavers also die with their hosts? I know this is a little morbid but I am curious if the bactirium are supported by the host or are dependent on each other for survival. I suspect they are supported by the host.
Does the difference in the bacteria from one body to the next have anything to do with evolution? Are the bacteria evolving differently because of the difference in the chemical/biological environment of your body?
[…] batch of 66 navels much like an explorer approaches a newly discovered patch of rainforest,” said Holly Menninger, Director of Public Science for North Carolina State University. “We started by asking very […]
[…] Welcome to the Jungle: http://yourwildlife.org/2012/11/welcome-to-the-jungle/ […]
[…] batch of 66 navels much like an explorer approaches a newly discovered patch of rainforest,” said Holly Menninger, Director of Public Science for North Carolina State University. “We started by asking very […]
How are you meant to thoroughly clean your belly button?
What are you meant to use to correctly clean your belly button?
For me your study is voyeuristically fascinating because I don’t have a belly button; it was surgically obliterated by a double umbilical hernia operation when I was 3 1/2, and I have no memory of it.
I’m sure there are others out there like me, so thanks for exploring the unknown.
[…] http://yourwildlife.org/2012/11/welcome-to-the-jungle/ […]
[…] scientists at Your Wildlife wrote that among all those species, there are some common forms found in most […]