Abstract

It is rather astonishing to note how during last decades the human microbiota has gained a considerable large and heterogeneous attention not only from medical practice and scientific environments but also from the large public opinion. In addition of registering a significant burst on the commercial use of prebiotics and probiotics, during the last years it has been also possible to observe the resurgence of some specific medical procedures such as colon cleanse and fecal transplants. Though still mostly empiric, it might worth noticing as well that large efforts and important advancements on microbiota research have been registered. Indeed, an increasing number of scientists are suggesting to consider microbiota as an additional human organ. This however, could be semantically and conventionally difficult to be accepted. Once microbiota is not composed by eukaryotic cells, it would be easier to rather consider it is a kind of symbiotic entity. Alternatively, but much more irreverent and provocative, it would be necessary to redefine the anatomo-functional architecture of humans (and probably most superior animals) as a kind of condominium composed by both eukaryotic and prokaryotic elements.