In recent years, information on the diversity and abundance of microorganisms associated with the human body has significantly expanded. Recent research on the microbiota reveals its importance in the maintenance of normal host physiology and particular dysbioses have been associated with disturbances of gastrointestinal and metabolic health, brain function, and immunological responses. College students in health sciences and related programs, to our knowledge, receive little information regarding the microbiota and its importance in health. Adequate descriptions of the microbiota are only recently starting to appear in undergraduate human anatomy and physiology textbooks and most curricula fail to address the topic of microbiota with the attention that it deserves. Given the growing amount of evidence demonstrating the vital role of the microbiota in body function, it is crucial to educate students about the microbiota in undergraduate human anatomy and physiology courses for health practitioners. In this review, we present examples of recent findings illustrating the importance of the microbiota, and discuss how we may incorporate the microbiota into the teaching of human anatomy and physiology courses
