title: The demographic determinants of human microbiome health.
abstract: The human microbiome is a vast reservoir of microbial diversity and increasingly recognized to have a fundamental role in human health. In polymicrobial communities, the presence of one species can modulate the demography (i.e., growth and distribution) of other species. These demographic impacts generate feedbacks in multispecies interactions, which can be magnified in spatially structured populations (e.g., host-associated communities). Here, we argue that demographic feedbacks between species are central to microbiome development, shaping whether and how potential metabolic interactions come to be realized between expanding lineages of bacteria. Understanding how demographic feedbacks tune metabolic interactions and in turn shape microbiome structure and function is now a key challenge to our abilities to better manage microbiome health.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK; Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, UK; Department of Biology and BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Electronic address: sestrela@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Estrela
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences, Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Center for Infectious Disease, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Marvin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Whiteley
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK; Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, UK. Electronic address: sam.brown@ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Sam P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D003710:Demography; D006262:Health; D006801:Humans; D054892:Metagenome; D059013:Microbial Consortia; D064307:Microbiota; D010802:Phylogeny; D013559:Symbiosis
keywords: demography; metabolic interactions; microbiome; multispecies communities; spatial organization