title: The Microbiome: The Trillions of Microorganisms That Maintain Health and Cause Disease in Humans and Companion Animals.
abstract: The microbiome is the complex collection of microorganisms, their genes, and their metabolites, colonizing the human and animal mucosal surfaces, digestive tract, and skin. It is now well known that the microbiome interacts with its host, assisting in digestion and detoxification, supporting immunity, protecting against pathogens, and maintaining health. Studies published to date have demonstrated that healthy individuals are often colonized with different microbiomes than those with disease involving various organ systems. This review covers a brief history of the development of the microbiome field, the main objectives of the Human Microbiome Project, and the most common microbiomes inhabiting the human respiratory tract, companion animal digestive tract, and skin in humans and companion animals. The main changes in the microbiomes in patients with pulmonary, gastrointestinal, and cutaneous lesions are described.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA arodrigues@cvm.tamu.edu.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodrigues Hoffmann
authors.affiliation: National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Proctor
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Surette
authors.affiliation: Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Suchodolski
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000382:microbiology; D064307:Microbiota; D057805:Pets; D012137:Respiratory System / Q000382:microbiology; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology
keywords: gastrointestinal; human microbiome project; microbial ecology; microbiome; respiratory; skin