title: Microbiome engineering: Current applications and its future.
abstract: Microbiomes exist in all ecosystems and are composed of diverse microbial communities. Perturbation to microbiomes brings about undesirable phenotypes in the hosts, resulting in diseases and disorders, and disturbs the balance of the associated ecosystems. Engineering of microbiomes can be used to modify structures of the microbiota and restore ecological balance. Consequently, microbiome engineering has been employed for improving human health and agricultural productivity. The importance and current applications of microbiome engineering, particularly in humans, animals, plants and soil is reviewed. Furthermore, we explore the challenges in engineering microbiome and the future of this field, thus providing perspectives and outlook of microbiome engineering.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.|NUS Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation (SynCTI), Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Jee Loon
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Foo
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.|NUS Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation (SynCTI), Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ling
authors.affiliation: NUS Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation (SynCTI), Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore.|Department of Paediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Yung Seng
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.|NUS Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation (SynCTI), Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Matthew Wook
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods; D000818:Animals; D057005:Bioengineering; D004463:Ecology / Q000379:methods; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D064307:Microbiota; D023421:Models, Animal; D010944:Plants / Q000382:microbiology; D012988:Soil Microbiology
keywords: Agricultural productivity; Human health; Microbiome engineering; Microbiota