title: The Microbiome and Human Biology.
abstract: Over the past few years, microbiome research has dramatically reshaped our understanding of human biology. New insights range from an enhanced understanding of how microbes mediate digestion and disease processes (e.g., in inflammatory bowel disease) to surprising associations with Parkinson's disease, autism, and depression. In this review, we describe how new generations of sequencing technology, analytical advances coupled to new software capabilities, and the integration of animal model data have led to these new discoveries. We also discuss the prospects for integrating studies of the microbiome, metabolome, and immune system, with the goal of elucidating mechanisms that govern their interactions. This systems-level understanding will change how we think about ourselves as organisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: robknight@ucsd.edu.|Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093.|Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093.
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Knight
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: robknight@ucsd.edu.|Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Callewaert
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: robknight@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Clarisse
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marotz
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: robknight@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Embriette R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Hyde
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: robknight@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Justine W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Debelius
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: robknight@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.affiliation: Josephine Bay Paul Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543.
authors.forename: Mitchell L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Sogin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System; D055442:Metabolome; D054892:Metagenome; D064307:Microbiota / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
keywords: DNA sequencing; gut-brain axis; immunology; metabolism; metagenomics; microbiome; neuroscience