Our microbial selves: what ecology can teach us

Abstract

EMBo reports Vol 12 | no 8 | 2011 775 review review Advances in DNA sequencing have allowed us to characterize microbial communities-including those associated with the human body-at a broader range of spatial and temporal scales than ever before. We can now answer fundamental questions that were pre viously inaccessible and use well tested ecological theories to gain insight into changes in the microbiome that are associated with normal development and human disease. Perhaps un surprisingly, the ecosystems associated with our body follow trends identi fied in communities at other sites and scales, and thus studies of the microbiome benefit from ecological insight. Here, we assess human microbiome research in the context of ecological principles and models, focusing on diversity, biological drivers of community structure, spatial patterning and temporal dynamics, and suggest key directions for future research that will bring us closer to the goal of building predictive models for personalized medicine.

Understanding complex host-microbe interactions inHydra

“…The Hydra polyp, as any other animal body, may be considered an "ecological landscape" that harbors different ecosystems and meta-communities 33 with environmental characteristics such as dispersal barriers likely to affect the localization of host-associated every 3.5 d. [22][23][24] As a result of this extensive cell turnover, Hydra has an extensive regenerative capacity.…”

Application and comparative performance of network modularity algorithms to ecological communities classification

“…Our results show that network methods can readily be used to visualize and analyze vegetation tables for the identification and study of plant communities. Modularity detection algorithms could also be applied to other biological systems, for example the study of microbial species community structure, which entails even larger datasets [35].…”

Fingerprinting microbiomes towards screening for microbial antibiotic resistance

“…Another representative example is the microbial flora in the oral cavity as the entrance of the digestive tract; over 500 microorganism species have been identified and can attach to oral surfaces and colonize to form a microbial matrix, e.g., dental plaque or oral biofilm 10 . The dynamics of human host microbial communities account for many diverse phenomena associated with public health issues, e.g., changes in the gut microbial community may be linked to metabolic disorders, obesity and Crohn's disease 11 .…”

“…Trained data set Wavenumber (cm -1 ) Wavenumber (cm -1 ) Wavenumber (cm -1 ) Wavenumber (cm -1 ) 11 and negative controls, the biomarker alterations can examine the antibiotic resistance capability of the targeted microbiome or even quantify the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes.…”