Sequencing the human microbiome in health and disease
Path to genome sequencing has changed human microbiome research from focusing on identity characterizations to metagenomics strategies that reveal not only microbial species but also how microbial metabolic activities correlate with human health and disease. The interaction between the human microbiome and the immune system has an effect on several human metabolic activity. Research studies are going on to identify the relation between composition between the microbiome and infectious disease.
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Molecular techniques have revolutionized the practice of standard microbiology. In particular, 16S rRNA sequencing, whole microbial genome sequencing and metagenomics are revealing the extraordinary diversity of microorganisms on Earth and their vast genetic and metabolic repertoire. The increase in length, accuracy and number of reads generated by high-throughput sequencing has coincided with a surge of interest in the human microbiota, the totality of bacteria associated with the human body, in both health and disease. Traditional views of host/pathogen interactions are being challenged as the human microbiota are being revealed to be important in normal immune system function, to diseases not previously thought to have a microbial component and to infectious diseases with unknown aetiology. In this review, we introduce the nature of the human microbiota and application of these three key sequencing techniques for its study, highlighting both advances and challenges in the field. We go on to discuss how further adoption of additional techniques, also originally developed in environmental microbiology, will allow the establishment of disease causality against a background of numerous, complex and interacting microorganisms within the human host.
Microorganisms associated with the human body have been studied for many years in both health and disease. The first Human Microbiome Project perhaps began when Antonie van Leeuwenhoek scraped ‘gritty matter’ from between his teeth and became the first to visualize bacteria, or ‘animalcules’ in dental plaque in 1683
Since then, research on human-associated microorganisms has, for the pragmatic reason of combating infectious disease in human, veterinary and agricultural settings, tended to focus on pathogens. In addition, human-associated microbe research has been limited because many bacteria are difficult to grow in the laboratory. Now techniques pioneered in environmental microbiology are being applied to human diseases and are revealing complex interactions between microorganisms themselves and with their human hosts. This holds promise for a new understanding of infectious disease and for diseases not previously recognized to have a microbial component.
With the advent of high-throughput sequencing substantial numbers of samples can be processed rapidly and cost effectively. These technological advances have led to an interest in the human as a super-organism made up of interacting human and microbial components. Such interactions may be complex and occur at many levels that extend well beyond the traditional models of host pathogen and immune-virulence. Five to 8% of the human genome, for example, consists of endogenous retroviruses; gut bacteria may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease by the metabolic degradation of L-carnitine and the gut microbiota may confer good health in the elderly by as yet unknown mechanisms. Thus, many aspects of human well-being may be influenced by our associated, integrated and ubiquitous microbiota. Read More..
Reference
- https://www.theinsightpartners.com/reports/human-microbiome-sequencing-technology-market/
- https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article/22/R1/R88/693913