Latest Articles
- Special Issue Perspective | Applied and Environmental ScienceIt Takes a Village: Microbial Communities Thrive through Interactions and Metabolic Handoffs
An enduring theme in microbial ecology is the interdependence of microbial community members. Interactions between community members include provision of cofactors, establishment of redox gradients, and turnover of key nutrients to drive biogeochemical cycles.
- Special Issue Perspective | Host-Microbe BiologyUnraveling Interactions between the Microbiome and the Host Immune System To Decipher Mechanisms of Disease
In recent years, there has been a deluge of papers linking altered microbiome compositions to a myriad of diseases. Mechanistic insight into microbial drivers of disease phenotypes is essential for translation to novel therapies.
- Special Issue Perspective | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesComputational Genomics of Specialized Metabolism: from Natural Product Discovery to Microbiome Ecology
Microbial and plant specialized metabolites, also known as natural products, are key mediators of microbe-microbe and host-microbe interactions and constitute a rich resource for drug development. In the past decade, genome mining has emerged as a prominent strategy for natural product discovery.
- Special Issue Perspective | Therapeutics and PreventionBeyond Structure: Defining the Function of the Gut Using Omic Approaches for Rational Design of Personalized Therapeutics
Over the past 10 years, microbiome research has focused on defining the structures associated with different disease states in multiple systems, but has fallen short on showing causation. Prior omic studies have generated many new hypotheses, but moving forward we need to start dissecting the function of each bacterium alone and in concert with complex bacterial communities in well-characterized systems.
- Special Issue Perspective | Host-Microbe BiologyMetabolomics and Agriculture: What Can Be Done?
The importance of Brazil as a producer and exporter of food and feed will continuously increase. Despite the recent economic and political problems in Brazil, the scientific field is expanding.
- Special Issue Perspective | Host-Microbe BiologyMaking Millennial Medicine More Meta
Although the importance of human genetic polymorphisms in therapeutic outcomes is well established, the role of specific genotypic or copy number variants in our “second genome” (the microbiome) has been largely overlooked. In this Perspective, I will discuss three major barriers to integrating metagenomics into pharmacology, highlighting ongoing research by us and others that has begun to shed light on the mechanisms that link the...
- Special Issue Perspective | Host-Microbe BiologySpatial Analyses of Specialized Metabolites: The Key to Studying Function in Hosts
Microbial communities contribute to a wide variety of biological functions in hosts and have the ability to specifically influence the health of those organisms through production of specialized metabolites. However, the structures or molecular mechanisms related to health or disease in host-microbe interactions represent a knowledge gap.
- Special Issue Perspective | Host-Microbe BiologyA Microbial Perspective on the Grand Challenges in Comparative Animal Physiology
Interactions with microbial communities can have profound influences on animal physiology, thereby impacting animal performance and fitness. Therefore, it is important to understand the diversity and nature of host-microbe interactions in various animal groups (invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals).
- Special Issue EditorialEarly-Career Systems Microbiology Scientists