Human Gut Microbiota: Toward an Ecology of Disease

Susannah Selber-Hnatiw, Belise Rukundo, Masoumeh Ahmadi, Hayfa Akoubi, Hend Al-Bizri, Adelekan F. Aliu, Tanyi U. Ambeaghen, Lilit Avetisyan, Irmak Bahar, Alexandra Baird, Fatema Begum, Hélène Ben Soussan, Virginie Blondeau-Éthier, Roxane Bordaries, Helene Bramwell, Alicia Briggs, Richard Bui, Matthew Carnevale, Marisa Chancharoen, Talia Chevassus, Jin H. Choi, Karyne Coulombe, Florence Couvrette, Samantha D'Abreau, Meghan Davies, Marie-Pier Desbiens, Tamara Di Maulo, Sean-Anthony Di Paolo, Sabrina Do Ponte, Priscyla dos Santos Ribeiro, Laure-Anne Dubuc-Kanary, Paola K. Duncan, Frédérique Dupuis, Sara El-Nounou, Christina N. Eyangos, Natasha K. Ferguson, Nancy R. Flores-Chinchilla, Tanya Fotakis, Mariam Gado Oumarou H D, Metodi Georgiev, Seyedehnazanin Ghiassy, Natalija Glibetic, Julien Grégoire Bouchard, Tazkia Hassan, Iman Huseen, Marlon-Francis Ibuna Quilatan, Tania Iozzo, Safina Islam, Dilan B. Jaunky, Aniththa Jeyasegaram, Marc-André Johnston, Matthew R. Kahler, Kiranpreet Kaler, Cedric Kamani, Hessam Karimian Rad, Elisavet Konidis, Filip Konieczny, Sandra Kurianowicz, Philippe Lamothe, Karina Legros, Sebastien Leroux, Jun Li, Monica E. Lozano Rodriguez, Sean Luponio-Yoffe, Yara Maalouf, Jessica Mantha, Melissa McCormick, Pamela Mondragon, Thivaedee Narayana, Elizaveta Neretin, Thi T. T. Nguyen, Ian Niu, Romeo B. Nkemazem, Martin O'Donovan, Matthew Oueis, Stevens Paquette, Nehal Patel, Emily Pecsi, Jackie Peters, Annie Pettorelli, Cassandra Poirier, Victoria R. Pompa, Harshvardhan Rajen, Reginald-Olivier Ralph, Josué Rosales-Vasquez, Daria Rubinshtein, Surya Sakr, Mohammad S. Sebai, Lisa Serravalle, Fily Sidibe, Ahnjana Sinnathurai, Dominique Soho, Adithi Sundarakrishnan, Veronika Svistkova, Tsolaye E. Ugbeye, Megan S. Vasconcelos, Michael Vincelli, Olga Voitovich, Pamela Vrabel, Lu Wang, Maryse Wasfi, Cong Y. Zha, Chiara Gamberi

Composed of trillions of individual microbes, the human gut microbiota has adapted to the uniquely diverse environments found in the human intestine. Quickly responding to the variances in the ingested food, the microbiota interacts with the host via reciprocal biochemical signaling to coordinate the exchange of nutrients and proper immune function. Host and microbiota function as a unit which guards its balance against invasion by potential pathogens and which undergoes natural selection. Disturbance of the microbiota composition, or dysbiosis, is often associated with human disease, indicating that, while there seems to be no unique optimal composition of the gut microbiota, a balanced community is crucial for human health. Emerging knowledge of the ecology of the microbiota-host synergy will have an impact on how we implement antibiotic treatment in therapeutics and prophylaxis and how we will consider alternative strategies of global remodeling of the microbiota such as fecal transplants. Here we examine the microbiota-human host relationship from the perspective of the microbial community dynamics.