AUTHOR=Tannock Gerald W. 

TITLE=The human gut metacommunity as a conceptual aid in the development of precision medicine

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1469543

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2024.1469543

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=Human gut microbiomes (microbiotas) are highly individualistic in taxonomic
16 composition but nevertheless are functionally similar. Thus, collectively, they comprise
17 a “metacommunity”. In ecological terminology, the assembly of human gut microbiomes
18 is influenced by four processes: selection, speciation, drift, and dispersal. As a result of
19 fortuitous events associated with these processes, individual microbiomes are
20 taxonomically “tailor-made” for each host. However, functionally they are “off-the-shelf”
21 because of similar functional outputs resulting from metabolic redundancy developed in
22 host-microbe symbiosis. Because of this, future microbiological and molecular studies
23 of microbiomes should emphasise the metabolic interplay that drives the human gut
24 metacommunity and that results in these similar functional outputs. This knowledge will
25 support the development of remedies for specific functional dysbioses and hence
26 provide practical examples of precision medicine.