From: Host-associated microbiomes are predicted by immune system complexity and climate
Frontiers in host-microbiome research | |
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1) Are there dormant and active microbiome subsets of the host microbiome, and how do these subsets change with environmental conditions [50]? How does microbial antagonism and interaction protect hosts or facilitate host invasion [11]? | |
2) What are the effects of environmental change on colonization, dysbiosis, or adaptive microbiomes? Do abiotic conditions have stronger effects on ectotherms compared with endothermic hosts? Are microbial therapies effective [17, 51,52,53]? | |
3) What is the significance of core (stable through time and prevalent among individuals) vs peripheral (transitory or rare) microbiomes or gene functions including metabolic pathways in host populations, and is there a trade-off or shift in core microbiome with host immunity, anatomy, life stage, or environmental conditions? Are core microbiomes likely to be of use in personalized medicine or disease diagnostics? Are core microbiomes, particularly of non-human hosts, lost with industrialization [31, 54, 55]? | |
4) Metabolomics and functional analyses are a research frontier; do they require a renewed focus on culture-based research and genome sequencing [56,57,58]? |