Discovering the Human Holobiont: How the Microbiome Affects Human Health

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on the human holobiont concept, which introduces a new level of complexity to the idea of individuality and, further, allows us to expand our understanding of the relationships between the environment and health. Currently, the scientific literature is examining a range of components within the holobiont concept, providing new insights that will lead to testable hypotheses regarding the nature of the interactions that occur within host-associated communities and between hosts and these communities. Several studies have used the partitioning of variance among gene expression patterns, the relative abundance of biont component species, or metric-based combinations of physical and molecular interaction patterns to indicate that the structures observed are not likely to show the randomness that would typically be seen in transparent and standardized physical systems. The research into holobionts also raises important questions related to the structure and dynamics of communities living in coral colonies. Research on the microbiome is providing evidence that suggests a role for other microorganisms besides the bacterial and archaeal species that usually come to mind when we think about holobionts. The study of the microbiome is rapidly becoming an exciting new area of research in modern ecology and evolutionary biology. The relationship between the human host and its microbiota (along with dietary changes and other factors) plays a major role in driving evolution. The gut microbial flora, which is largely made up of bacteria, with smaller numbers of archaea, viruses, and single-celled and multi-celled eukaryotes, represents a complex community in itself. To understand the holobiont concept fully and to better understand the relationships among its parts, we need to focus on the effect of the entire microbiome of an organism and identify subsets of the microbiome in the potential roles of the superorganisms that shape and structure the microbiomes of holobionts.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• the human holobiont;
• the microbiome;
• the environment;
• ecosystems;
• the role of diet;
• future directions;
• exposomes;
• noncommunicable chronic diseases.

Dr. Laura Di Renzo
Dr. Paola Gualtieri
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• holobiont
• diet
• microbiota
• probiotic and prebiotic
• gene expression
• body composition