Molecular biology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_biology

The central dogma of molecular biology showing the flow of genetic information within a biological system.

Example of a molecular biology concept. Model showing the interactions between DNA and proteins during DNA replication: Template DNA strand (yellow), a newly-synthesized daughter DNA strand (cyan), three subunits of PCNA (shades of blue), and the catalytic subunit of DNA Polymerase ε (green).

Molecular biology /məˈlɛkjʊlər/ is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular structures and chemical processes that are the basis of biological activity within and between cells. It is centered largely on the study of nucleic acids (such as DNA and RNA) and proteins. It examines the structure, function, and interactions of these macromolecules as they orchestrate processes such as replication, transcription, translation, protein synthesis, and complex biomolecular interactions. The field of molecular biology is multi-disciplinary, relying on principles from genetics, biochemistry, physics, mathematics, and more recently computer science (bioinformatics).

Though cells and other microscopic structures had been observed in organisms as early as the 18th century, a detailed understanding of the mechanisms and interactions governing their behavior did not emerge until the 20th century, when technologies used in physics and chemistry had advanced sufficiently to permit their application in the biological sciences. The term 'molecular biology' was first used in 1945 by the English physicist William Astbury, who described it as an approach focused on discerning the underpinnings of biological phenomena—i.e. uncovering the physical and chemical structures and properties of biological molecules, as well as their interactions with other molecules and how these interactions explain observations of so-called classical biology, which instead studies biological processes at larger scales and higher levels of organization. In 1953, Francis Crick, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, and their colleagues at the Medical Research Council Unit, Cavendish Laboratory, were the first to describe the double helix model for the chemical structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which is often considered a landmark event for the nascent field because it provided a physico-chemical basis by which to understand the previously nebulous idea of nucleic acids as the primary substance of biological inheritance. They proposed this structure based on previous research done by Franklin, which was conveyed to them by Maurice Wilkins and Max Perutz. Their work led to the discovery of DNA in other microorganisms, plants, and animals.

The field of molecular biology includes techniques which enable scientists to learn about molecular processes. These techniques are used to efficiently target new drugs, diagnose disease, and better understand cell physiology. Some clinical research and medical therapies arising from molecular biology are covered under gene therapy, whereas the use of molecular biology or molecular cell biology in medicine is now referred to as molecular medicine.

History of molecular biology

Main article: History of molecular biology

Angle description in DNA structure

Diagrammatic representation of Watson and Crick's DNA structure

Molecular biology sits at the intersection of biochemistry and genetics; as these scientific disciplines emerged and evolved in the 20th century, it became clear that they both sought to determine the molecular mechanisms which underlie vital cellular functions. Advances in molecular biology have been closely related to the development of new technologies and their optimization.

The field of genetics arose from attempts to understand the set of rules underlying reproduction and heredity, and the nature of the hypothetical units of heredity known as genes. Gregor Mendel pioneered this work in 1866, when he first described the laws of inheritance he observed in his studies of mating crosses in pea plants. One such law of genetic inheritance is the law of segregation, which states that diploid individuals with two alleles for a particular gene will pass one of these alleles to their offspring. Because of his critical work, the study of genetic inheritance is commonly referred to as Mendelian genetics.

A major milestone in molecular biology was the discovery of the structure of DNA. This work began in 1869 by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss biochemist who first proposed a structure called nuclein, which we now know to be (deoxyribonucleic acid), or DNA. He discovered this unique substance by studying the components of pus-filled bandages, and noting the unique properties of the "phosphorus-containing substances". Another notable contributor to the DNA model was Phoebus Levene, who proposed the "polynucleotide model" of DNA in 1919 as a result of his biochemical experiments on yeast. In 1950, Erwin Chargaff expanded on the work of Levene and elucidated a few critical properties of nucleic acids: first, the sequence of nucleic acids varies across species. Second, the total concentration of purines (adenine and guanine) is always equal to the total concentration of pyrimidines (cytosine and thymine). This is now known as Chargaff's rule. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published the double helical structure of DNA, based on the X-ray crystallography work done by Rosalind Franklin which was conveyed to them by Maurice Wilkins and Max Perutz. Watson and Crick described the structure of DNA and conjectured about the implications of this unique structure for possible mechanisms of DNA replication. Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962, along with Wilkins, for proposing a model of the structure of DNA.

In 1961, it was demonstrated that when a gene encodes a protein, three sequential bases of a gene's DNA specify each successive amino acid of the protein. Thus the genetic code is a triplet code, where each triplet (called a codon) specifies a particular amino acid. Furthermore, it was shown that the codons do not overlap with each other in the DNA sequence encoding a protein, and that each sequence is read from a fixed starting point. During 1962–1964, through the use of conditional lethal mutants of a bacterial virus, fundamental advances were made in our understanding of the functions and interactions of the proteins employed in the machinery of DNA replication, DNA repair, DNA recombination, and in the assembly of molecular structures.

Griffith's experiment

Main article: Griffith's experiment

Griffith's experiment

In 1928, Frederick Griffith, encountered a virulence property in pneumococcus bacteria, which was killing lab rats. According to Mendel, prevalent at that time, gene transfer could occur only from parent to daughter cells. Griffith advanced another theory, stating that gene transfer occurring in member of same generation is known as horizontal gene transfer (HGT). This phenomenon is now referred to as genetic transformation.

Griffith's experiment addressed the pneumococcus bacteria, which had two different strains, one virulent and smooth and one avirulent and rough. The smooth strain had glistering appearance owing to the presence of a type of specific polysaccharide – a polymer of glucose and glucuronic acid capsule. Due to this polysaccharide layer of bacteria, a host's immune system cannot recognize the bacteria and it kills the host. The rough strain lacks this polysaccharide capsule, resulting in a dull, rough colony appearance and making it avirulent because it is more readily recognized and destroyed by the host immune system.

Presence or absence of capsule in the strain, is known to be genetically determined. Smooth and rough strains occur in several different type such as S-I, S-II, S-III, etc. and R-I, R-II, R-III, etc. respectively. All this subtypes of S and R bacteria differ with each other in antigen type they produce.

Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment

Main article: Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment

The Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment was an experimental demonstration by Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty that, in 1944, reported that DNA is the substance that causes bacterial transformation, in an era when it had been widely believed that it was proteins that served the function of carrying genetic information (with the very word protein itself coined to indicate a belief that its function was primary). It was the culmination of research in the 1930s and early 20th century at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research to purify and characterize the "transforming principle" responsible for the transformation phenomenon first described in Griffith's experiment of 1928: killed Streptococcus pneumoniae of the virulent strain type III-S, when injected along with living but non-virulent type II-R pneumococci, resulted in a deadly infection of type III-S pneumococci. In their paper "Studies on the Chemical Nature of the Substance Inducing Transformation of Pneumococcal Types: Induction of Transformation by a Desoxyribonucleic Acid Fraction Isolated from Pneumococcus Type III", published in the February 1944 issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Avery and his colleagues suggest that DNA, rather than protein as widely believed at the time, may be the hereditary material of bacteria, and could be analogous to genes and/or viruses in higher organisms.

Hershey–Chase experiment

Main article: Hershey–Chase experiment

Hershey–Chase experiment

Confirmation that DNA is the genetic material which is cause of infection came from the Hershey–Chase experiment. They used E.coli and bacteriophage for the experiment. This experiment is also known as blender experiment, as kitchen blender was used as a major piece of apparatus. Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase demonstrated that the DNA injected by a phage particle into a bacterium contains all information required to synthesize progeny phage particles. They used radioactivity to tag the bacteriophage's protein coat with radioactive sulfur and DNA with radioactive phosphorus, into two different test tubes respectively. After mixing bacteriophage and E.coli into the test tube, the incubation period starts in which phage transforms the genetic material in the E.coli cells. Then the mixture is blended or agitated, which separates the phage from E.coli cells. The whole mixture is centrifuged and the pellet which contains E.coli cells was checked and the supernatant was discarded. The E.coli cells showed radioactive phosphorus, which indicated that the transformed material was DNA not the protein coat.

The transformed DNA gets attached to the DNA of E.coli and radioactivity is only seen onto the bacteriophage's DNA. This mutated DNA can be passed to the next generation and the theory of Transduction came into existence. Transduction is a process in which the bacterial DNA carry the fragment of bacteriophages and pass it on the next generation. This is also a type of horizontal gene transfer.

Meselson–Stahl experiment

Main article: Meselson–Stahl experiment

Meselson-Stahl experiment

The Meselson–Stahl experiment is an experiment by Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl in 1958 which supported Watson and Crick's hypothesis that DNA replication was semiconservative. In semiconservative replication, when the double-stranded DNA helix is replicated, each of the two new double-stranded DNA helices consisted of one strand from the original helix and one newly synthesized. It has been called "the most beautiful experiment in biology". Meselson and Stahl decided the best way to trace the parent DNA would be to tag them by changing one of its atoms. Since nitrogen is present in all of the DNA bases, they generated parent DNA containing a heavier isotope of nitrogen than would be present naturally. This altered mass allowed them to determine how much of the parent DNA was present in the DNA after successive cycles of replication.

Modern molecular biology

In the early 2020s, molecular biology entered a golden age defined by both vertical and horizontal technical development. Vertically, novel technologies are allowing for real-time monitoring of biological processes at the atomic level. Molecular biologists today have access to increasingly affordable sequencing data at increasingly higher depths, facilitating the development of novel genetic manipulation methods in new non-model organisms. Likewise, synthetic molecular biologists will drive the industrial production of small and macro molecules through the introduction of exogenous metabolic pathways in various prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell lines.

Horizontally, sequencing data is becoming more affordable and used in many different scientific fields. This will drive the development of industries in developing nations and increase accessibility to individual researchers. Likewise, CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing experiments can now be conceived and implemented by individuals for under $10,000 in novel organisms, which will drive the development of industrial and medical applications.

Relationship to other biological sciences

Schematic relationship between biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology

The following list describes a viewpoint on the interdisciplinary relationships between molecular biology and other related fields.

• Molecular biology is the study of the molecular underpinnings of the biological phenomena, focusing on molecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms and interactions.
• Biochemistry is the study of the chemical substances and vital processes occurring in living organisms. Biochemists focus heavily on the role, function, and structure of biomolecules such as proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and nucleic acids.
• Genetics is the study of how genetic differences affect organisms. Genetics attempts to predict how mutations, individual genes and genetic interactions can affect the expression of a phenotype

While researchers practice techniques specific to molecular biology, it is common to combine these with methods from genetics and biochemistry. Much of molecular biology is quantitative, and recently a significant amount of work has been done using computer science techniques such as bioinformatics and computational biology. Molecular genetics, the study of gene structure and function, has been among the most prominent sub-fields of molecular biology since the early 2000s. Other branches of biology are informed by molecular biology, by either directly studying the interactions of molecules in their own right such as in cell biology and developmental biology, or indirectly, where molecular techniques are used to infer historical attributes of populations or species, as in fields in evolutionary biology such as population genetics and phylogenetics. There is also a long tradition of studying biomolecules "from the ground up", or molecularly, in biophysics.

Techniques of molecular biology

DNA animation

For more extensive list on protein methods, see protein methods. For more extensive list on nucleic acid methods, see nucleic acid methods.

Molecular cloning

Main article: Molecular cloning

Transduction image

Molecular cloning is used to isolate and then transfer a DNA sequence of interest into a plasmid vector. This recombinant DNA technology was first developed in the 1960s. In this technique, a DNA sequence coding for a protein of interest is cloned using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and/or restriction enzymes, into a plasmid (expression vector). The plasmid vector usually has at least three distinctive features: an origin of replication, a multiple cloning site (MCS), and a selective marker (usually antibiotic resistance). Additionally, upstream of the MCS are the promoter regions and the transcription start site, which regulate the expression of cloned gene.

This plasmid can be inserted into either bacterial or animal cells. Introducing DNA into bacterial cells can be done by transformation via uptake of naked DNA, conjugation via cell-cell contact or by transduction via viral vector. Introducing DNA into eukaryotic cells, such as animal cells, by physical or chemical means is called transfection. Several different transfection techniques are available, such as calcium phosphate transfection, electroporation, microinjection and liposome transfection. The plasmid may be integrated into the genome, resulting in a stable transfection, or may remain independent of the genome and expressed temporarily, called a transient transfection.

DNA coding for a protein of interest is now inside a cell, and the protein can now be expressed. A variety of systems, such as inducible promoters and specific cell-signaling factors, are available to help express the protein of interest at high levels. Large quantities of a protein can then be extracted from the bacterial or eukaryotic cell. The protein can be tested for enzymatic activity under a variety of situations, the protein may be crystallized so its tertiary structure can be studied, or, in the pharmaceutical industry, the activity of new drugs against the protein can be studied.

Polymerase chain reaction

Main article: Polymerase chain reaction

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is an extremely versatile technique for copying DNA. In brief, PCR allows a specific DNA sequence to be copied or modified in predetermined ways. The reaction is extremely powerful and under perfect conditions could amplify one DNA molecule to become 1.07 billion molecules in less than two hours. PCR has many applications, including the study of gene expression, the detection of pathogenic microorganisms, the detection of genetic mutations, and the introduction of mutations to DNA. The PCR technique can be used to introduce restriction enzyme sites to ends of DNA molecules, or to mutate particular bases of DNA, the latter is a method referred to as site-directed mutagenesis. PCR can also be used to determine whether a particular DNA fragment is found in a cDNA library. PCR has many variations, like reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) for amplification of RNA, and, more recently, quantitative PCR which allow for quantitative measurement of DNA or RNA molecules.

Two percent agarose gel in borate buffer cast in a gel tray

Gel electrophoresis

SDS-PAGE

Main article: Gel electrophoresis

Gel electrophoresis is a technique which separates molecules by their size using an agarose or polyacrylamide gel. This technique is one of the principal tools of molecular biology. The basic principle is that DNA fragments can be separated by applying an electric current across the gel - because the DNA backbone contains negatively charged phosphate groups, the DNA will migrate through the agarose gel towards the positive end of the current. Proteins can also be separated on the basis of size using an SDS-PAGE gel, or on the basis of size and their electric charge by using what is known as a 2D gel electrophoresis.

Proteins stained on a PAGE gel using Coomassie blue dye

The Bradford protein assay

Main article: Bradford protein assay

The Bradford assay is a molecular biology technique which enables the fast, accurate quantitation of protein molecules utilizing the unique properties of a dye called Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250. Coomassie Blue undergoes a visible color shift from reddish-brown to bright blue upon binding to protein. In its unstable, cationic state, Coomassie Blue has a background wavelength of 465 nm and gives off a reddish-brown color. When Coomassie Blue binds to protein in an acidic solution, the background wavelength shifts to 595 nm and the dye gives off a bright blue color. Proteins in the assay bind Coomassie blue in about 2 minutes, and the protein-dye complex is stable for about an hour, although it is recommended that absorbance readings are taken within 5 to 20 minutes of reaction initiation. The concentration of protein in the Bradford assay can then be measured using a visible light spectrophotometer, and therefore does not require extensive equipment.

This method was developed in 1975 by Marion M. Bradford, and has enabled significantly faster, more accurate protein quantitation compared to previous methods: the Lowry procedure and the biuret assay. Unlike the previous methods, the Bradford assay is not susceptible to interference by several non-protein molecules, including ethanol, sodium chloride, and magnesium chloride. However, it is susceptible to influence by strong alkaline buffering agents, such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS).

Macromolecule blotting and probing

The terms northern, western and eastern blotting are derived from what initially was a molecular biology joke that played on the term Southern blotting, after the technique described by Edwin Southern for the hybridisation of blotted DNA. Patricia Thomas, developer of the RNA blot which then became known as the northern blot, actually did not use the term.

Southern blotting

Main article: Southern blot

Named after its inventor, biologist Edwin Southern, the Southern blot is a method for probing for the presence of a specific DNA sequence within a DNA sample. DNA samples before or after restriction enzyme (restriction endonuclease) digestion are separated by gel electrophoresis and then transferred to a membrane by blotting via capillary action. The membrane is then exposed to a labeled DNA probe that has a complement base sequence to the sequence on the DNA of interest. Southern blotting is less commonly used in laboratory science due to the capacity of other techniques, such as PCR, to detect specific DNA sequences from DNA samples. These blots are still used for some applications, however, such as measuring transgene copy number in transgenic mice or in the engineering of gene knockout embryonic stem cell lines.

Northern blotting

Main article: Northern blot

Northern blot diagram

The northern blot is used to study the presence of specific RNA molecules as relative comparison among a set of different samples of RNA. It is essentially a combination of denaturing RNA gel electrophoresis, and a blot. In this process RNA is separated based on size and is then transferred to a membrane that is then probed with a labeled complement of a sequence of interest. The results may be visualized through a variety of ways depending on the label used; however, most result in the revelation of bands representing the sizes of the RNA detected in sample. The intensity of these bands is related to the amount of the target RNA in the samples analyzed. The procedure is commonly used to study when and how much gene expression is occurring by measuring how much of that RNA is present in different samples, assuming that no post-transcriptional regulation occurs and that the levels of mRNA reflect proportional levels of the corresponding protein being produced. It is one of the most basic tools for determining at what time, and under what conditions, certain genes are expressed in living tissues.

Western blotting

Main article: Western blot

A western blot is a technique by which specific proteins can be detected from a mixture of proteins. Western blots can be used to determine the size of isolated proteins, as well as to quantify their expression. In western blotting, proteins are first separated by size, in a thin gel sandwiched between two glass plates in a technique known as SDS-PAGE. The proteins in the gel are then transferred to a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), nitrocellulose, nylon, or other support membrane. This membrane can then be probed with solutions of antibodies. Antibodies that specifically bind to the protein of interest can then be visualized by a variety of techniques, including colored products, chemiluminescence, or autoradiography. Often, the antibodies are labeled with enzymes. When a chemiluminescent substrate is exposed to the enzyme it allows detection. Using western blotting techniques allows not only detection but also quantitative analysis. Analogous methods to western blotting can be used to directly stain specific proteins in live cells or tissue sections.

Eastern blotting

Main article: Eastern blot

The eastern blotting technique is used to detect post-translational modification of proteins. Proteins blotted on to the PVDF or nitrocellulose membrane are probed for modifications using specific substrates.

Microarrays

Main article: DNA microarray

Hybridization of target to probe

A DNA microarray is a collection of spots attached to a solid support such as a microscope slide where each spot contains one or more single-stranded DNA oligonucleotide fragments. Arrays make it possible to put down large quantities of very small (100 micrometre diameter) spots on a single slide. Each spot has a DNA fragment molecule that is complementary to a single DNA sequence. A variation of this technique allows the gene expression of an organism at a particular stage in development to be qualified (expression profiling). In this technique the RNA in a tissue is isolated and converted to labeled complementary DNA (cDNA). This cDNA is then hybridized to the fragments on the array and visualization of the hybridization can be done. Since multiple arrays can be made with exactly the same position of fragments, they are particularly useful for comparing the gene expression of two different tissues, such as a healthy and cancerous tissue. Also, one can measure what genes are expressed and how that expression changes with time or with other factors. There are many different ways to fabricate microarrays; the most common are silicon chips, microscope slides with spots of ~100 micrometre diameter, custom arrays, and arrays with larger spots on porous membranes (macroarrays). There can be anywhere from 100 spots to more than 10,000 on a given array. Arrays can also be made with molecules other than DNA.

Allele-specific oligonucleotide

Main article: Allele-specific oligonucleotide

Allele-specific oligonucleotide (ASO) is a technique that allows detection of single base mutations without the need for PCR or gel electrophoresis. Short (20–25 nucleotides in length), labeled probes are exposed to the non-fragmented target DNA, hybridization occurs with high specificity due to the short length of the probes and even a single base change will hinder hybridization. The target DNA is then washed and the unhybridized probes are removed. The target DNA is then analyzed for the presence of the probe via radioactivity or fluorescence. In this experiment, as in most molecular biology techniques, a control must be used to ensure successful experimentation.

In molecular biology, procedures and technologies are continually being developed and older technologies abandoned. For example, before the advent of DNA gel electrophoresis (agarose or polyacrylamide), the size of DNA molecules was typically determined by rate sedimentation in sucrose gradients, a slow and labor-intensive technique requiring expensive instrumentation; prior to sucrose gradients, viscometry was used. Aside from their historical interest, it is often worth knowing about older technology, as it is occasionally useful to solve another new problem for which the newer technique is inappropriate.

Microbiome

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbiome

A microbiome (from Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós) 'small' and βίος (bíos) 'life') is the community of microorganisms that can usually be found living together in any given habitat. It was defined more precisely in 1988 by Whipps et al. as "a characteristic microbial community occupying a reasonably well-defined habitat which has distinct physio-chemical properties. The term thus not only refers to the microorganisms involved but also encompasses their theatre of activity". In 2020, an international panel of experts published the outcome of their discussions on the definition of the microbiome. They proposed a definition of the microbiome based on a revival of the "compact, clear, and comprehensive description of the term" as originally provided by Whipps et al., but supplemented with two explanatory paragraphs, the first pronouncing the dynamic character of the microbiome, and the second clearly separating the term microbiota from the term microbiome.

The microbiota consists of all living members forming the microbiome. Most microbiome researchers agree bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae, and small protists should be considered as members of the microbiome. The integration of phages, viruses, plasmids, and mobile genetic elements is more controversial. Whipps's "theatre of activity" includes the essential role secondary metabolites play in mediating complex interspecies interactions and ensuring survival in competitive environments. Quorum sensing induced by small molecules allows bacteria to control cooperative activities and adapts their phenotypes to the biotic environment, resulting, e.g., in cell–cell adhesion or biofilm formation.

All animals and plants form associations with microorganisms, including protists, bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses. In the ocean, animal–microbial relationships were historically explored in single host–symbiont systems. However, new explorations into the diversity of microorganisms associating with diverse marine animal hosts is moving the field into studies that address interactions between the animal host and the multi-member microbiome. The potential for microbiomes to influence the health, physiology, behaviour, and ecology of marine animals could alter current understandings of how marine animals adapt to change. This applies to especially the growing climate-related and anthropogenic-induced changes already impacting the ocean and the phytoplankton microbiome in it. The plant microbiome plays key roles in plant health and food production and has received significant attention in recent years. Plants live in association with diverse microbial consortia, referred to as the plant microbiota, living both inside (the endosphere) and outside (the episphere) plant tissues. They play important roles in the ecology and physiology of plants. The core plant microbiome is thought to contain keystone microbial taxa essential for plant health and for the fitness of the plant holobiont. Likewise, the mammalian gut microbiome has emerged as a key regulator of host physiology, and coevolution between host and microbial lineages has played a key role in the adaptation of mammals to their diverse lifestyles.

Microbiome research originated in microbiology in the seventeenth century. The development of new techniques and equipment boosted microbiological research and caused paradigm shifts in understanding health and disease. The development of the first microscopes allowed the discovery of a new, unknown world and led to the identification of microorganisms. Infectious diseases became the earliest focus of interest and research. However, only a small proportion of microorganisms are associated with disease or pathogenicity. The overwhelming majority of microbes are essential for healthy ecosystem functioning and are known for beneficial interactions with other microbes and organisms. The concept that microorganisms exist as single cells began to change as it became increasingly obvious that microbes occur within complex assemblages in which species interactions and communication are critical. Discovery of DNA, the development of sequencing technologies, PCR, and cloning techniques enabled the investigation of microbial communities using cultivation-independent approaches. Further paradigm shifts occurred at the beginning of this century and still continue, as new sequencing technologies and accumulated sequence data have highlighted both the ubiquity of microbial communities in association within higher organisms and the critical roles of microbes in human, animal, and plant health. These have revolutionised microbial ecology. The analysis of genomes and metagenomes in a high-throughput manner now provides highly effective methods for researching the functioning of individual microorganisms as well as whole microbial communities in natural habitats.

Background

History

Microbiome research originated in microbiology and started back in the seventeenth century. The development of new techniques and equipment has boosted microbiological research and caused paradigm shifts in understanding health and disease. Since infectious diseases have affected human populations throughout most of history, medical microbiology was the earliest focus of research and public interest. Additionally, food microbiology is an old field of empirical applications. The development of the first microscopes allowed the discovery of a new, unknown world and led to the identification of microorganisms.

• Paradigm shift
• 
  Shift of paradigm from microbes as unsocial organisms causing diseases to a holistic view of microorganisms as the centre of the One Health Concept interconnecting all areas of human lives.

Access to the previously invisible world opened the eyes and the minds of the researchers of the seventeenth century. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek investigated diverse bacteria of various shapes, fungi, and protozoa, which he called animalcules, mainly from water, mud, and dental plaque samples, and discovered biofilms as a first indication of microorganisms interacting within complex communities. Robert Koch's explanation of the origin of human and animal diseases as a consequence of microbial infection and development of the concept of pathogenicity was an important milestone in microbiology. These findings shifted the focus of the research community and the public on the role of microorganisms as disease-forming agents that needed to be eliminated.

However, comprehensive research over the past century has shown only a small proportion of microorganisms are associated with disease or pathogenicity. The overwhelming majority of microbes are essential for ecosystem functioning and known for beneficial interactions with other microbes as well as macroorganisms. In fact, maintaining a healthy microbiome is essential for human health and may be a target for new therapeutics. At the end of the nineteenth century, microbial ecology started with the pioneering work by Martinus W. Beijerinck and Sergei Winogradsky. The newly established science of environmental microbiology resulted in another paradigm shift: microorganisms are everywhere in natural environments, often associated with hosts and, for the first time, beneficial effects on their hosts were reported.

Subsequently, the concept that microorganisms exist as single cells began to change as it became increasingly obvious that microbes occur within complex assemblages in which species interactions and communication are critical to population dynamics and functional activities. Discovery of DNA, the development of sequencing technologies, PCR, and cloning techniques enabled the investigation of microbial communities using cultivation-independent, DNA and RNA-based approaches.

A further important step was the introduction of phylogenetic markers such as the 16S rRNA gene for microbial community analysis by Carl Woese and George E. Fox in 1977. Nowadays biologists can barcode bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae, and protists in their natural habitats, e.g., by targeting their 16S and 18S rRNA genes, internal transcribed spacer (ITS), or, alternatively, specific functional regions of genes coding for specific enzymes.

Another major paradigm shift was initiated at the beginning of this century and continues through today, as new sequencing technologies and accumulated sequence data have highlighted both the ubiquity of microbial communities in association within higher organisms and the critical roles of microbes in human, animal, and plant health. These new possibilities have revolutionized microbial ecology, because the analysis of genomes and metagenomes in a high-throughput manner provides efficient methods for addressing the functional potential of individual microorganisms as well as of whole communities in their natural habitats. Multiomics technologies including metatranscriptome, metaproteome and metabolome approaches now provide detailed information on microbial activities in the environment. Based on the rich foundation of data, the cultivation of microbes, which was often ignored or underestimated over the last thirty years, has gained new importance, and high throughput culturomics is now an important part of the toolbox to study microbiomes. The high potential and power of combining multiple "omics" techniques to analyze host-microbe interactions are highlighted in several reviews.

Etymology

The word microbiome (from the Greek micro meaning "small" and bíos meaning "life") was first used by J.L. Mohr in 1952 in The Scientific Monthly to mean the microorganisms found in a specific environment.

Definitions

Microbial communities have commonly been defined as the collection of microorganisms living together. More specifically, microbial communities are defined as multi-species assemblages, in which (micro) organisms interact with each other in a contiguous environment. In 1988, Whipps and colleagues working on the ecology of rhizosphere microorganisms provided the first definition of the term microbiome. They described the microbiome as a combination of the words micro and biome, naming a "characteristic microbial community" in a "reasonably well-defined habitat which has distinct physio-chemical properties" as their "theatre of activity". This definition represents a substantial advancement of the definition of a microbial community, as it defines a microbial community with distinct properties and functions and its interactions with its environment, resulting in the formation of specific ecological niches.

However, many other microbiome definitions have been published in recent decades. By 2020 the most cited definition was by Lederberg, and described microbiomes within an ecological context as a community of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microorganisms within a body space or other environment. Marchesi and Ravel focused in their definition on the genomes and microbial (and viral) gene expression patterns and proteomes in a given environment and its prevailing biotic and abiotic conditions. All these definitions imply that general concepts of macro-ecology could be easily applied to microbe-microbe as well as to microbe-host interactions. However, the extent to which these concepts, developed for macro-eukaryotes, can be applied to prokaryotes with their different lifestyles regarding dormancy, variation of phenotype, and horizontal gene transfer as well as to micro-eukaryotes that is not quite clear. This raises the challenge of considering an entirely novel body of conceptual ecology models and theory for microbiome ecology, particularly in relation to the diverse hierarchies of interactions of microbes with one another and with the host biotic and abiotic environments. Many current definitions fail to capture this complexity and describe the term microbiome as encompassing the genomes of microorganisms only.

Microbiome definitions
Definition type	Examples
Ecological	Definitions based on ecology describe the microbiome following the concepts derived from the ecology of multicellular organisms. The main issue here is that the theories from the macro-ecology do not always fit the rules in the microbial world.
	"A convenient ecological framework in which to examine biocontrol systems is that of the microbiome. This may be defined as a characteristic microbial community occupying a reasonably well-defined habitat which has distinct physio-chemical properties. The term thus not only refers to the microorganisms involved but also encompasses their theatre of activity". "This term refers to the entire habitat, including the microorganisms (bacteria, archaea, lower and higher eurkaryotes, and viruses), their genomes (i.e., genes), and the surrounding environmental conditions. This definition is based on that of "biome," the biotic and abiotic factors of given environments. Others in the field limit the definition of microbiome to the collection of genes and genomes of members of a microbiota. It is argued that this is the definition of metagenome, which combined with the environment constitutes the microbiome. The microbiome is characterized by the application of one or combinations of metagenomics, metabonomics, metatranscriptomics, and metaproteomics combined with clinical or environmental metadata". "others use the term microbiome to mean all the microbes of a community, and in particular, for the plant microbiome, those microbial communities associated with the plant which can live, thrive, and interact with different tissues such as roots, shoots, leaves, flowers, and seeds".  "Ecological community of commensal, symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms within a body space or other environment".
Organisms/host-dependent	The host-dependent definitions are based on the microbial interactions with the host. The main gaps here concern the question whether the microbial-host interaction data gained from one host can be transferred to another. The understanding of coevolution and selection in the host-dependent definitions is also underrepresented.
	"A community of microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses) that inhabit a particular environment and especially the collection of microorganisms living in or on the human body". "Human Microbiome Project (HMP): [...] The Human Microbiome is the collection of all the microorganisms living in association with the human body. These communities consist of a variety of microorganisms including eukaryotes, archaea, bacteria and viruses".
Genomic/ method-driven	There is a variety of microbiome definitions available that are driven by the methods applied. Mostly, these definitions rely on DNA sequence-based analysis and describe microbiome as a collective genome of microorganisms in a specific environment. The main bottleneck here is that every new available technology will result in a need for a new definition.
	"The collective genomes of microorganisms inhabiting a particular environment and especially the human body".  "The microbiome comprises all of the genetic material within a microbiota (the entire collection of microorganisms in a specific niche, such as the human gut). This can also be referred to as the metagenome of the microbiota".  "Microbiome is a term that describes the genome of all the microorganisms, symbiotic and pathogenic, living in and on all vertebrates. The gut microbiome consists of the collective genome of microbes inhabiting the gut including bacteria, archaea, viruses, and fungi".  "Different approaches to define the population provide different information. a | Microbiota: 16S rRNA surveys are used to taxonomically identify the microorganisms in the environment. b | Metagenome: the genes and genomes of the microbiota, including plasmids, highlighting the genetic potential of the population. c | Microbiome: the genes and genomes of the microbiota, as well as the products of the microbiota and the host environment".  "Totality of genomes of a microbiota. Often used to describe the entity of microbial traits (=functions) encoded by a microbiota."
Combined	There are some microbiome definitions available that fit several categories with their advantages and disadvantages.
	"A microbiome is the ecological community of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microorganisms that literally share our body space."  "The microbiome is the sum of the microbes and their genomic elements in a particular environment".  "The genes and genomes of the microbiota, as well as the products of the microbiota and the host environment".

In 2020, a panel of international experts, organised by the EU-funded MicrobiomeSupport project, published the results of their deliberations on the definition of the microbiome. The panel was composed of about 40 leaders from diverse microbiome areas, and about one hundred further experts from around the world contributed through an online survey. They proposed a definition of the microbiome based on a revival of what they characterised as the "compact, clear, and comprehensive description of the term" as originally provided by Whipps et al. in 1988, amended with a set of recommendations considering subsequent technological developments and research findings. They clearly separate the terms microbiome and microbiota and provide a comprehensive discussion considering the composition of microbiota, the heterogeneity and dynamics of microbiomes in time and space, the stability and resilience of microbial networks, the definition of core microbiomes, and functionally relevant keystone species as well as co-evolutionary principles of microbe-host and inter-species interactions within the microbiome.

The term microbiome encompasses both the microbiota (community of microorganisms) and their "theatre of activity" (structural elements, metabolites/signal molecules, and the surrounding environmental conditions.

The panel extended the Whipps et al. definition, which contains all important points that are valid even 30 years after its publication in 1988, by two explanatory paragraphs differentiating the terms microbiome and microbiota and pronouncing its dynamic character, as follows:

• The microbiome is defined as a characteristic microbial community occupying a reasonable well-defined habitat which has distinct physio-chemical properties. The microbiome not only refers to the microorganisms involved but also encompass their theatre of activity, which results in the formation of specific ecological niches. The microbiome, which forms a dynamic and interactive micro-ecosystem prone to change in time and scale, is integrated in macro-ecosystems including eukaryotic hosts, and here crucial for their functioning and health.

• The microbiota consists of the assembly of microorganisms belonging to different kingdoms (prokaryotes (bacteria, archaea), eukaryotes (algae, protozoa, fungi etc), while "their theatre of activity" includes microbial structures, metabolites, mobile genetic elements (such as transposons, phages, and viruses), and relic DNA embedded in the environmental conditions of the habitat.

Membership

Microbiota

Main article: microbiota

The microbiota comprises all living members forming the microbiome. Most microbiome researchers agree bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae, and small protists should be considered as members of the microbiome. The integration of phages, viruses, plasmids, and mobile genetic elements is a more controversial issue in the definition of the microbiome. There is also no clear consensus as to whether extracellular DNA derived from dead cells, so-called "relic DNA", belongs to the microbiome. Relic DNA can be up to 40% of the sequenced DNA in soil, and was up to 33% of the total bacterial DNA on average in a broader analysis of habitats with the highest proportion of 80% in some samples. Despite its omnipresence and abundance, relic DNA had a minimal effect on estimates of taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity.

When it comes to the use of specific terms, a clear differentiation between microbiome and microbiota helps to avoid the controversy concerning the members of a microbiome. Microbiota is usually defined as the assemblage of living microorganisms present in a defined environment. As phages, viruses, plasmids, prions, viroids, and free DNA are usually not considered as living microorganisms, they do not belong to the microbiota.

The term microbiome, as it was originally postulated by Whipps and coworkers, includes not only the community of the microorganisms but also their "theatre of activity". The latter involves the whole spectrum of molecules produced by the microorganisms, including their structural elements (nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, polysaccharides), metabolites (signalling molecules, toxins, organic, and inorganic molecules), and molecules produced by coexisting hosts and structured by the surrounding environmental conditions. Therefore, all mobile genetic elements, such as phages, viruses, and "relic" and extracellular DNA, should be included in the term microbiome, but are not a part of microbiota. The term microbiome is also sometimes confused with the metagenome. Metagenome is, however, clearly defined as a collection of genomes and genes from the members of a microbiota.

Microbiome studies sometimes focus on the behaviour of a specific group of microbiota, generally in relation to or justified by a clear hypothesis. More and more terms like bacteriome, archaeome, mycobiome, or virome have started appearing in the scientific literature, but these terms do not refer to biomes (a regional ecosystem with a distinct assemblage of (micro) organisms, and physical environment often reflecting a certain climate and soil) as the microbiome itself. Consequently, it would be better to use the original terms (bacterial, archaeal, or fungal community). In contrast to the microbiota, which can be studied separately, the microbiome is always composed by all members, which interact with each other, live in the same habitat, and form their ecological niche together. The well-established term virome is derived from virus and genome and is used to describe viral shotgun metagenomes consisting of a collection of nucleic acids associated with a particular ecosystem or holobiont. Viral metagenomes can be suggested as a semantically and scientifically better term.

Networks

• 
  Co-occurrence networks help visualising microbial interactions
  Nodes usually represent taxa of microorganisms, and edges represent statistically significant associations between nodes.
  –––––––––––––––––––––––––––
  Testing of the hypotheses resulted from the network analyses is required for a comprehensive study of microbial interactions.

Microbes interact with one another, and these symbiotic interactions have diverse consequences for microbial fitness, population dynamics, and functional capacities within the microbiome. The microbial interactions can either be between microorganisms of the same species or between different species, genera, families, and domains of life. The interactions can be separated into positive, negative, and neutral types. Positive interactions include mutualism, synergism, and commensalism. Negative interactions include amensalism, predation, parasitism, antagonism, and competition. Neutral interactions are interactions where there is no observed effect on the functional capacities or fitness of interacting species microbial life strategy concepts.

• 
  Co-occurrence networks show difference in gut microbiota between herbivorous and carnivorous cichlids
  Nodes coloured according to phylum. The herbivore network has higher complexity (156 nodes and 339 edges) compared to the carnivore network (21 nodes and 70 edges).

Microbiomes exhibit different adaptive strategies. Oligotrophs are organisms that can live in an environment offering very low levels of nutrients, particularly carbon. They are characterised by slow growth, low rates of metabolism, and generally low population density. Oligotrophic environments include deep oceanic sediments, caves, glacial and polar ice, deep subsurface soil, aquifers, ocean waters, and leached soils. In contrast are the copiotrophs, which thrive in much higher carbon concentrations, and do well in high organic substrate conditions such as sewage lagoons.

In addition to oligotrophic and copiotrophic strategists, the competitor–stress tolerator–ruderals framework can influence the outcomes of interactions. For example, microorganisms competing for the same source can also benefit from each other when competing for the same compound at different trophic levels. Stability of a complex microbial ecosystem depends on trophic interactions for the same substrate at different concentration levels. As of 2020 microbial social adaptations in nature have been understudied. Here molecular markers can provide insight into social adaptations by supporting the theories, e.g., of altruists and cheaters in native microbiomes.

Coevolution

• Shift in the understanding of the microbial-host coevolution
• 
  from "separation" theories to a holistic approach

  In a holistic approach, the hosts and their associated microbiota are assumed to have coevolved with each other 

See also: Holobiont and Hologenome theory of evolution

According to the "separation" approach, the microorganisms can be divided into pathogens, neutral, and symbionts, depending on their interaction with their host. The coevolution between host and its associated microbiota may be accordingly described as antagonistic (based on negative interactions) or mutualistic (based on positive interactions).

As of 2020, the emergence in publications about opportunistic pathogens and pathobionts has produced a shift towards a holistic approach in the coevolutions theory. The holistic approach sees the host and its associated microbiota as one unit (the so-called holobiont), that coevolves as one entity. According to the holistic approach, holobiont's disease state is linked to dysbiosis, low diversity of the associated microbiota, and their variability: a so-called pathobiome state. The healthy state, on the other hand, is accompanied with eubiosis, high diversity, and uniformity of the respective microbiota.

Types

Terrestrial

Plant

• 
  Microbiomes in the plant ecosystem 

Main article: Plant microbiome

The plant microbiome plays roles in plant health and food production and has received significant attention in recent years. Plants live in association with diverse microbial consortia. These microbes, referred to as the plant's microbiota, live both inside (the endosphere) and outside (the episphere) of plant tissues, and play important roles in the ecology and physiology of plants. "The core plant microbiome is thought to comprise keystone microbial taxa that are important for plant fitness and established through evolutionary mechanisms of selection and enrichment of microbial taxa containing essential functions genes for the fitness of the plant holobiont".

Plant microbiomes are shaped by both factors related to the plant itself, such as genotype, organ, species and health status, as well as factors related to the plant's environment, such as management, land use and climate. The health status of a plant has been reported in some studies to be reflected by or linked to its microbiome.

Plant and plant-associated microbiota colonise different niches on and inside the plant tissue. All the above-ground plant parts together, called the phyllosphere, are a continuously evolving habitat due to ultraviolet (UV) radiation and altering climatic conditions. It is primarily composed of leaves. Below-ground plant parts, mainly roots, are generally influenced by soil properties. Harmful interactions affect the plant growth through pathogenic activities of some microbiota members. On the other hand, beneficial microbial interactions promote plant growth.

The addition of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser may have little impact on soil microbiome structure or composition, but drastically reduces the microbiome network connectivity.

Animal

• 
  Principal coordinate analysis of animal gut microbiome data 

The mammalian gut microbiome has emerged as a key regulator of host physiology, and coevolution between host and microbial lineages has played a key role in the adaptation of mammals to their diverse lifestyles. Diet, especially herbivory, is an important correlate of microbial diversity in mammals. Most mammalian microbiomes are also strongly correlated with host phylogeny, despite profound shifts in diet. This suggests host factors that themselves change across host phylogeny, such as gut physiology, play an important role in structuring the gut microbiomes across mammals. The vertebrate adaptive immune system is even speculated to have evolved as just such a factor for selective maintenance of symbiotic homeostasis.

The importance of phylogeny-correlated factors to the diversity of vertebrate microbiomes more generally is still poorly understood. Phylosymbiosis, or the observation that more closely related host species have more similar microbiomes, has been described in a number of nonmammalian taxa. Other analyses have found substantial variation in phylosymbiotic signals among mammalian taxa, sometimes with conflicting results. The presence of a robust phylosymbiotic correlation implies that host factors control microbial assembly. Even if the specific mechanisms are unknown, variation in the strength or presence of a measurable phylosymbiotic signal across host phylogeny could prove useful for identifying such mechanisms through comparative studies. However, as of 2020 most studies have focused on just a few taxa at a time, and variable methods for both surveying the microbiome and measuring phylosymbiosis and host specificity (or the restriction of microbes to specific host lineages) have made generalisations difficult.

Without broader evolutionary context, it is unclear how universally conserved patterns of host-microbe phylosymbiosis actually are. Growing evidence indicates that the strong patterns identified in mammals are the exception rather than the rule in vertebrates. Meta-analyses of fish  and birds  have failed to detect the strength of correlations to diet and phylogeny reported in mammals. A recent analysis of samples from more than 100 vertebrate species also found the strength of phylogenetic correlation to be much higher in mammals than in birds, reptiles, amphibians, or fish. It is increasingly appreciated in nonvertebrate animals that fundamental aspects of the host's relationship to its symbiotic community can change drastically between taxa: many insects depend entirely on microbes for key metabolites, while others seem to be devoid of resident gut microbes.

Human

Main article: Human microbiome

The human microbiome is the aggregate of all microbiota that reside on or within human tissues and biofluids along with the corresponding anatomical sites in which they reside, including the skin, mammary glands, seminal fluid, uterus, ovarian follicles, lung, saliva, oral mucosa, conjunctiva, biliary tract, and gastrointestinal tract. Types of human microbiota include bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists and viruses. Though micro-animals can also live on the human body, they are typically excluded from this definition. In the context of genomics, the term human microbiome is sometimes used to refer to the collective genomes of resident microorganisms; the term human metagenome has the same meaning.

Humans are colonised by many microorganisms, with approximately the same order of magnitude of non-human cells as human cells. Some microorganisms that colonize humans are commensal, meaning they co-exist without harming or benefiting humans; others have a mutualistic relationship with their human hosts. Conversely, some non-pathogenic microorganisms can harm human hosts via the metabolites they produce, like trimethylamine, which the human body converts to trimethylamine N-oxide via FMO3-mediated oxidation. Certain microorganisms perform tasks that are known to be useful to the human host, but the role of most of them is not well understood. Those that are expected to be present, and that under normal circumstances do not cause disease, are sometimes deemed normal flora or normal microbiota.

The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) took on the project of sequencing the genome of the human microbiota, focusing particularly on the microbiota that normally inhabit the skin, mouth, nose, digestive tract, and vagina. It reached a milestone in 2012 when it published its initial results.

Marine

• Marine animal host-microbiome relationship
• 
  Relationships are generally thought to exist in a symbiotic state, and are normally exposed to environmental and animal-specific factors that may cause natural variations. Some events may change the relationship into a functioning but altered symbiotic state, whereas extreme stress events may cause dysbiosis or a breakdown of the relationship and interactions.

Main article: Marine microbiome

All animals on Earth form associations with microorganisms, including protists, bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses. In the ocean, animal–microbial relationships were historically explored in single host–symbiont systems. However, new explorations into the diversity of microorganisms associating with diverse marine animal hosts is moving the field into studies that address interactions between the animal host and a more multi-member microbiome. The potential for microbiomes to influence the health, physiology, behavior, and ecology of marine animals could alter current understandings of how marine animals adapt to change, and especially the growing climate-related and anthropogenic-induced changes already impacting the ocean environment.

The microbiomes of diverse marine animals are currently under study, from simplistic organisms including sponges and ctenophores to more complex organisms such as sea squirts and sharks.

The relationship between the Hawaiian bobtail squid and the bioluminescent bacterium Aliivibrio fischeri is one of the best studied symbiotic relationships in the sea and is a choice system for general symbiosis research. This relationship has provided insight into fundamental processes in animal-microbial symbioses, and especially biochemical interactions and signaling between the host and bacterium.

The gutless marine oligochaete worm Olavius algarvensis is another relatively well-studied marine host to microbes. These three centimetre long worms reside within shallow marine sediments of the Mediterranean Sea. The worms do not contain a mouth or a digestive or excretory system, but are instead nourished with the help of a suite of extracellular bacterial endosymbionts that reside upon coordinated use of sulfur present in the environment. This system has benefited from some of the most sophisticated 'omics and visualization tools. For example, multi-labeled probing has improved visualization of the microbiome and transcriptomics and proteomics have been applied to examine host–microbiome interactions, including energy transfer between the host and microbes and recognition of the consortia by the worm's innate immune system. The major strength of this system is that it does offer the ability to study host–microbiome interactions with a low diversity microbial consortium, and it also offers a number of host and microbial genomic resources

Stylophora pistillata coral colony and the bacteria Endozoicomonas (Ez) probed cells (yellow) within the tentacles of S. pistillata residing in aggregates (Ez agg) as well as just outside the aggregate (b).

Corals are one of the more common examples of an animal host whose symbiosis with microalgae can turn to dysbiosis, and is visibly detected as bleaching. Coral microbiomes have been examined in a variety of studies, which demonstrate how variations in the ocean environment, most notably temperature, light, and inorganic nutrients, affect the abundance and performance of the microalgal symbionts, as well as calcification and physiology of the host. Studies have also suggested that resident bacteria, archaea, and fungi additionally contribute to nutrient and organic matter cycling within the coral, with viruses also possibly playing a role in structuring the composition of these members, thus providing one of the first glimpses at a multi-domain marine animal symbiosis. The gammaproteobacterium Endozoicomonas is emerging as a central member of the coral's microbiome, with flexibility in its lifestyle. Given the recent mass bleaching occurring on reefs, corals will likely continue to be a useful and popular system for symbiosis and dysbiosis research.

Sponges are common members of the ocean's diverse benthic habitats and their abundance and ability to filter large volumes of seawater have led to the awareness that these organisms play critical roles in influencing benthic and pelagic processes in the ocean. They are one of the oldest lineages of animals, and have a relatively simple body plan that commonly associates with bacteria, archaea, algal protists, fungi, and viruses. Sponge microbiomes are composed of specialists and generalists, and complexity of their microbiome appears to be shaped by host phylogeny. Studies have shown that the sponge microbiome contributes to nitrogen cycling in the oceans, especially through the oxidation of ammonia by archaea and bacteria. Most recently, microbial symbionts of tropical sponges were shown to produce and store polyphosphate granules, perhaps enabling the host to survive periods of phosphate depletion in oligotrophic marine environments. The microbiomes of some sponge species do appear to change in community structure in response to changing environmental conditions, including temperature and ocean acidification, as well as synergistic impacts.

• 
  Collecting a sample of blow from a blue whale using a helicopter drone 
• 
  Relative abundance of bacterial classes from whale blow, air and seawater samples.

Cetacean microbiomes can be difficult to assess because of difficulties accessing microbial samples. For example, many whale species are rare and are deep divers. There are different techniques for sampling a cetacean's gut microbiome. The most common is collecting fecal samples from the environment and taking a probe from the center that is non-contaminated. The skin is a barrier protecting marine mammals from the outside world. The epidermal microbiome on the skin is an indicator of how healthy the animal is, and is also an ecological indicator of the state of the surrounding environment. Knowing what the microbiome of the skin of marine mammals looks like under typical conditions allows understanding of how these communities different from free microbial communities found in the sea. Cetaceans are in danger because they are affected by multiple stress factors which make them more vulnerable to various diseases. They have been high susceptibility to airway infections, but little is known about their respiratory microbiome. Sampling the exhaled breath or "blow" of cetaceans can provide an assessment of their state of health. Blow is composed of a mixture of microorganisms and organic material, including lipids, proteins, and cellular debris derived from the linings of the airways which, when released into the relatively cooler outdoor air, condense to form a visible mass of vapor, which can be collected. There are various methods for collecting exhaled breath samples, one of the most recent is through the use of aerial drones. This method provides a safer, quieter, and less invasive alternative and often a cost-effective option for monitoring fauna and flora. Blow samples are taken to the laboratory where the respiratory tract microbiota are amplified and sequenced. The use of aerial drones has been more successful with large cetaceans due to slow swim speeds and larger blow sizes.

Assessment

Currently available methods for studying microbiomes, so-called multi-omics, range from high throughput isolation (culturomics) and visualization (microscopy), to targeting the taxonomic composition (metabarcoding), or addressing the metabolic potential (metabarcoding of functional genes, metagenomics) to analyze microbial activity (metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics, metabolomics). Based on metagenome data, microbial genomes can be reconstructed. While first metagenome-assembled genomes were reconstructed from environmental samples, in recent years, several thousands of bacterial genomes were binned without culturing the organisms behind. For example, 154,723 microbial genomes of the global human microbiome were reconstructed in 2019 from 9,428 metagenomes.

• Methods for assessing microbial functioning
• 
  Methods for assessing microbial functioning

  Complex microbiome studies cover various areas, starting from the level of complete microbial cells (microscopy, culturomics), followed by the DNA (single cell genomics, metabarcoding, metagenomics), RNA (metatranscriptomics), protein (metaproteomics), and metabolites (metabolomics). In that order, the focus of the studies shifts from the microbial potential (learning about available microbiota in the given habitat) over the metabolic potential (deciphering available genetic material) towards microbial functioning (e.g., the discovery of the active metabolic pathways).

Computational modeling of microbiomes has been used to complement experimental methods for investigating microbial function by utilizing multi-omic data to predict complex inter-species and host-species dynamics. A popular in silico method is to combine metabolic network models of microbial taxa present in a community and use a mathematical modeling strategy such as flux balance analysis to predict the metabolic function of the microbial community at a taxon and community-level.

As of 2020, understanding remains limited due to missing links between the massive availability of microbiome DNA sequence data on the one hand and limited availability of microbial isolates needed to confirm metagenomic predictions of gene function on the other hand. Metagenome data provides a playground for new predictions, yet much more data is needed to strengthen the links between sequence and rigorous functional predictions. This becomes obvious when considering that the replacement of one single amino acid residue by another may lead to a radical functional change, resulting in an incorrect functional assignment to a given gene sequence. Additionally, cultivation of new strains is needed to help identify the large fraction of unknown sequences obtained from metagenomics analyses, which for poorly studied ecosystems can be more than 70%. Depending on the applied method, even in well-studied microbiomes, 40–70% of the annotated genes in fully sequenced microbial genomes have no known or predicted function. As of 2019, 85 of the then established 118 phyla had not had a single species described, presenting a challenge to understanding prokaryotic functional diversity.

The number of prokaryotic phyla may reach hundreds, and archaeal ones are among the least studied. The growing gap between the diversity of Bacteria and Archaea held in pure culture and those detected by molecular methods has led to the proposal to establish a formal nomenclature for not-yet cultured taxa, primarily based on sequence information. According to this proposal, the concept of Candidatus species would be extended to the groups of closely related genome sequences, and their names would be published following established rules of bacterial nomenclature.

Each microbiome system is suited to address different types of questions based on the culturability of microbes, genetic tractability of microbes and host (where relevant), ability to maintain system in laboratory setting, and ability to make host/environment germfree.

• Underlying complexity
• 
  Tradeoffs between experimental questions and complexity of microbiome systems 
  (A) Pairwise interactions between the soil bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Streptomyces spp. are well-suited for characterizing the functions of secondary metabolites in microbial interactions.
  (B) The symbiosis between bobtail squid and the marine bacterium Aliivibrio fischeri is fundamental to understanding host and microbial factors that influence colonization.
  (C) The use of gnotobiotic mice is crucial for making links between host diet and the effects on specific microbial taxa in a community.