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

Abstract

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