Human gut microbiome research in India: A retrospect and future opportunities

Abstract

In recent years, human gut microbiome research has moved from being an area of basic research to the advance therapeutics. After the realization of the potential role of the microbiome research in human health, several government agencies and major pharmaceutical companies across the globe have initiated many mega projects. Human microbiome research in India is still in its infancy and a lot needs to be done to understand and investigate the role of microbiota in shaping the overall health and disease conditions especially in the Indian scenario. Indian population harbours tremendous genetic and cultural diversity consisting of more than 6,000 communities and approximately 40,000 endogamous groups. Indian population is structured and thus endogamous group and geographical origin need to be essentially considered while making any molecular inferences. These variations make Indian population a perfect model to study the 'Genotype-Microbiome' association. This article retrospectively reviews the progress in Indian gut microbiome research, ranging from the population based microbial profiling to the bacterial isolations and their genomic characterization and attempts to put forth the future prospects in this area.