[Increasing evidence suggests that microbiota and especially the gut microbiota (the microbes inhabiting the gut including bacteria, archaea, viruses, and fungi) plays a key role in human physiology and pathology. Recent findings indicate how dysbiosis—an imbalance in the composition and organization of microbial populations—could severely impact the development of different medical conditions (from metabolic to mood disorders), providing new insights into the comprehension of diverse diseases, such as IBD, obesity, asthma, autism, stroke, diabetes, and cancer. Given that microbial cells in the gut outnumber host cells, microbiota influences human physiology both functionally and structurally. Microbial metabolites bridge various—even distant—areas of the organism by way of the immune and hormone system. For instance, it is now clear that the mutual interaction between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain (gut–brain axis), often involves gut microbiota, indicating that the crosstalk between the organism and its microbial residents represents a fundamental aspect of both the establishment and maintenance of healthy conditions. Moreover, it is crucial to recognize that beyond the intestinal tract, microbiota populates other host organs and tissues (e.g., skin and oral mucosa). We have edited this eBook with the aim of publishing manuscripts focusing on the impact of microbiota in the development of different diseases and their associated treatments.]

The Food Forum convened a public workshop on February 22-23, 2012, to explore current and emerging knowledge of the human microbiome, its role in human health, its interaction with the diet, and the translation of new research findings into tools and products that improve the nutritional quality of the food supply. The Human Microbiome, Diet, and Health: Workshop Summary summarizes the presentations and discussions that took place during the workshop. Over the two day workshop, several themes covered included: The microbiome is integral to human physiology, health, and disease. The microbiome is arguably the most intimate connection that humans have with their external environment, mostly through diet. Given the emerging nature of research on the microbiome, some important methodology issues might still have to be resolved with respect to undersampling and a lack of causal and mechanistic studies. Dietary interventions intended to have an impact on host biology via their impact on the microbiome are being developed, and the market for these products is seeing tremendous success. However, the current regulatory framework poses challenges to industry interest and investment.

The book provides an overview on how the microbiome contributes to human health and disease. The microbiome has also become a burgeoning field of research in medicine, agriculture & environment. The readers will obtain profound knowledge on the connection between intestinal microbiota and immune defense systems, medicine, agriculture & environment. The book may address several researchers, clinicians and scholars working in biomedicine, microbiology and immunology. The application of new technologies has no doubt revolutionized the research initiatives providing new insights into the dynamics of these complex microbial communities and their role in medicine, agriculture & environment shall be more emphasized. Drawing on broad range concepts of disciplines and model systems, this book primarily provides a conceptual framework for understanding these human-microbe, animal-microbe & plant-microbe, interactions while shedding critical light on the scientific challenges that lie ahead. Furthermore this book explains why microbiome research demands a creative and interdisciplinary thinking—the capacity to combine microbiology with human, animal and plant physiology, ecological theory with immunology, and evolutionary perspectives with metabolic science.This book provides an accessible and authoritative guide to the fundamental principles of microbiome science, an exciting and fast-emerging new discipline that is reshaping many aspects of the life sciences. These microbial partners can also drive ecologically important traits, from thermal tolerance to diet in a typical immune system, and have contributed to animal and plant diversification over long evolutionary timescales. Also this book explains why microbiome research presents a more complete picture of the biology of humans and other animals, and how it can deliver novel therapies for human health and new strategies.

Microbial endocrinology represents a newly emerging interdisciplinary field that is formed by the intersection of the fields of neurobiology and microbiology. This book will introduce a new perspective to the current understanding not only of the factors that mediate the ability of microbes to cause disease, but also to the mechanisms that maintain normal homeostasis. The discovery that microbes can directly respond to neuroendocrine hormones, as evidenced by increased growth and production of virulence-associated factors, provides for a new framework with which to investigate how microorganisms interface not only with vertebrates, but also with invertebrates and even plants. The reader will learn that the neuroendocrine hormones that one most commonly associates with mammals are actually found throughout the plant, insect and microbial communities to an extent that will undoubtedly surprise many, and most importantly, how interactions between microbes and neuroendocrine hormones can influence the pathophysiology of infectious disease.

This is the first comprehensive volume to look at the importance of short-chain fatty acids in digestion, the function of the large intestine and their role in human health. Short-chain fatty acids are the major product of bacterial fermentation of dietary carbohydrates in the human and animal large intestine. They represent the major end products of digestive processes occurring in the caecum and large intestine. As such, they form an important dietary component and it is increasingly recognised that they may have a significant role in protecting against large bowel cancer and in metabolism. Prepared by an international team of contributors who are at the forefront of this area of research, this volume will be an essential source of reference for gastroenterologists, nutritionists and others active in this area.

Studying the lung microbiome requires a specialist approach to sampling, laboratory techniques and statistical analysis. This Monograph introduces the techniques used and discusses how respiratory sampling, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, metagenomics and the application of ecological theory can be used to examine the respiratory microbiome. It examines the different components of the respiratory microbiome: viruses and fungi in addition to the more frequently studied bacteria. It also considers a range of contexts from the paediatric microbiome and how this develops to disease of all ages including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic suppurative lung diseases, interstitial lung diseases, acquired pneumonias, transplantation, cancer and HIV, and the interaction of the respiratory microbiome and the environment.

The book provides an overview on how the gut microbiome contributes to human health. The readers will get profound knowledge on the connection between intestinal microbiota and immune defense systems. The tools of choice to study the ecology of these highly-specialized microorganism communities such as high-throughput sequencing and metagenomic mining will be presented. In addition the most common diseases associated to the composition of the gut flora are discussed in detail. The book will address researchers, clinicians and advanced students working in biomedicine, microbiology and immunology.