TY - JOUR
T1 - How holobionts get sick-toward a unifying scheme of disease
AU - Pitlik, Silvio D.
AU - Koren, Omry
N1 - Funding Information:
OK is supported by research grants from the Israeli Science Foundation, Minerva ARCHES, the Marie Curie Career integration grant and from the Canadian-Israel Health Initiative, jointly funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Israel Science Foundation, the International Development Research Centre, Canada and the Azrieli Foundation.
PY - 2017/6/24
Y1 - 2017/6/24
N2 - All humans, animals, and plants are holobionts. Holobionts comprise the host and a myriad of interacting microorganisms-the microbiota. The hologenome encompasses the genome of the host plus the composite of all microbial genomes (the microbiome). In health, there is a fine-tuned and resilient equilibrium within the members of the microbiota and between them and the host. This relative stability is maintained by a high level of microbial diversity, a delicate bio-geographic distribution of microorganisms, and a sophisticated and intricate molecular crosstalk among the multiple components of the holobiont. Pathobionts are temporarily benign microbes with the potential, under modified ecosystem conditions, to become key players in disease. Pathobionts may be endogenous, living for prolonged periods of time inside or on the host, or exogenous, invading the host during opportunistic situations. In both cases, the end result is the transformation of the beneficial microbiome into a health-perturbing pathobiome. We hypothesize that probably all diseases of holobionts, acute or chronic, infectious or non-infectious, and regional or systemic, are characterized by a perturbation of the healthy microbiome into a diseased pathobiome.
AB - All humans, animals, and plants are holobionts. Holobionts comprise the host and a myriad of interacting microorganisms-the microbiota. The hologenome encompasses the genome of the host plus the composite of all microbial genomes (the microbiome). In health, there is a fine-tuned and resilient equilibrium within the members of the microbiota and between them and the host. This relative stability is maintained by a high level of microbial diversity, a delicate bio-geographic distribution of microorganisms, and a sophisticated and intricate molecular crosstalk among the multiple components of the holobiont. Pathobionts are temporarily benign microbes with the potential, under modified ecosystem conditions, to become key players in disease. Pathobionts may be endogenous, living for prolonged periods of time inside or on the host, or exogenous, invading the host during opportunistic situations. In both cases, the end result is the transformation of the beneficial microbiome into a health-perturbing pathobiome. We hypothesize that probably all diseases of holobionts, acute or chronic, infectious or non-infectious, and regional or systemic, are characterized by a perturbation of the healthy microbiome into a diseased pathobiome.
KW - Disease
KW - Microbiome
KW - Microbiota
KW - Pathobiome
KW - Pathobiont
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85034699524&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s40168-017-0281-7
DO - 10.1186/s40168-017-0281-7
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.letter???
C2 - 28646902
AN - SCOPUS:85034699524
VL - 5
SP - 64
JO - Microbiome
JF - Microbiome
SN - 2049-2618
IS - 1
ER -