TI Food and Nutrition, Wageningen, The Netherlands; and Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Therap Adv Gastroenterol. 2009 Jul;2(4):9-22. doi: 10.1177/1756283X09337646.
The human gastrointestinal tract comprises a series of complex and dynamic organs ranging from the stomach to the distal colon, which harbor immense microbial assemblages that are known to be vital for human health. Until recently, most of the details concerning our gut microbiota remained obscure. Over the past several years, however, a number of crucial technological and conceptual innovations have been introduced to shed more light on the composition and functionality of human gut microbiota. Recently developed high throughput approaches, including next-generation sequencing technologies and phylogenetic microarrays targeting ribosomal RNA gene sequences, allow for comprehensive analysis of the diversity and dynamics of the gut microbiota composition. Nevertheless, most of the microbes especially in the human large intestine still remain uncultured, and the in situ functions of distinct groups of the gut microbiota are therefore largely unknown, but pivotal to the understanding of their role in human physiology. Apart from functional and metagenomics approaches, stable isotope probing is a promising tool to link the metabolic activity and diversity of microbial communities, including yet uncultured microbes, in a complex environment. Advancements in current stable isotope probing approaches integrated with the application of high-throughput diagnostic microarray-based phylogenetic profiling and metabolic flux analysis should facilitate the understanding of human microbial ecology and will enable the development of innovative strategies to treat or prevent intestinal diseases of as yet unknown etiology.
人类胃肠道包括一系列从胃到远端结肠的复杂和动态器官，这些器官中蕴藏着巨大的微生物群落，这些微生物对人类健康至关重要。直到最近，我们肠道微生物群的大多数细节仍然不清楚。然而，在过去的几年中，已经引入了一些关键的技术和概念创新，以更深入地了解人类肠道微生物群的组成和功能。最近开发的高通量方法，包括靶向核糖体 RNA 基因序列的下一代测序技术和系统发育微阵列，允许对肠道微生物群落组成的多样性和动态进行全面分析。然而，大多数微生物，特别是人类大肠中的微生物，仍然未被培养，因此，肠道微生物群中不同群体的原位功能在很大程度上是未知的，但对于理解它们在人类生理学中的作用至关重要。除了功能和宏基因组学方法外，稳定同位素探测是一种很有前途的工具，可以将包括尚未培养的微生物在内的复杂环境中微生物群落的代谢活性和多样性联系起来。将当前的稳定同位素探测方法与高通量基于微阵列的系统发育分析和代谢通量分析的应用相结合，应该有助于理解人类微生物生态学，并能够开发出创新的策略来治疗或预防病因不明的肠道疾病。
