Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Kemivägen 10, SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden.
Trends Biotechnol. 2011 Jun;29(6):251-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2011.01.009. Epub 2011 Mar 9.
Abundant microorganisms that inhabit the human intestine are implicated in health and disease. The gut microbiome has been studied with metagenomic tools, and over 3 million genes have been discovered, constituting a 'parts list' of this ecosystem; further understanding requires studies of the interacting parts. Mouse models have provided a glimpse into the microbiota and host interactions at metabolic and immunologic levels; however, to provide more insight, there is a need to generate mathematical models that can reveal genotype-phenotype relationships and provide scaffolds for integrated analyses. To this end, we propose the use of genome-scale metabolic models that have successfully been used in studying interactions between human hosts and microbes, as well as microbes in isolation and in communities.
大量栖息在人类肠道内的微生物与健康和疾病都有关联。人们已经利用宏基因组学工具对肠道微生物组进行了研究，发现了超过 300 万个基因，这些基因构成了这个生态系统的“零件清单”；进一步的理解需要研究相互作用的部分。小鼠模型已经提供了在代谢和免疫水平上观察微生物组和宿主相互作用的线索；然而，为了提供更深入的了解，需要生成可以揭示基因型-表型关系并为综合分析提供框架的数学模型。为此，我们建议使用基因组规模的代谢模型，这些模型已成功用于研究人类宿主与微生物以及微生物在孤立和社区中的相互作用。
