School of Humanities, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Sydney, Australia.
J Hist Biol. 2022 Oct;55(3):537-558. doi: 10.1007/s10739-022-09692-7. Epub 2022 Nov 8.
Now characterised by high-throughput sequencing methods that enable the study of microbes without lab culture, the human "microbiome" (the microbial flora of the body) is said to have revolutionary implications for biology and medicine. According to many experts, we must now understand ourselves as "holobionts" like lichen or coral, multispecies superorganisms that consist of animal and symbiotic microbes in combination, because normal physiological function depends on them. Here I explore the 1960s research of biologist René Dubos, a forerunner figure mentioned in some historical accounts of the microbiome, and argue that he arrived at the superorganism concept 40 years before the Human Microbiome Project. This raises the question of why his contribution was not hailed as revolutionary at the time and why Dubos is not remembered for it.
现在，高通量测序方法可以使人们无需实验室培养就能够研究微生物，据称，人类的“微生物组”（人体的微生物菌群）对生物学和医学具有革命性的意义。许多专家认为，我们现在必须将自己理解为像地衣或珊瑚一样的“整体生物”，即由动物和共生微生物组合而成的多物种超级生物体，因为正常的生理功能依赖于它们。在这里，我探讨了生物学家雷内·杜博斯（René Dubos）的 20 世纪 60 年代的研究，他是一些有关微生物组历史记载中提到的先驱人物之一，我认为他在人类微生物组计划之前 40 年就提出了超级生物体的概念。这就提出了一个问题，即为什么当时他的贡献没有被视为革命性的，以及为什么杜博斯没有因此而被铭记。
