About this Research Topic
Problem: Why do we observe considerable missing heritability estimates for chronic lifestyle disorders and complex diseases despite significant advances in studying the host genomic, epigenomic, and transcriptomic factors related to the disease phenotypes in humans?
Possible Reason: The development of a chronic lifestyle disorder or complex disease is dependent both on the host genetic background and epigenetic factors. The microbial population residing within the human body also likely contributes strongly to development of various disorders. Thus, it is imperative to study the host factors in conjunction with the microbiome to find the missing heritability of such complex disorders in humans. A microbiome-based study should address both culture-dependent and culture-independent analyses; thus, it is also important to develop technologies to dissect the host-microbiome interactions by development of experimental and animal model systems to study them.
A deep understanding of the importance of resident microbiome and dysbiosis in human diseases needs specialized knowledge in multi-omics data generation, analysis, and integration. This Research Topic aims to discuss the basic principles of host-microbiome interactions as well as integration of metagenomics, meta-transcriptomics, and metabolomics data in human health and disease. The specific topics that will be covered in this Research Topic are:
1. Host-Microbiome Association Studies in Metabolic Diseases
2. Human Microbiome and Cancer
3. Microbial Dysbiosis in Autoimmune Disorders
4. Role of microbiome in Maternal and Child Health
5. Statistical and Bioinformatic advances in metagenomic analysis
6. Single-cell genomics underlying the role of microbiome in health and disease
Topic Editor Rupak Mitra is employed by Unilever. All other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regard to the Research Topic subject.
Keywords: Human Microbiome, Epigenetics, Dysbiosis, Lifestyle Disorder, Complex Diseases
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.