The holobiont concept has emerged as a theoretical and experimental framework to study the interactions between hosts and their associated microbial communities in all types of ecosystems and organisms, providing a paradigm shift from bipartite interactions to a community-based integration of factors that determine the resilience of organisms. The spread of this concept across biological sciences, including aspects of mathematics (bioinformatics, statistics, and modelling), results from a recent realisation of the ubiquitous nature of host-associated microbes and their central role in host biology, diseases, ecology, and evolution, particularly regarding adaptation to environmental change. Yet, several challenges in holobiont research remain, including the theoretical and experimental approaches to elucidate the role of microbiota in host adaptation and evolution, inherent bioinformatics challenges of complex multicomponent datasets, the role of host-microbe dynamics in diseases, and the application of holobiont manipulation to enhance host health and ecosystem restoration are extremely limited.
Through this Research Topic, “Holobiont Interactions,” we want to promote the field of holobiont research through a collection of selected articles that show, use, or debate the concept of holobiont across taxonomically and ecologically diverse organisms from all types of ecosystems. We hope to include articles that cover a range of biological systems and describe state of the art research, methodology, and application in the field of host-microbiota interactions, to stimulate more works on holobionts to meet current and future challenges. A recent Special Issue in Microbiome on “Host-microbiota interactions: from holobiont theory to analysis” sparked the 2nd International Conference on Holobionts (Montréal, Canada, 8–10 May 2019), and the 3rd International Conference on Holobionts is set for July 2022, organised and held alongside the annual congress of the International Society of Symbiosis. This makes this Research Topic theme timely and significant for both potential contributors and wide-reaching audience.
We welcome submissions on themes including but not limited to:
• Mechanisms and functions underlying host-microbiota interactions. What functions are delivered by the microbiota to the host and what are the resulting phenotypic and fitness effects are certainly among some of the most burning questions in the field of holobiont research
• Microbe-microbe interactions. Microbe-microbe interactions participate in the host-microbiota equilibrium, but are a much less common focus of existing manuscripts
• Evolutionary properties of holobionts. Whether a holobiont should be considered as a unit of selection remains debated in the evolutionary biology community
• Holobiont interactions for diseases. How do renegade host cells and enabling microbiota feature in diseases, and the potential for microbiome treatments or therapies for diseases
• New tools and methods to dissect holobiont components. Analysing holobionts as a whole or in parts is a common challenge in holobiont research and new methods/tools are critical for wider application. Furthermore, while omics-based methods have been crucial to study holobionts in all environments, bioinformatic challenges to disentangle and integrate multicomponent data still exist
• Holobionts in ecosystem restoration. The application of holobiont interaction research to enhance host health or restore ecosystems remains limited despite exciting potential
The holobiont concept has emerged as a theoretical and experimental framework to study the interactions between hosts and their associated microbial communities in all types of ecosystems and organisms, providing a paradigm shift from bipartite interactions to a community-based integration of factors that determine the resilience of organisms. The spread of this concept across biological sciences, including aspects of mathematics (bioinformatics, statistics, and modelling), results from a recent realisation of the ubiquitous nature of host-associated microbes and their central role in host biology, diseases, ecology, and evolution, particularly regarding adaptation to environmental change. Yet, several challenges in holobiont research remain, including the theoretical and experimental approaches to elucidate the role of microbiota in host adaptation and evolution, inherent bioinformatics challenges of complex multicomponent datasets, the role of host-microbe dynamics in diseases, and the application of holobiont manipulation to enhance host health and ecosystem restoration are extremely limited.
Through this Research Topic, “Holobiont Interactions,” we want to promote the field of holobiont research through a collection of selected articles that show, use, or debate the concept of holobiont across taxonomically and ecologically diverse organisms from all types of ecosystems. We hope to include articles that cover a range of biological systems and describe state of the art research, methodology, and application in the field of host-microbiota interactions, to stimulate more works on holobionts to meet current and future challenges. A recent Special Issue in Microbiome on “Host-microbiota interactions: from holobiont theory to analysis” sparked the 2nd International Conference on Holobionts (Montréal, Canada, 8–10 May 2019), and the 3rd International Conference on Holobionts is set for July 2022, organised and held alongside the annual congress of the International Society of Symbiosis. This makes this Research Topic theme timely and significant for both potential contributors and wide-reaching audience.
We welcome submissions on themes including but not limited to:
• Mechanisms and functions underlying host-microbiota interactions. What functions are delivered by the microbiota to the host and what are the resulting phenotypic and fitness effects are certainly among some of the most burning questions in the field of holobiont research
• Microbe-microbe interactions. Microbe-microbe interactions participate in the host-microbiota equilibrium, but are a much less common focus of existing manuscripts
• Evolutionary properties of holobionts. Whether a holobiont should be considered as a unit of selection remains debated in the evolutionary biology community
• Holobiont interactions for diseases. How do renegade host cells and enabling microbiota feature in diseases, and the potential for microbiome treatments or therapies for diseases
• New tools and methods to dissect holobiont components. Analysing holobionts as a whole or in parts is a common challenge in holobiont research and new methods/tools are critical for wider application. Furthermore, while omics-based methods have been crucial to study holobionts in all environments, bioinformatic challenges to disentangle and integrate multicomponent data still exist
• Holobionts in ecosystem restoration. The application of holobiont interaction research to enhance host health or restore ecosystems remains limited despite exciting potential