Obesity constitutes a worldwide pandemic of the present century and is linked to the gut microbiome. This relation has been attributed to the fact that metabolites and microbial products produced by gut microbiota are important modulators of a host's physiology and act as signaling molecules that modulate appetite, gut motility, energy uptake and storage, and energy expenditure. The metabolome is the ultimate functional output of the microbiome, in essence facilitates the monitoring of what small molecules are producing and their fluctuations in response to various stimuli. The composition and functions of gut microbiota differ between healthy lean subjects and obese patients, thus microbiota likely may have an impact on diseases associated with obesity, such as insulin resistance, low-grade inflammation, diabetes, and fatty liver disease.

Countering the obesity pandemic will require better understanding of disease mechanisms and the rational tools for the development of new diagnostic methods. To thoroughly understand the impact of obesity on whole organism homeostasis, metabolomics has built the ground towards comprehensively understanding the impact of microbiome on human health. It is with these grounds that it is valuable to utilize a systems biological approach combining metabolomics across tissues and biofluids together with metagenomics of gut microbial diversity. For instance, microbiome-wide association studies (mGWAS), powered by next-generation sequencing, can efficiently investigate the complex interaction between host genetics and microbial communities.

In this context, this research topic is interested in contributions of original research or review articles that provide insight on metabolites produced by gut microbiota of obese people pinpointed with holistic -omics approaches, i.e Metabolomics, Genomics and their implications on metabolic disorders.

Welcome topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Metabolic signatures and genetic features related to obesity phenotypes.
• The role of obesity in the etiology of metabolic disorders.
•Exploration of links among microbiome composition, host phenotypes, and heritable complex traits.
•Identification of key metabolic pathway(s) that closely follow metabolic disorders.
• Gut microbial composition influence on abdominal obesity.

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Frontiers in Endocrinology

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