Microbiome engineering: Current applications and its future
Abstract
Microbiomes exist in all ecosystems and are composed of diverse microbial communities. Perturbation to microbiomes brings about undesirable phenotypes in the hosts, resulting in diseases and disorders, and disturbs the balance of the associated ecosystems. Engineering of microbiomes can be used to modify structures of the microbiota and restore ecological balance. Consequently, microbiome engineering has been employed for improving human health and agricultural productivity. The importance and current applications of microbiome engineering, particularly in humans, animals, plants and soil is reviewed. Furthermore, we explore the challenges in engineering microbiome and the future of this field, thus providing perspectives and outlook of microbiome engineering.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 30, 2017
- Source ID
- 10.1002/biot.201600099
Entities
People
- Hua Ling
- Jee Loon Foo
- Matthew Wook Chang
- Yung Seng Lee
Organizations
- Agency for Science, Technology and Research
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- Ministry of Defence Singapore
- National Medical Research Council
- National University of Singapore
- Singapore–MIT alliance
- United States Air Force