TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental change and human health
T2 - Can environmental proxies inform the biodiversity hypothesis for protective microbial-human contact?
AU - Liddicoat, Craig
AU - Waycott, Michelle
AU - Weinstein, Philip
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - Microbiota from environmental sources overlap and interact with human microbiota, contribute to human microbial diversity, and provide beneficial immunomodulatory stimuli. Meanwhile, reduced diversity in human microbiota and immune dysregulation have been associated with a range of diseases. Emerging evidence suggests landscape-scale drivers of microbial diversity may influence our health, but the area remains understudied because of its multidisciplinary nature. Here, we attempt to widen the view on this subject by offering an environmental researcher's viewpoint, proposing a unifying conceptual framework to stimulate multidisciplinary interest. To focus research in this challenging area, we propose greater emphasis on multiscale ecological links and that landscape-scale proxies for potential underlying microbial mechanisms be investigated to identify key environmental attributes and health relationships worthy of subsequent detailed examination. Wherever possible, ecological epidemiological studies should account for the temporal nature of environmental microbiota exposures, especially with respect to the early development of the human commensal microbiota.
AB - Microbiota from environmental sources overlap and interact with human microbiota, contribute to human microbial diversity, and provide beneficial immunomodulatory stimuli. Meanwhile, reduced diversity in human microbiota and immune dysregulation have been associated with a range of diseases. Emerging evidence suggests landscape-scale drivers of microbial diversity may influence our health, but the area remains understudied because of its multidisciplinary nature. Here, we attempt to widen the view on this subject by offering an environmental researcher's viewpoint, proposing a unifying conceptual framework to stimulate multidisciplinary interest. To focus research in this challenging area, we propose greater emphasis on multiscale ecological links and that landscape-scale proxies for potential underlying microbial mechanisms be investigated to identify key environmental attributes and health relationships worthy of subsequent detailed examination. Wherever possible, ecological epidemiological studies should account for the temporal nature of environmental microbiota exposures, especially with respect to the early development of the human commensal microbiota.
KW - Biodiversity
KW - Dysbiosis
KW - Environmental microbiota
KW - Immunoregulation
KW - Microbial old friends
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85015777727&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/biosci/biw127
DO - 10.1093/biosci/biw127
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85015777727
SN - 0006-3568
VL - 66
SP - 1023
EP - 1034
JO - BIOSCIENCE
JF - BIOSCIENCE
IS - 12
ER -