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Microbiota studies - early steps still?
How relevant/mechanistic is the current microbiota research with a bacteriocentric view largely excluding fungi and the more predominant bacterial infective bacteriophages/viruses?
2 answers
I think that in the near future fungi and viruses will be studies as well, we only need the tools. The point is that we have now the tools to study the bacteria and that´s why is the most study for now. But you are right, we need to include the interaction with viruses and fungi.
There's some mechanistic insight already. A very clear example comes from the observation that certain microbes produce metabolites that impinge on signaling pathways in our cells. Different microbes have been found to influence the differentiation of naive T cells into different T helper subsets. Perhaps not surprisingly, differences in the microbiome are now being correlated with different responses to cancer immunotherapy. One would expect that adding fungi and viruses to these studies would add even more layers to this complex interplay between host and microbe!