Exploring linkages between taxonomic and functional profiles of the human microbiome

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

64 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Microbiome studies typically focus on characterizing the taxonomic and functional profiles of the microbes within a community. Functional profiling is generally thought to be superior to taxonomic profiling for investigating human-microbe interactions, but there are several limitations and challenges to existing approaches. This Perspective discusses the current sequencing and bioinformatic methods for producing taxonomic and functional profiles, recent studies utilizing and comparing these technologies, and the existing challenges and limitations of these data. In addition, functional versus taxonomic conservation across the population is questioned, while future research that focuses on investigating the taxonomic diversity of microbial functions is proposed.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere00163-17
JournalmSystems
Volume3
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 1 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Langille.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Microbiology
  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Biochemistry
  • Physiology
  • Modelling and Simulation
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics
  • Computer Science Applications

PubMed: MeSH publication types

  • Journal Article

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Langille, M. G. I. (2018). Exploring linkages between taxonomic and functional profiles of the human microbiome. mSystems, 3(2), Article e00163-17. https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00163-17