An explosion of studies in recent years has established the ubiquity of host-associated
microbes and their centrality to host biology (McFall-Ngai etal., 2013; Russell, Dubilier, & …

Research on host-associated microbial communities has grown rapidly. Despite the great
body of work, inclusion of microbiota-related questions into integrative and comparative …

In the past several years, we have witnessed an increased interest in understanding the
structure and function of the indigenous microbiota that inhabits the human body. It is hoped …

The fungal, bacterial, and viral microbial communities embedded as endosymbionts within
all free-living organisms are extremely diverse and encode the vast majority of genes in the …

The interaction between both beneficial and pathogenic microbes and their host has been
the subject of many studies. Although the field of systems biology is rapidly evolving, the use …

Highlights•The microbiomes in many animal and plant hosts are diverse and
variable.•Within-host processes are dominated by host-microbe and among-microbe …

Our understanding of species evolution is undergoing restructuring. It is well accepted that
host–symbiont coevolution is responsible for fundamental aspects of biology. However, the …

A fundamental aim of microbiome research is to understand the factors that influence the
assembly and stability of host-associated microbiomes, and their impact on host phenotype …

Why does a microorganism associate with a host? What function does it perform? Such
questions are difficult to unequivocally address and remain hotly debated. This is partially …

At a rapid pace, biologists are learning the many ways in which resident microbes influence,
and sometimes even control, their hosts to shape both health and disease. Understanding …