Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Richness and ecosystem development across faecal snapshots of the gut microbiota

Nature Microbiology volume 3, pages 526–528 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Faecal microbiota richness is considered a hallmark of gut health and stability. However, in healthy hosts, richness would primarily reflect the stage of ecosystem development through the gut, rather than community resilience. This Comment discusses the need to rethink microbiome biomarkers in the context of gut ecology.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Faecal microbiomes as snapshots of gut ecosystem maturation in healthy individuals.

References

  1. Lynch, S. V. & Pedersen, O. N. Engl. J. Med. 375, 2369–2379 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Claesson, M. J. et al. Nature 488, 178–184 (2012).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Scher, J. U. et al. Arthritis Rheumatol. 67, 128–139 (2015).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Pascal, V. et al. Gut. 66, 813–822 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Le Chatelier, E. et al. Nature 500, 541–546 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Cotillard, A. et al. Nature 500, 585–588 (2013).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Jiang, H. et al. Brain Behav. Immun. 48, 186–194 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Finegold, S. M. et al. Anaerobe 16, 444–453 (2010).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Lozupone, C. A. et al. Cell Host Microbe 14, 329–339 (2013).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Lloyd-Price, J., Abu-Ali, G. & Huttenhower, C. Genome Med. 8, 51 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Bäckhed, F. et al. Cell Host Microbe 12, 611–622 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Flores, G. E. et al. Genome Biol. 15, 531 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Lozupone, C. A., Stombaugh, J. I., Gordon, J. I., Jansson, J. K. & Knight, R. Nature 489, 220–230 (2012).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Falony, G. et al. Science 352, 560–564 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Zhernakova, A. et al. Science 352, 565–569 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  16. Vandeputte, D., Falony, G., D’hoe, K., Vieira-Silva, S. & Raes, J. Gut 66, 1865–1866 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Vandeputte, D. et al. Gut. 65, 57–62 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Roager, H. M. et al. Nat. Microbiol. 1, 16093 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Claesson, M. J. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 4586–4591 (2011).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Wu, G. D. et al. Science 334, 105–108 (2011).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  21. David, L. A. et al. Nature 505, 559–563 (2014).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Tigchelaar, E. F. et al. Gut 65, 540–542 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Vandeputte, D. et al. Nature 551, 507–511 (2017).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Santiago, A. et al. BMC Microbiol. 14, 112 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  25. Vieira-Silva, S. et al. Nat. Microbiol. 1, 16088 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Pereira, F. C. & Berry, D. Environ. Microbiol. 19, 1366–1378 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  27. Deppenmeier, U. & Müller, V. Results Probl. Cell Differ. 45, 123–152 (2008).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Wolfe, B. E. & Dutton, R. J. Cell 161, 49–55 (2015).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Minervini, F., De Angelis, M., Di Cagno, R. & Gobbetti, M. Int. J. Food Microbiol. 171, 136–146 (2014).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Meersman, E. et al. PLoS ONE 8, e81559 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  31. Foster, K. R., Schluter, J., Coyte, K. Z. & Rakoff-Nahoum, S. Nature 548, 43–51 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  32. Vandeputte, D. et al. Gut. 66, 1968–1974 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  33. Tyrrell, K. L., Warren, Y. A., Citron, D. M. & Goldstein, E. J. C. Anaerobe 17, 130–134 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Vital, M., Howe, A. C. & Tiedje, J. M. mBio 5, e00889 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  35. Korem, T. et al. Science 349, 1101–1106 (2015).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

S.V.-S. is supported by a post-doctoral fellowship from Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen). The Raes Lab is funded by VIB, KU Leuven, the Rega institute for Medical Research, the FWO EOS program (30770923), FP7 METACARDIS (305312), H2020 SYSCID (733100), and AD-gut (686271), and JPco-fuND aSynProtec.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Rega Institute, KU Leuven – University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Gwen Falony, Sara Vieira-Silva & Jeroen Raes

  2. VIB, Center for Microbiology, Leuven, Belgium

    Gwen Falony, Sara Vieira-Silva & Jeroen Raes

Authors
  1. Gwen Falony
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sara Vieira-Silva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jeroen Raes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeroen Raes.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Falony, G., Vieira-Silva, S. & Raes, J. Richness and ecosystem development across faecal snapshots of the gut microbiota. Nat Microbiol 3, 526–528 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-018-0143-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-018-0143-5

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing