An Integrated Analysis of Microbiomes and Metabolomics

Book excerpt: Because the microbial community is dynamic, an individual’s microbiota at a given time is varied, and many factors, including age, host genetics, diet, and the local environment, significantly change the microbiota. Thus, microbiome researchers have naturally expanded their research to look for insights into the interaction of the microbiome with other “omics”. Metabolites (small molecules) are the intermediate or end products of metabolism. Metabolites have various functions. The microbial-derived metabolites play an important role in the function of the microbiome. Thus, the advancement in microbiome studies is becoming particularly critical for the integration of microbial DNA sequencing data with other omics data, especially microbiome-metabolomics integration.