Conceptualizing Human Microbiota: From Multicelled Organ to Ecological Community
Figure 1
Four conceptualizations of human microbiota that focus to varying
degrees on structure and/or function of the microbiota as a whole or
of the component microbial taxa. Assumptions and implications of
the extremes of simplicity and tractability on one hand (the
multicelled organ conceptualization, Figure 1(a)) and complexity and
relative intractability (the dynamic ecological community
conceptualization, Figure 1(d)) are described in Table
1. All the interactions (linking arrows)
are mediated to some extent by changes in the internal environment,
which is not shown to enhance clarity. Mechanisms underlying the
various interactions, including the role of internal environment,
are depicted in Figure 2.
