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Abstract Microorganisms are the primary engines of biogeochemical processes and foundational to the provisioning of ecosystem services to human society. Free‐living microbial communities (microbiomes) and their functioning are now known to be highly sensitive to environmental change. Given microorganisms' capacity for rapid evolution, evolutionary processes could play a role in this response. Currently, however, few models of biogeochemical processes explicitly consider how microbial evolution will affect biogeochemical responses to environmental change. Here, we propose a conceptual framework for explicitly integrating evolution into microbiome–functioning relationships. We consider how microbiomes respond simultaneously to environmental change via four interrelated processes that affect overall microbiome functioning (physiological acclimation, demography, dispersal and evolution). Recent evidence in both the laboratory and the field suggests that ecological and evolutionary dynamics occur simultaneously within microbiomes; however, the implications for biogeochemistry under environmental change will depend on the timescales over which these processes contribute to a microbiome's response. Over the long term, evolution may play an increasingly important role for microbially driven biogeochemical responses to environmental change, particularly to conditions without recent historical precedent.
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This content will become publicly available on August 7, 2025
The Human Microbiome and Cancer
Since the turn of the century, the human microbiome has garnered significant interest from biologists, engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, medical professionals, clinicians, the food industry, and the pharmaceutical industry. It is now widely understood that the human microbiome is far more diverse than we envisioned in the 17th century when microorganisms were isolated, viewed, and documented with a simple microscope. Recent seminal studies using next-generation molecular technologies and computation strategies have demonstrated a strong association between the human microbiome on human health and disease. This review explores the effects of the human microbiome on human cancers such as breast, colorectal, and liver cancer. Identification of localized microbiomes may serve as an early-warning biological detection system to aid in diagnosing human cancer. Tissue-specific microbiomes synthesize, secrete, and metabolize various host and microbial products that impact the growth or suppression of microorganisms and modify tumor development, cancer progression, immunological profiles, and responses to treatment strategies. Future review articles will survey the contribution of the human microbiome to other human carcinomas.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2306512
- PAR ID:
- 10537296
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Biomedical journal of scientific technical research
- Volume:
- 58
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2574-1241
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 49957-49960
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Cancer Microbiome Diagnostics Biomarker Tumor
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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