September 25, 2024
Journal Article
The need for an integrated multi-OMICs approach in microbiome science in the food system
Abstract
Microbiome science as interdisciplinary research field evolved rapidly over the past two decades and has become a popular topic not only in the scientific community o among the general public, but also in the industry because of the growing demand for microbiome-based technologies and providing value-added solutions. Microbiome research have been strongly driven by methodological advances in different -omics field that leverage our understanding of microbial diversity and functioning. However, managing and integrating different complex -omics layers is still challenging. Within the Coordinated Support Action MicrobiomeSupport (https://www.microbiomesupport.eu/) the workshop “Metagenomics, Metaproteomics and Metabolomics: the need for data integration in microbiome research” gathered 70 participants from different microbiome research fields to discuss challenges in microbiome research and to overcome the obstacles and switch from microbiome based descriptive studies to functional studies, elucidating the biology and interactive roles of microbiomes. Therefore, a combination of technologies is suggested to be apply because this will reduce bias resulting from each individual technology and result in a more complete view on the biological system as a whole. Although combinations of different datasets are still rare, advanced bioinformatics tools and artificial intelligence approaches can contribute to a microbiome understanding, prediction and managementPublished: September 25, 2024