A new lexicon in the age of microbiome research
Over the past 20 years, life science research has come to realize that all living beings—from the simplest animal and plant organisms to humans—live in close association with a large number of microorganisms. Together with the multicellular host organism, these symbiotic bacteria, viruses and fungi, which colonize on and in their tissues and form the so-called microbiome, constitute a primarily beneficial community in the form of a metaorganism.