中文摘要：

微生物群落遍布于人体的每个角落,与人共生并对人体健康产生重要和深刻的影响。与人类共生的全部微生物的基因组总和称为＂元基因组＂或＂人类第二基因组＂。研究人体微生物群落及相关元基因组数据,对转化医学领域的基础研究和临床应用具有重要的价值。通过对生物医学相关的高通量元基因组数据进行分析,不仅能为基础医学研究向医学临床应用转化提供新思路和新方法,而且具有广阔的应用前景。基于新一代测序技术产生的数据,元基因组分析技术和方法能够弥补以往人体微生物先培养后鉴定方法的缺陷,同时能有效鉴定和分析微生物群落的组成及功能,从而进一步探究和揭示微生物群落与机体生理状态之间的关系,为解决许多医学领域的难题提供了全新的切入角度和思维方法。文章系统介绍了元基因组研究的现状,包括元基因组的方法概念和研究进展,并以元基因组在医学研究中的应用为着眼点,综述了元基因组在转化医学方面的研究进展,进一步阐述了元基因组研究在转化医学应用领域中具有的重要地位。

英文摘要：

Humans are born with microbiota, which have accompanied us through our life-span. There is an important symbiotic relationship between us and the microbial communities, thus microbial communities are of great importance to our health. All genomic information within this microbiota is referered to as ＂metagenomics＂（also referred to as ＂human＇s second genome＂）. The analysis of high throughput metagenomic data generated from biomedical experiments would provide new approaches for translational research, and it have several applications in clinics. With the help of next generation sequencing technology and the emerging metagenomic approach（analysis of all genomic information in microbiota as a whole）, we can overcome the pitfalls of tedious traditional method of isolation and cultivation of single microbial species. The metagenomic approach can also help us to analyze the whole microbial community efficiently and offer deep insights in human-microbe relationships as well as new ideas on many biomedical problems. In this review, we summarize frontiers in metagenomic research, including new concepts and methods. Then, we focus on the applications of metagenomic research in medical researches and clinical applications in recent years, which would clearly show the importance of metagenomic research in the field of translational medicine.