Bioinformatics for Microbiome Analysis: Understanding the Diverse Roles in Health and Disease

Metagenomics has opened new avenues of access to the human microbiome-comprising diverse communities of microorganisms in a wide variety of environments and a critical component of human health and disease. Bioinformatics approaches enable a complex analysis of the resultant microbiome data; this may include the elucidation of patterns and functional roles, thereby substantiating our understanding of these microbial ecosystems. This article discusses metagenomic analysis techniques, machine learning applications for pattern recognition, and functional annotation of microbial communities with respect to composition to health outcome.