Periodontal microbiology has historically been based on an “us against them” paradigm, one that focuses mainly on identifying microbes and viruses that cause disease. However, such a bottom‐up approach limits our appreciation of the incredible diversity of this ecosystem and the essential ways in which microbial interactions contribute to health and homeostasis of the subgingival niche. Microbiomics—the science of collectively characterizing and quantifying molecules responsible for the structure, function, and dynamics of a microbial community—has enabled us to study these communities in their natural habitat, thereby revolutionizing our knowledge of host‐associated microbes and reconceptualizing our definition of “human.” When this systems‐biology approach is combined with ecologic principles, it explicates the complex relationship that exist between microbiota and between them and us, the human. In this volume of Periodontology 2000, a group of 12 female scientists take the lead in investigating how metagenomics, genomics, metatranscriptomics, proteomics, metaproteomics, and metabolomics have achieved the following: (a) widened our view of the periodontal microbiome; (b) expanded our understanding of the evolution of the human oral microbiome; (c) shone a light on not just bacteria, but also other prokaryotic and eukaryotic members of the community; (d) elucidated the effects of anthropogenic behavior and systemic diseases on shaping these communities; and (e) influenced traditional patterns of periodontal therapeutics.

中文翻译：

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微生物学：以前我们都错了吗？

牙周微生物学历来基于“反对他们”的范例，该范例主要侧重于识别导致疾病的微生物和病毒。但是，这种自下而上的方法限制了我们对这种生态系统令人难以置信的多样性以及微生物相互作用有助于龈下利基的健康和体内平衡的基本方式的认识。微生物组学是一种集体表征和量化负责微生物群落结构，功能和动力学的分子的科学，它使我们能够在其自然栖息地研究这些群落，从而彻底改变了我们对宿主相关微生物的认识，并重新定义了对微生物的定义“人类。” 当这种系统生物学方法与生态学原理相结合时，它阐明了微生物群之间以及它们与我们，人类之间存在的复杂关系。在这个体积牙周病学2000年，由12名女性科学家组成的小组带头研究了宏基因组学，基因组学，元转录组学，蛋白质组学，元蛋白质组学和代谢组学如何实现以下目标：（a）拓宽了我们对牙周微生物组的认识；（b）扩大了我们对人类口腔微生物组进化的认识；（c）不仅照亮细菌，而且照亮社区的其他原核和真核生物成员；（d）阐明了人为行为和系统疾病对塑造这些社区的影响；（e）影响了牙周疗法的传统模式。