Jeff Gordon and colleagues present a microbial perspective of human developmental biology. They describe how the microbiota affects prenatal and postnatal growth and explain how an understanding of such communities could help to prevent and treat diseases. To this end, they call for the establishment of 'human microbial observatories' to examine the development of the microbiota in birth cohorts with diverse lifestyles and patterns of disease.

Justin Sonnenburg and Fredrik Bäckhed analyse how the microbiota and diet interact to influence metabolism. They review mechanisms used by the microbiota to modulate the effects of diet on the host's metabolic status, as well as the potential for therapeutic intervention.

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