Summary of definitions
| Microbiome | The combined genomes of all the microorganisms inhabiting a particular environment |
| Microbiota | Community of microorganisms in an environment |
| Metagenomics | The study of the whole genome of a community of microorganisms, allowing assessment of the functional potential of the microorganisms |
| RNA metatranscriptomics | The measurement of the total mRNA in a community, to allow representation of active gene expression at that time |
| Resistome | Collection of antibiotic resistance genes in a community |
| Metabolomics | Assessment of the metabolites of a given sample, allowing identification of metabolically active organisms |
| Proteomics | Assessment of proteins produced by the host and microbiota |
| Alpha diversity | The diversity of a sample, including the richness (number of species) or evenness (distribution of species) |
| Beta diversity | The measure of the similarity or dissimilarity of two communities |