Dynamics of Respiratory Microbiome Profiles Contributes to Imbalance and Lung Dysbiosis in the Respiratory Tract

Lungs and the other regions of respiratory tract are not sterile. Respiratory system consists of separate and balanced microbial communities called respiratory microbiome. Respiratory microbiome is the set of diverse microbial communities residing on the mucosal surface of respiratory tract. The presence of microbiota in respiratory tract is identified by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and the diversity of microbes in the respiratory tract was clearly understood. Microbiome equilibrium is maintained in healthy state of an individual. The composition of microbiome gets altered during disease. During health conditions the shape of microbiome is maintained by three detrimental factors: microbial immigration, emigration, and relative reproduction of microbes. Sometimes balance among these three factors is disturbed and the constancy of microbiota is affected. This condition is called as respiratory dysbiosis. There are certain factors such as smoking, antibiotics, chronic respiratory disorders (CRDs), and lung transplantation that contribute to imbalance and dynamic change of microbiome in respiratory tract. In this chapter, we discussed briefly the changes in microbial communities in response to these factors.