The soil in our microbial DNA informs about environmental interfaces across host and subsistence modalities

Area of Science:

• Microbiome research
• Environmental microbiology
• Human evolution

Background:

• Host-associated microbiome research aims to understand environmental influences on host physiology.
• The microbial molecular network is a key vector for transmitting environmental traits to hosts.
• Ancient biomolecules from preserved tissues offer insights into human ancestors' living experiences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if soil microbial taxa are present in host microbiomes.
• To investigate if environmental interaction influences host microbiomes, particularly human microbiomes.
• To assess if soil microbial signals in host microbiomes reflect host habitat and lifestyle.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of microbiome datasets from global soil samples and diverse hosts.
• Comparison of soil microbial taxa with host-associated gut taxa.
• Investigating the relationship between soil taxa in gut microbiomes and environmental ecotypes.
• Examining the differentiation of soil features across human communities, great apes, and invertebrates.

Main Results:

• Environmental soil taxa are found within host-associated gut taxa.
• Soil taxa in gut microbiomes can recapitulate the surrounding host habitat ecotype.
• A universal 'core' set of soil taxa is found across different soil ecotypes in host microbiomes.
• Host lifestyle patterns are inferable from the environmental signal in gut microbiome data.

Conclusions:

• Environmental soil microbes colonize host gut microbiomes, supporting the influence of environmental interactions.
• Host microbiomes can reflect their surrounding habitat, suggesting a consistent pattern of external environmental cues.
• Microbiome amplicon data can reveal lifestyle patterns, offering insights into host-environment relationships.