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Assessing the Viability of a Synthetic Bacterial Consortium on the In Vitro Gut Host-microbe Interface
Published on: July 4, 2018
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Natural selection for imprecise vertical transmission in host-microbiota systems.
Marjolein Bruijning1, Lucas P Henry2,3, Simon K G Forsberg2,3
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA. mbruijning@princeton.edu.
Nature Ecology & Evolution
|December 24, 2021
Summary
Imperfect microbiome transmission can be adaptive. Increasing microbiome variation among offspring enhances host fitness in unpredictable environments, improving the chance of beneficial microbial combinations for future generations.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Microbiome research
- Host-microbe interactions
Background:
- The microbiome's role in host adaptation is unclear, complicated by imperfect generational transmission.
- The microbiome's genetic repertoire influences host phenotypes and fitness, but its evolutionary contribution is debated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how imperfect vertical transmission of the microbiome affects host adaptation.
- To model the conditions under which microbiome variation can be evolutionarily advantageous.
Main Methods:
- Developed an evolutionary model to simulate microbiome transmission and its impact on host fitness.
- Analyzed the influence of environmental variability and developmental factors on transmission strategies.
Main Results:
- Decreased vertical transmission fidelity increases microbiome and phenotypic variation among hosts.
- This increased variation is adaptive in environments where beneficial microbial genotypes fluctuate unpredictably.
- Environmentally dependent microbial effects can favor intermediate transmission rates.
Conclusions:
- Imperfect vertical microbiome transmission can be an adaptive strategy in variable environments.
- Understanding transmission patterns is key to explaining microbiome diversity in nature.
- Further research can empirically test these evolutionary predictions.
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