[Did humans co-evolve with the gut microbiota?]

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Evolutionary Biology
• Human Physiology

Background:

• The gut microbiome is crucial for animal physiology and development.
• Understanding the evolutionary history of the gut microbiome is limited.
• Key questions remain regarding microbiome evolution, origins, and co-evolution with humans.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the evolutionary history of the gut microbiome.
• To investigate the pace of gut microbe evolution (microevolution vs. macroevolution).
• To examine the relationship between gut microbiome evolution and human adaptation.

Main Methods:

• The study is a review and synthesis of current knowledge on gut microbiome evolution.
• It analyzes evolutionary processes on short-term (microevolution) and long-term (macroevolution) scales.
• It considers microbial exchange between host populations.

Main Results:

• Gut microbes exhibit rapid microevolution, adapting to environmental changes like diet within individuals.
• Long-term human evolution is largely decoupled from the evolution of most gut microbes due to inter-human microbial transfer.
• Most gut microbes have a history of exchange between host populations over millennia.

Conclusions:

• Gut microbes evolve rapidly within individuals, influencing health.
• While gut microbes evolve quickly, their long-term evolutionary trajectory is distinct from human evolution.
• The role of microbiome evolution in facilitating human adaptations over hundreds of thousands of years is an open research question.