Co-evolution and Co-speciation of Host-Gut Bacteria Systems
Author(s)
Groussin, Mathieu; Mazel, Florent; Alm, Eric J.
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© 2020 The Authors Mammalian gut microbiomes profoundly influence host fitness, but the processes that drive the evolution of host-microbiome systems are poorly understood. Recent studies suggest that mammals and their individual gut symbionts can have parallel evolutionary histories, as represented by their congruent phylogenies. These “co-phylogenetic” patterns are signatures of ancient co-speciation events and illustrate the cohesiveness of the mammalian host-gut microbiome entity over evolutionary times. Theory predicts that co-speciation between mammals and their gut symbionts could result from their co-evolution. However, there is only limited evidence of such co-evolution. Here, we propose a model that explains cophylogenetic patterns without relying on co-evolution. Specifically, we suggest that individual gut bacteria are likely to diverge in patterns recapitulating host phylogeny when hosts undergo allopatric speciation, limiting inter-host bacterial dispersal and genomic recombination. We provide evidence that the model is empirically grounded and propose a series of observational and experimental approaches to test its validity.
Date issued
2020-07Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Microbiome Informatics and TherapeuticsJournal
Cell Host & Microbe
Publisher
Elsevier BV
ISSN
1931-3128