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Cited by 117Gut microbiota and healthEvolution and Paleontology StudiesEvolution and Genetic Dynamics

Ecophylogenetics Clarifies the Evolutionary Association between Mammals and Their Gut Microbiota

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Gaulke, Christopher A., Arnold, Holly K., Humphreys, Ian R., Kembel, Steven W., O’Dwyer, James P., Sharpton, Thomas J.·2018·mBio
DOI 10.1128/mbio.01348-18PMC PMC6134092
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Abstract

Our understanding of mammalian evolution has become microbiome-aware. While emerging research links mammalian biodiversity and the gut microbiome, we lack insight into which microbes potentially impact mammalian evolution. Microbes common to diverse mammalian species may be strong candidates, as their absence in the gut may affect how the microbiome functionally contributes to mammalian physiology to adversely affect fitness. Identifying such conserved gut microbes is thus important to ultimately assessing the microbiome’s potential role in mammalian evolution. To advance their discovery, we developed an approach that identifies ancestrally related groups of microbes that distribute across mammals in a way that indicates their collective conservation. These conserved clades are presumed to have evolved a trait in their ancestor that matters to their distribution across mammals and which has been retained among clade members. We found not only that such clades do exist among mammals but also that they appear to be subject to natural selection and characterize human evolution.

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  • Over time the microbiota has co-evolved with host organisms, becoming mutually co-dependent for survival.

    “Over time the microbiota has co-evolved with host organisms, becoming mutually co-dependent for survival (Bordenstein and Theis, 2015;Gaulke et al., 2018).”

    From The Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis (2019) · cites this paper as Gaulke et al., 2018

    The Results (page unavailable) report that some gut bacterial clades show evolutionary patterns linked to their mammalian hosts. But the Discussion (page unavailable) says coevolution remains an unclear explanation for that association and describes host dependence on gut microbiota as a hypothesis. It does not establish that hosts and microbiota have become mutually dependent for survival. (LLM, conf=0.87)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Gaulke, C. A., Arnold, H. K., Humphreys, I. R., Kembel, S. W., O’Dwyer, J. P., & Sharpton, T. J.
Affiliations
  • Oregon State University (US)
  • Université du Québec à Montréal (CA)
  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
Corresponding author
Sharpton, Thomas J.
ORCID
Venue
mBio
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Published
2018-11-07
Volume
9
Issue
5
ISSN
  • 2150-7511 (ISSN-L)
  • 2161-2129
DOI
10.1128/mbio.01348-18
PMC
PMC6134092
OpenAlex
W2949791294
Cited by
117
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 4
FWCI
3.82
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • mBio (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (1557192)
  • Oregon State University (Institutional Funds)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
Keywords
mammalian evolution, host-microbe coevolution, natural selection, human evolution, microbiome
MeSH terms
Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Host Microbial Interactions, Algorithms, Animals, Bacteria, Biological Evolution, Mammals, Phylogeny, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S, Computational Biology, Biodiversity

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