Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-31-2019
Publication Title
mSphere
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Volume
4
Issue
4
First page number:
1
Last page number:
14
Abstract
The gut microbiome of primates, including humans, is reported to closely follow host evolutionary history, with gut microbiome composition being specific to the genetic background of its primate host. However, the comparative models used to date have mainly included a limited set of closely related primates. To further understand the forces that shape the primate gut microbiome, with reference to human populations, we expanded the comparative analysis of variation among gut microbiome compositions and their primate hosts, including 9 different primate species and 4 human groups characterized by a diverse set of subsistence patterns (n = 448 samples). The results show that the taxonomic composition of the human gut microbiome, at the genus level, exhibits increased compositional plasticity. Specifically, we show unexpected similarities between African Old World monkeys that rely on eclectic foraging and human populations engaging in nonindustrial subsistence patterns; these similarities transcend host phylogenetic constraints. Thus, instead of following evolutionary trends that would make their microbiomes more similar to that of conspecifics or more phylogenetically similar apes, gut microbiome composition in humans from nonindustrial populations resembles that of generalist cercopithecine monkeys. We also document that wild cercopithecine monkeys with eclectic diets and humans following nonindustrial subsistence patterns harbor high gut microbiome diversity that is not only higher than that seen in humans engaging in industrialized lifestyles but also higher compared to wild primates that typically consume fiber-rich diets.
Keywords
Evolution; Microbiome; Primate
Disciplines
Bacteria | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Gastroenterology
File Format
File Size
3.722 KB
Language
English
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Repository Citation
Gomez, A.,
Sharma, A. K.,
Mallott, E. K.,
Petrzelkova, K. J.,
Jost Robinson, C. A.,
Yeoman, C. J.,
Carbonero, F.,
Pafco, B.,
Rothman, J. M.,
Ulanov, A.,
Vickova, K.,
Amato, K. R.,
Schnorr, S. L.,
Dominy, N. J.,
Modry, D.,
Todd, A.,
Torralba, M.,
Nelson, K. E.,
Burns, M. B.,
Blekhman, R.,
Remis, M.,
Stumpf, R. M.,
Wilson, B. A.,
Gaskins, H. R.,
Garber, P. A.,
White, B. A.,
Leigh, S. R.
(2019).
Plasticity in the Human Gut Microbiome Defies Evolutionary Constraints.
mSphere, 4(4),
1-14.
American Society for Microbiology.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00271-19