Host microbe interactions in the primate gut: Implications for human origins

Abstract

The breadth of microbiome research produced in the last decade has evidenced the vast diversity of human‐associated microbial systems, correlating specific microbial states to a myriad of host phenotypes. However, there is still a significant gap in our understanding of how humans and their residing microbes communicate, in light of environmental change and host evolution. By employing a meta‐OMIC approach (metatranscriptomics, metagenomics and metabolomics) in stool samples of wild western lowland gorillas (G.g.gorilla) and BaAka hunter‐gatherers (H.sapiens), and non‐invasive screening of host‐derived signals from fecal samples, we sought to characterize gene expression profiles in the tissue lining up the host distal gut, in the context of host‐specific bacterial composition, function and diets. The data show that despite the limited amount of host signals generated from fecal samples, unique gene regulation profiles distinguishing the colonic tissue of the 2 primate species correlate strongly with the abundance of particular metabolites and bacterial taxa; specifically, while increased expression of genes involved in metabolism and cell architecture characterizing the distal gut tissue of gorillas corresponded with higher abundance of phenolic metabolites; differential expression of immune‐associated genes in human colonic tissue showed associations with lipid‐derived metabolites and bacteria typically associated with the processing of simpler polysaccharides. As such, we discuss how diet‐derived metabolites and the gut microbiome converged to impact genes involved nutrition and immunity in the host along evolutionary timescales, and examine the pivotal role that diet could have had in human speciation and evolution, through a microbiome lens. Likewise, we show how studies of this nature could lay the foundations to understand mechanistic insights of gene regulation by the microbiome to impact diverse host phenotypes.Support or Funding InformationKONTAKT (American Science Information Agency, Czech‐American Scientific cooperation)This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.