Host–microbiota interactions
Commensal microbes and their multicellular eukaryotic hosts constitute a highly integrated system—termed the holobiont [1]—which undergoes dynamic changes through time as it integrates and responds to signals from the environment.
Dwelling at the interface between host epithelia and the external environment, commensal microbes actively modulate development, nutrient absorption, and disease onset in the host. Host metabolism is significantly modulated by commensal microbes, and the gut microbial composition significantly affects blood metabolite composition [2].
Microbial communities differ among epithelia, reaching the highest complexity and taxonomic diversity in the oral cavity and in the gastrointestinal tract [3, 4]. Environmental factors, such as diet, drug use, and social environment, shape the composition of epithelia-associated microbiota [5–7], and environmental heterogeneity—rather than host genetics—can explain much of the interindividual differences in microbiota composition in humans [8]. The assembly of specific host-associated communities, however, is also dictated by the host cell composition and activity, by the molecular components of the mucus layer, by the gut peristaltic contractility [9], and by epithelial integrity [10]. In primates, recent evidence supports that host phylogenetic relatedness and gut physiology are overall better predictors of microbiota composition than diet [11]. Together, the microbiota is a dynamic community, subject to changes in conjunction with host evolution and through the lifetime of individual hosts.
Read more at PLOS…
CC0 License, Pixabay
Citation: Aleman FDD, Valenzano DR (2019) Microbiome evolution during host aging. PLoS Pathog 15(7): e1007727. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1007727
The post Microbiome evolution during host aging appeared first on Healthier Environment Living Program.