Analysis of intestinal microbiota in hybrid house mice reveals evolutionary divergence in a vertebrate hologenome

作者：Wang Jun; Kalyan Shirin; Steck Natalie; Turner Leslie M; Harr Bettina; Kuenzel Sven; Vallier Marie; Haesler Robert; Franke Andre; Oberg Hans Heinrich; Ibrahim Saleh M; Grassl Guntram A; Kabelitz Dieter; Baines John F^*

来源：Nature Communications, 2015, 6(1): 6440.

DOI：10.1038/ncomms7440

Recent evidence suggests that natural selection operating on hosts to maintain their microbiome contributes to the emergence of new species, that is, the 'hologenomic basis of speciation'. Here we analyse the gut microbiota of two house mice subspecies, Mus musculus musculus and M. m. domesticus, across their Central European hybrid zone, in addition to hybrids generated in the lab. Hybrid mice display widespread transgressive phenotypes (that is, exceed or fall short of parental values) in a variety of measures of bacterial community structure, which reveals the importance of stabilizing selection operating on the intestinal microbiome within species. Further genetic and immunological analyses reveal genetic incompatibilities, aberrant immune gene expression and increased intestinal pathology associated with altered community structure among hybrids. These results provide unique insight into the consequences of evolutionary divergence in a vertebrate 'hologenome', which may be an unrecognized contributing factor to reproductive isolation in this taxonomic group.

• 出版日期2015-3