Experimental Evidence for Adaptation to Species-Specific Gut Microbiota in House Mice

Authors

Andrew H. Moeller, University of California - Berkeley
João C. Gomes-Neto, University of Nebraska—LincolnFollow
Sara Mantz, University of Nebraska—LincolnFollow
Hatem Kittana, University of Nebraska—Lincoln
Rafael R. Segura Munoz, University of Nebraska—LincolnFollow
Robert J. Schmaltz, University of Nebraska—LincolnFollow
Amanda E. Ramer-Tait, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Michael W. Nachman, University of California - Berkeley

ORCID IDs

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0950-7548

Date of this Version

7-10-2019

Citation

2019 Moeller et al.

Comments

Moeller AH, Gomes-Neto JC, Mantz S, Kittana H, Segura Munoz RR, Schmaltz RJ, Ramer-Tait AE, Nachman MW. 2019. Experimental evidence for adaptation to species-specific gut microbiota in house mice. mSphere 4:e00387-19. https://doi.org/10.1128/ mSphere.00387-19.

Abstract

The gut microbial communities of mammals have codiversified with host species, and changes in the gut microbiota can have profound effects on host fitness. Therefore, the gut microbiota may drive adaptation in mammalian species, but this possibility is underexplored. Here, we show that the gut microbiota has codiversified with mice in the genus Mus over the past 6 million years, and we present experimental evidence that the gut microbiota has driven adaptive evolution of the house mouse, Mus musculus domesticus. Phylogenetic analyses of metagenomeassembled bacterial genomic sequences revealed that gut bacterial lineages have been retained within and diversified alongside Mus species over evolutionary time. Transplantation of gut microbiotas from various Mus species into germfree M. m. domesticus showed that foreign gut microbiotas slowed growth rate and upregulated macrophage inflammatory protein in hosts. These results suggest adaptation by M. m. domesticus to its gut microbiota since it diverged from other Mus species.