Andrew Moeller, UC Berkeley: The Evolution of the Mammalian Gut Microbiome

Lecture by Andrew Moeller, PhD, UC Berkeley, on “The Evolution of the Mammalian Gut Microbiome”, recorded on Dec. 11, 2017, at Kiel University.

About the lecture: Humans and other mammals harbor diverse assemblages of microorganisms that are deeply integrated with the digestive, immune, and neuroendocrine systems of their hosts. However, the evolutionary history that has produced these intimate relationships remains poorly understood. In this talk, I present evidence that gut bacteria cospeciate and coevolve with mammals. Comparative analyses of a diversity of mammals revealed strong associations between the composition of the gut microbiota and the host phylogeny, and gnotobiotic microbiota-transplant experiments indicate that hosts and their gut microbiotas have adapted to one another during mammalian diversification. These results suggest that gut bacteria have shaped the evolution of their mammalian host species. Find out more.