Friends with social benefits: host-microbe interactions as a driver of brain evolution and development?
The tight association of the human body with trillions of colonizing microbes that we observe today is the result of a long evolutionary history. Only very recently have we started to understand how this symbiosis also affects brain function and behavior. In this hypothesis and theory article, we propose how host-microbe associations potentially influenced mammalian brain evolution and development. In particular, we explore the integration of human brain development with evolution, symbiosis, and RNA biology, which together represent a "social triangle" that drives human social behavior and cognition. We argue that, in order to understand how inter-kingdom communication can affect brain adaptation and plasticity, it is inevitable to consider epigenetic mechanisms as important mediators of genome-microbiome interactions on an individual as well as a transgenerational time scale. Finally, we unite these interpretations with the hologenome theory of evolution. Taken together, we propose a tighter integration of neuroscience fields with host-associated microbiology by taking an evolutionary perspective.
Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork Cork, Ireland ; Department Anatomy and Neuroscience, University College Cork Cork, Ireland.
Roman M
RM
Stilling
Departments of Biological Sciences and Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN, USA.
Seth R
SR
Bordenstein
Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork Cork, Ireland ; Department of Psychiatry, University College Cork Cork, Ireland.
Timothy G
TG
Dinan
Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork Cork, Ireland ; Department Anatomy and Neuroscience, University College Cork Cork, Ireland.
John F
JF
Cryan
D000220:Adaptation, Biological; D000818:Animals; D001519:Behavior; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D064307:Microbiota; D013559:Symbiosis
epigenetics; evo-devo; gene-environment interactions; microbiota; neurodevelopment; non-coding RNA; sociality; transgenerational