We've long known that hosts malfunction without their microbiome -- whether they are missing key microbial species or are completely microbe free. This malfunctioning is usually explained by the need for microbes to perform unique and beneficial functions, but evolutionary ecologist is questioning that narrative.
We've long known that hosts malfunction without their microbiome -- whether they are missing key microbial species or are completely microbe free. This malfunctioning is usually explained by the need for microbes to perform unique and beneficial functions, but evolutionary ecologist Tobin Hammer of the University of California, Irvine, is questioning that narrative.
"I need coffee to perform basic functions, but I do not perform them any better now than before the addiction began; I need coffee just to get back to normal," writes Hammer."The same process can occur with host-microbe symbioses: a dependence evolves without an improvement in functionality." "By largely ignoring evolutionary addiction, the microbiome field has missed a plausible and likely common evolutionary explanation for microbially dependent host traits," writes Hammer."The host organism is a complex, internally interconnected system, and the absence of a microbe that has been integrated into it, like a cog in a machine, will cause components to malfunction."
Hammer notes that evolutionary addiction and missing benefits are not mutually exclusive, and in the case of some host-microbe pairs, both mechanisms could be at play."One process may engender the other," Hammer writes."A microbe providing an adaptive function can be expected to spread among hosts, facilitating the subsequent evolution of dependence."
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