Interspecies variation in hominid gut microbiota controls host gene regulation

Amanda L. Muehlbauer, Allison L. Richards, Adnan Alazizi, Michael B. Burns, Andres Gomez, Jonathan B. Clayton, Klara Petrzelkova, Camilla Cascardo, Justyna Resztak, Xiaoquan Wen, Roger Pique-Regi, Francesca Luca, Ran Blekhman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The gut microbiome exhibits extreme compositional variation between hominid hosts. However, it is unclear how this variation impacts host physiology across species and whether this effect can be mediated through microbial regulation of host gene expression in interacting epithelial cells. Here, we characterize the transcriptional response of human colonic epithelial cells in vitro to live microbial communities extracted from humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. We find that most host genes exhibit a conserved response, whereby they respond similarly to the four hominid microbiomes. However, hundreds of host genes exhibit a divergent response, whereby they respond only to microbiomes from specific host species. Such genes are associated with intestinal diseases in humans, including inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn's disease. Last, we find that inflammation-associated microbial species regulate the expression of host genes previously associated with inflammatory bowel disease, suggesting health-related consequences for species-specific host-microbiome interactions across hominids.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number110057
JournalCell Reports
Volume37
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 23 2021

Keywords

  • Gut microbiome, Primates, Hominids, Gene regulation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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