Journal
NATURE
Volume 548, Issue 7665, Pages 43-51Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/nature23292
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Funding
- European Research Council [242670]
- Calleva Research Centre for Evolution and Human Science (Magdalen College, Oxford)
- Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Research Fellowship [201341/Z/16/Z]
- NIH [1U01AI124275-01, 1K08AI130392-01]
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund
- Wellcome Trust [201341/Z/16/Z] Funding Source: Wellcome Trust
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The human body carries vast communities of microbes that provide many benefits. Our microbiome is complex and challenging to understand, but evolutionary theory provides a universal framework with which to analyse its biology and health impacts. Here we argue that to understand a given microbiome feature, such as colonization resistance, host nutrition or immune development, we must consider how hosts and symbionts evolve. Symbionts commonly evolve to compete within the host ecosystem, while hosts evolve to keep the ecosystem on a leash. We suggest that the health benefits of the microbiome should be understood, and studied, as an interplay between microbial competition and host control.
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