Diet-microbe co-metabolic interactions in wild primates reveal clues on human evolution

0443198 - ÚBO 2016 US eng A - Abstract
Gomez, A. M. - Rothman, J. M. - Petrželková, Klára Judita - Yeoman, C. J. - Vlčková, K. - Umana, J. D. - Carr, M. - Modrý, D. - Tod, A. - Nelson, K. - Stumpf, R. M. - Wilson, B. A. - White, B. A. - Leigh, S. R.
Diet-microbe co-metabolic interactions in wild primates reveal clues on human evolution.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Wiley. Roč. 156, č. 60 (2015), s. 149. ISSN 0002-9483. E-ISSN 1096-8644.
[Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists /84./. 25.03.2015-28.03.2015, St Louis]
Institutional support: RVO:68081766
Keywords : wild primates * human evolution
Subject RIV: EE - Microbiology, Virology

Recent advances in microbiome studies and meta-"OMICS" have offered new molecular insights into how host-microbe systems impact mammalian physiology. Here, we test the hypothesis that the molecular characterization of diet - gut microbe interactions in wild primates also provides valuable information on the factors that triggered human evolution. Thus, we use a longitudinal approach, along with high throughput sequencing and metabolomics to characterize the gut microbiome and metabolomes in 356 fecal samples of Cercocebus agilis, Gorilla beringei, Gorilla gorilla, Pan troglodites schweinfurthii and Homo sapiens. Our results show that the diet-microbe cometabolic landscape of wild primates converges with that of humans when foraging is focused on increased energy harvest; specifically, as far as predominance of microbes and metabolites involved in simple sugar processing and lipid turnover. As such, we present evidence that primitive dietary shifts to foods with high contents of readily usable energy not only prompted the acquisition of specific morphological and anatomical adaptations in human ancestors, but also of a colonic microecosystem with increased capacity to harvest energy from food. Accordingly, these results offer a novel perspective on the ecological and dietary triggers behind the origin of early humans, suggesting that specific gut microbiome arrangements contributed significantly to this process. Additionally, we discuss how the detailed characterization of diet-microbe interactions in human extant relatives sheds light on the evolutionary baseline of modern human disease.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0245941