Evolutionary “Experiments” in Symbiosis: The Study of Model Animals Provides Insights into the Mechanisms Underlying the Diversity of Host–Microbe Interactions

• Published in: BioEssays Vol. 41; no. 10; pp. e1800256 - n/a
• Main Authors: Bosch, Thomas C. G., Guillemin, Karen, McFall‐Ngai, Margaret
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.10.2019
• Subjects: Animal species; Animals; Bacteria; Biodiversity; Biological Evolution; Disease Models, Animal; diseases; dysbiosis; evolution; Experimental research; health; holobiont; Host Microbial Interactions; microbiome; Microbiota; Microorganisms; Organisms; Symbiosis; holobiont; symbiosis; diseases; health; evolution; microbiome; dysbiosis
• ISSN: 0265-9247; 1521-1878; 1521-1878
• DOI: 10.1002/bies.201800256

Current work in experimental biology revolves around a handful of animal species. Studying only a few organisms limits science to the answers that those organisms can provide. Nature has given us an overwhelming diversity of animals to study, and recent technological advances have greatly accelerated the ability to generate genetic and genomic tools to develop model organisms for research on host–microbe interactions. With the help of such models the authors therefore hope to construct a more complete picture of the mechanisms that underlie crucial interactions in a given metaorganism (entity consisting of a eukaryotic host with all its associated microbial partners). As reviewed here, new knowledge of the diversity of host–microbe interactions found across the animal kingdom will provide new insights into how animals develop, evolve, and succumb to the disease. Nature has given us an overwhelming diversity of animals to study host–microbe interactions. With the help of such models the authors hope to construct a more complete picture of how animals develop, evolve, and succumb to the disease.