[HTML][HTML] Friends with social benefits: host-microbe interactions as a driver of brain evolution and development?

RM Stilling, SR Bordenstein, TG Dinan… - Frontiers in cellular and …, 2014 - frontiersin.org
Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology, 2014frontiersin.org
The tight association of the human body with trillions of colonizing microbes that we observe
today is the result of a long evolutionary history. Only very recently have we started to
understand how this symbiosis also affects brain function and behavior. In this hypothesis
and theory article, we propose how host-microbe associations potentially influenced
mammalian brain evolution and development. In particular, we explore the integration of
human brain development with evolution, symbiosis, and RNA biology, which together …
The tight association of the human body with trillions of colonizing microbes that we observe today is the result of a long evolutionary history. Only very recently have we started to understand how this symbiosis also affects brain function and behavior. In this hypothesis and theory article, we propose how host-microbe associations potentially influenced mammalian brain evolution and development. In particular, we explore the integration of human brain development with evolution, symbiosis, and RNA biology, which together represent a “social triangle” that drives human social behavior and cognition. We argue that, in order to understand how inter-kingdom communication can affect brain adaptation and plasticity, it is inevitable to consider epigenetic mechanisms as important mediators of genome-microbiome interactions on an individual as well as a transgenerational time scale. Finally, we unite these interpretations with the hologenome theory of evolution. Taken together, we propose a tighter integration of neuroscience fields with host-associated microbiology by taking an evolutionary perspective.
Frontiers