[HTML][HTML] Friends with social benefits: host-microbe interactions as a driver of brain evolution and development?
Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology, 2014•frontiersin.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 …
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