Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Science. 2018 Oct 26;362(6413):453-457. doi: 10.1126/science.aat7164.
Mammals house a diversity of bacteria that affect health in various ways, but the routes by which bacterial lineages are transmitted between hosts remain poorly understood. We experimentally determined microbiota transmission modes by deriving 17 inbred mouse lines from two wild populations and monitoring their gut microbiotas for up to 11 host generations. Individual- and population-level microbiota compositions were maintained within mouse lines throughout the experiment, indicating predominantly vertical inheritance of the microbiota. However, certain bacterial taxa tended to be exchanged horizontally between mouse lines. Consistent with evolutionary theory, the degree of horizontal transmission predicted bacterial genera with pathogenic representatives responsible for human infections and hospitalizations.
哺乳动物体内存在着多种多样的细菌，这些细菌以各种方式影响着宿主的健康，但细菌谱系在宿主之间传播的途径仍知之甚少。我们通过从两个野生种群中衍生出 17 条近交系小鼠，并监测其肠道微生物群长达 11 个宿主世代，从而确定了微生物组的传播模式。在整个实验过程中，小鼠品系内的个体和种群水平的微生物组组成得以维持，表明微生物组主要通过垂直遗传。然而，某些细菌类群往往在小鼠品系之间进行水平交换。与进化理论一致的是，水平传播的程度预测了具有致病性代表的细菌属，这些细菌属会导致人类感染和住院。
