Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom;
Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Feb 9;118(6). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2016046118.
Through the secretion of "public goods" molecules, microbes cooperatively exploit their habitat. This is known as a major driver of the functioning of microbial communities, including in human disease. Understanding why microbial species cooperate is therefore crucial to achieve successful microbial community management, such as microbiome manipulation. A leading explanation is that of Hamilton's inclusive-fitness framework. A cooperator can indirectly transmit its genes by helping the reproduction of an individual carrying similar genes. Therefore, all else being equal, as relatedness among individuals increases, so should cooperation. However, the predictive power of relatedness, particularly in microbes, is surrounded by controversy. Using phylogenetic comparative analyses across the full diversity of the human gut microbiota and six forms of cooperation, we find that relatedness is predictive of the cooperative gene content evolution in gut-microbe genomes. Hence, relatedness is predictive of cooperation over broad microbial taxonomic levels that encompass variation in other life-history and ecology details. This supports the generality of Hamilton's central insights and the relevance of relatedness as a key parameter of interest to advance microbial predictive and engineering science.
通过分泌“公共物品”分子，微生物合作利用其栖息地。这是微生物群落（包括人类疾病中的微生物群落）运作的主要驱动因素之一。因此，了解微生物物种为什么会合作对于成功的微生物群落管理（如微生物组操作）至关重要。一种主要的解释是汉密尔顿的包容性适合度框架。通过帮助携带相似基因的个体繁殖，合作者可以间接地传播其基因。因此，在其他条件相同的情况下，随着个体之间相关性的增加，合作也应该增加。然而，相关性的预测能力，特别是在微生物中，存在争议。我们通过对人类肠道微生物组的全部多样性和六种合作形式进行系统发育比较分析，发现相关性可以预测肠道微生物基因组中合作基因含量的进化。因此，相关性可以预测广泛的微生物分类水平上的合作，包括其他生活史和生态学细节的变化。这支持了汉密尔顿核心观点的普遍性，以及相关性作为一个关键参数的相关性，这对于推进微生物预测和工程科学很重要。
