Gut microbiome heritability is nearly universal but environmentally contingent
Date
2021-07Author
Grieneisen, Laura
Dasari, Mauna
Gould, Trevor J
Björk, Johannes R
Grenier, Jean-Christophe
Yotova, Vania
Jansen, David
Gottel, Neil
Gordon, Jacob B
Learn, Niki H
Gesquiere, Laurence R
Wango, Tim L
Mututua, Raphael S
Warutere, J Kinyua
Siodi, Long'ida
Gilbert, Jack A
Barreiro, Luis B
Alberts, Susan C
Tung, Jenny
Archie, Elizabeth A
Blekhman, Ran
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Relatives have more similar gut microbiomes than nonrelatives, but the degree to which this similarity results from shared genotypes versus shared environments has been controversial. Here, we leveraged 16,234 gut microbiome profiles, collected over 14 years from 585 wild baboons, to reveal that host genetic effects on the gut microbiome are nearly universal. Controlling for diet, age, and socioecological variation, 97% of microbiome phenotypes were significantly heritable, including several reported as heritable in humans. Heritability was typically low (mean = 0.068) but was systematically greater in the dry season, with low diet diversity, and in older hosts. We show that longitudinal profiles and large sample sizes are crucial to quantifying microbiome heritability, and indicate scope for selection on microbiome characteristics as a host phenotype.
Citation
Grieneisen L, Dasari M, Gould TJ, Björk JR, Grenier JC, Yotova V, Jansen D, Gottel N, Gordon JB, Learn NH, Gesquiere LR, Wango TL, Mututua RS, Warutere JK, Siodi L, Gilbert JA, Barreiro LB, Alberts SC, Tung J, Archie EA, Blekhman R. Gut microbiome heritability is nearly universal but environmentally contingent. Science. 2021 Jul 9;373(6551):181-186. doi: 10.1126/science.aba5483. PMID: 34244407.Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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