Analysis of intestinal microbiota in hybrid house mice reveals evolutionary divergence in a vertebrate hologenome

Jun Wang, Shirin Kalyan, Natalie Steck, Leslie M. Turner, Bettina Harr, Sven Künzel, Marie Vallier, Robert Häsler, Andre Franke, Hans-Heinrich Oberg, Saleh M. Ibrahim, Guntram A. Grassl, Dieter Kabelitz and John F. Baines ()
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Jun Wang: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
Shirin Kalyan: Institute of Immunology, Christian-Albrechts University Kiel
Natalie Steck: Institute for Experimental Medicine, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel
Leslie M. Turner: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
Bettina Harr: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
Sven Künzel: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
Marie Vallier: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
Robert Häsler: Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel
Andre Franke: Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel
Hans-Heinrich Oberg: Institute of Immunology, Christian-Albrechts University Kiel
Saleh M. Ibrahim: University of Lübeck
Guntram A. Grassl: Institute for Experimental Medicine, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel
Dieter Kabelitz: Institute of Immunology, Christian-Albrechts University Kiel
John F. Baines: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Recent evidence suggests that natural selection operating on hosts to maintain their microbiome contributes to the emergence of new species, that is, the ‘hologenomic basis of speciation’. Here we analyse the gut microbiota of two house mice subspecies, Mus musculus musculus and M. m. domesticus, across their Central European hybrid zone, in addition to hybrids generated in the lab. Hybrid mice display widespread transgressive phenotypes (that is, exceed or fall short of parental values) in a variety of measures of bacterial community structure, which reveals the importance of stabilizing selection operating on the intestinal microbiome within species. Further genetic and immunological analyses reveal genetic incompatibilities, aberrant immune gene expression and increased intestinal pathology associated with altered community structure among hybrids. These results provide unique insight into the consequences of evolutionary divergence in a vertebrate ‘hologenome’, which may be an unrecognized contributing factor to reproductive isolation in this taxonomic group.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7440

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