TY - JOUR
T1 - Friends with social benefits
T2 - Host-microbe interactions as a driver of brain evolution and development?
AU - Stilling, Roman M.
AU - Bordenstein, Seth R.
AU - Dinan, Timothy G.
AU - Cryan, John F.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Stilling, Bordenstein, Dinan and Cryan.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - 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 behaviour. Here 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 behaviour 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.
AB - 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 behaviour. Here 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 behaviour 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.
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U2 - 10.3389/fcimb.2014.00147
DO - 10.3389/fcimb.2014.00147
M3 - Article
C2 - 25401092
AN - SCOPUS:84908210053
SN - 2235-2988
VL - 4
JO - Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
JF - Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
IS - OCT
M1 - 147
ER -