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Tending a complex microbiota requires major immune complexity
Author(s) -
Stagaman Keaton,
Guillemin Karen,
MilliganMyhre Kathryn
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1111/mec.12895
Subject(s) - biology , stickleback , gasterosteus , major histocompatibility complex , gut flora , ecology , evolutionary biology , immune system , zoology , genetics , fish <actinopterygii> , immunology , fishery
Animals maintain complex microbial communities within their guts that fill important roles in the health and development of the host. To what degree a host's genetic background influences the establishment and maintenance of its gut microbial communities is still an open question. We know from studies in mice and humans that external factors, such as diet and environmental sources of microbes, and host immune factors play an important role in shaping the microbial communities (Costello et al . [Costello EK, 2012]). In this issue of Molecular Ecology , Bolnick et al . (2014a) sample the gut microbial community from 150 genetically diverse stickleback isolated from a single lake to provide evidence that another part of the adaptive immune response, the major histocompatibility complex class II ( MHCII ) receptors of antigen‐presenting cells, may play a role in shaping the gut microbiota of the threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus (Bolnick et al . 2014a). Bolnick et al . (2014a) provide insight into natural, interindividual variation in the diversity of both stickleback MHCII alleles and their gut microbial communities and correlate changes in the diversity of MHCII receptor alleles with changes in the microbiota.