Impact of host genetics on gut microbiome: Take‐home lessons from human and mouse studies

Abstract

The intestinal microbiome has emerged as an important component involved in various diseases. Therefore, the interest in understanding the factors shaping its composition is growing. The gut microbiome, often defined as a complex trait, contains diverse components and its properties are determined by a combination of external and internal effects. Although much effort has been invested so far, it is still difficult to evaluate the extent to which human genetics shape the composition of the gut microbiota. However, in mouse studies, where the environmental factors are better controlled, the effect of the genetic background was significant. The purpose of this paper is to provide a current assessment of the role of human host genetics in shaping the gut microbiome composition. Despite the inconsistency of the reported results, it can be estimated that the genetic factor affects a portion of the microbiome. However, this effect is currently lower than the initial estimates, and it is difficult to separate the genetic influence from the environmental effect. Additionally, despite the differences between the microbial composition of humans and mice, results from mouse models can strengthen our knowledge of host genetics underlying the human gut microbial variation.

Use of Bayes factors to evaluate the effects of host genetics, litter and cage on the rabbit cecal microbiota

“…In addition to these environmental factors, host genetics could also play an important role. Several studies in humans [ 9 , 10 ], cattle [ 11 – 15 ], pigs [ 16 – 19 ], and mice [ 20 ] have investigated the role of the host genetics on gut microbiota and have reported moderate heritabilities for certain microbial taxa and diversity indices. Thus, there is growing interest in investigating the interplay between the host genetics and the gut microbiota and its impact on many complex traits, such as human diseases, feed efficiency, or methane emissions in cattle.…”

Ethnic Specificity of Species and Strain Composition of Lactobacillus Populations From Mother–Infant Pairs, Uncovered by Multilocus Sequence Typing

“…Clearly, the human–microbe symbiosis is based on the reciprocity of nutrient metabolism of carbohydrate in the daily diet ( Colman et al, 2012 ; Rook et al, 2017 ; Brinker et al, 2019 ). Human and model animal studies have shown the role of host genetics in shaping both the overall microbiome composition and the individual bacterial taxa ( Cahana and Iraqi, 2020 ). Based on the above two points, human diet and genetics are likely to exert host selectivity on the gut microbiome composition from the community to species level and even strain level.…”

Host Genetics and Gut Microbiome: Perspectives for Multiple Sclerosis

“…However, other studies in humans provide evidence for the dominant role of the environment in shaping the gut microbiome, while host genetics plays a negligible role. Although much effort has been invested, a clear trend indicating a role of the host genetics in the gut microbiome has not been identified, probably due to inconsistencies and unevenness between the studies' results, low sample sizes and environmental factors [128].…”