Can the microbiome influence host evolutionary trajectories?

AbstractThe microbiome shapes many traits in hosts, but we still do not understand how it influences host evolution. To impact host evolution, the microbiome must be heritable and have phenotypic effects on the host. However, the complex inheritance and context-dependence of the microbiome challenges traditional models of organismal evolution. Here, we take a multifaceted approach to identify conditions in which the microbiome influences host evolutionary trajectories. We explore quantitative genetic models to highlight how microbial inheritance and phenotypic effects can modulate host evolutionary responses to selection. We synthesize the literature across diverse taxa to find common scenarios of microbiome driven host evolution. First, hosts may leverage locally adapted microbes, increasing survivorship in stressful environments. Second, microbial variation may increase host phenotypic variation, enabling exploration of novel fitness landscapes. We further illustrate these effects by performing a meta-analysis of artificial selection in Drosophila, finding that bacterial diversity also frequently responds to host selection. We conclude by outlining key avenues of research and experimental procedures to improve our understanding of the complex interplay between hosts and microbiomes. By synthesizing perspectives through multiple conceptual and analytical approaches, we show how microbiomes can influence the evolutionary trajectories of hosts.