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Abstract:
The gut microbiomes of human populations worldwide have many core microbial species in common. However, within a species, some strains can show remarkable population specificity. The question is whether such specificity arises from a shared evolutionary history (codiversification) between humans and their microbes. I will present data indicating a parallel evolutionary history for humans and their gut microbes. As expected from evolution of symbiosis, species displaying the strongest codiversification independently evolved traits characteristic of host dependency, including reduced genomes, and oxygen and temperature sensitivity. Delving deeper into host-microbial interactions, I will present our recent work showing how some of these codiversified bacteria evade immune recognition.
