美国明尼苏达大学Ran Blekhman等研究人员合作发现，肠道微生物组的遗传力几乎是普遍的，但与环境有关。这一研究成果于2021年7月9日发表在国际学术期刊《科学》上。

利用14年来从585只野生狒狒中收集的16,234个肠道微生物组图谱，研究人员发现，宿主遗传对肠道微生物组的影响几乎是普遍的。在控制饮食、年龄和社会生态变异之后，97%的微生物组表型具有显著遗传性，包括一些在人类中报道为可遗传的。遗传力通常较低（平均值=0.068），但在旱季、饮食多样性低和年龄较大的宿主中系统性地更高。

这项研究表明，纵向剖面和大样本量对于量化微生物组遗传力至关重要，并提示了选择微生物组特征作为宿主表型的范围。

据悉，亲属比非亲属拥有更多相似的肠道微生物组，但这种相似性由共享基因型与共享环境导致的程度一直存在争议。

附：英文原文

Title: Gut microbiome heritability is nearly universal but environmentally contingent

Author: Laura Grieneisen, Mauna Dasari, Trevor J. Gould, Johannes R. Bjrk, Jean-Christophe Grenier, Vania Yotova, David Jansen, Neil Gottel, Jacob B. Gordon, Niki H. Learn, Laurence R. Gesquiere, Tim L. Wango, Raphael S. Mututua, J. Kinyua Warutere, Long’ida Siodi, Jack A. Gilbert, Luis B. Barreiro, Susan C. Alberts, Jenny Tung, Elizabeth A. Archie, Ran Blekhman

Issue&Volume: 2021/07/09

Abstract: Relatives have more similar gut microbiomes than nonrelatives, but the degree to which this similarity results from shared genotypes versus shared environments has been controversial. Here, we leveraged 16,234 gut microbiome profiles, collected over 14 years from 585 wild baboons, to reveal that host genetic effects on the gut microbiome are nearly universal. Controlling for diet, age, and socioecological variation, 97% of microbiome phenotypes were significantly heritable, including several reported as heritable in humans. Heritability was typically low (mean = 0.068) but was systematically greater in the dry season, with low diet diversity, and in older hosts. We show that longitudinal profiles and large sample sizes are crucial to quantifying microbiome heritability, and indicate scope for selection on microbiome characteristics as a host phenotype.

DOI: 10.1126/science.aba5483

Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/373/6551/181