We've long known that hosts malfunction without their microbiome—whether they are missing key microbial species or are completely microbe free. This malfunctioning is usually explained by the need for microbes to perform unique and beneficial functions, but evolutionary ecologist Tobin Hammer of the University of California, Irvine, is questioning that narrative.
might not actually be helping their hosts; instead, microbe-free hosts might malfunction because they have evolved an addiction to their microbes. In this case, hosts are dependent on the microbes to function, but the microbes don't actually provide any benefits in return.
"I need coffee to perform basic functions, but I do not perform them any better now than before the addiction began; I need coffee just to get back to normal," writes Hammer."The same process can occur with host-microbe symbioses: a dependence evolves without an improvement in functionality." "By largely ignoring evolutionary addiction, the microbiome field has missed a plausible and likely common evolutionary explanation for microbially dependent host traits," writes Hammer."Theis a complex, internally interconnected system, and the absence of a microbe that has been integrated into it, like a cog in a machine, will cause components to malfunction."
One such example of evolutionary addiction is the wasp Asobara tabida, which is chronically infected with the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia and requires the bacteria in order to produce eggs. Other Asobara species that are not chronically infected with Wolbachia do not need the bacteria to produce eggs, and A. tabida does not have an improved ability to produce eggs because of Wolbachia; having the bacteria simply brings it back to baseline functionality.
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