Jillian Waters

Abstract Natural selection acts on phenotypic variation, which is influenced by genetic and environmental factors including the microbiome. Whether microbiome-mediated host phenotypes can be selected and transmitted remains untested in vertebrates. Here, we first identified locomotor activity as a trait transmissible through the gut microbiome in mice. We then performed a selection experiment, where we serially transferred microbiomes from low-activity mice to independently bred germ-free mice.

Research Article | Host-Microbe Biology Albane Ruaud, Sofia Esquivel-Elizondo, Jacobo de la Cuesta-Zuluaga, Jillian L. Waters, Largus T. Angenent, Nicholas D. Youngblut, Ruth E. Ley Martin J.

Abstract The Christensenellaceae, a recently described family in the phylum Firmicutes, is emerging as an important player in human health. The relative abundance of Christensenellaceae in the human gut is inversely related to host body mass index (BMI) in different populations and multiple studies, making its relationship with BMI the most robust and reproducible link between the microbial ecology of the human gut and metabolic disease reported to date.