Ecophysiology
Elaborate studies of symbiotic microbiomes and their hosts across a wide variety of animal taxa led to the hypothesis that animals cannot be viewed separately from their associated microbiomes. As such, the animal-microbiome meta-organism is proposed to be the object of natural selection. This perspective implies that without a thorough understanding of host-microbiome interactions, we cannot study host ecology and evolution. The gut microbiome is one of the best studied host microbiomes, and is also one of the largest communities of resident symbiotic microorganisms, both in diversity and mass. Gut microbes provide essential functions to their hosts, such as supporting nutrition, and maintaining immune function and metabolic systems. But gut microbes seem also able to influence the behaviour of their host. Gut microbes are not only important to adult hosts, they are also crucial for a proper development of young animals because bacterial products are essential for the development of the immune system, organs, social behaviour, cognition, and metabolic stimulation.
We investigate on how symbiotic microbe communities impact the ecology and life history of their hosts, with a focus on the gut microbes of birds. Current topics are the development of the gut microbiome in young birds, gut microbiome-mediated seasonal adaptations in hosts, and the microbiome-mediated functions of the preen gland.
Last modified: | 20 February 2023 1.07 p.m. |