缺失的节俭：宿主与微生物共同进化及其对人类健康的影响

Host-microbial coevolution and its influence on human health Taichi A. Suzuki Human health and disease are deeply shaped by evolutionary history. In 1962, James Neel proposed the “thrifty gene hypothesis” to explain the rising prevalence of metabolic diseases (1). He argued that genetic variants that favor energy efficiency were adaptive during famines but became maladaptive in modern environments with abundant calories. The hypothesis has provided a powerful, albeit debated, framework for understanding the evolutionary roots of metabolic disease. Although the search for thrifty host alleles has yielded complex results, I propose that the “missing thriftiness” may reside in our second genome: the microbiome. The host-associated microbial community plays an important role in host metabolism, immunity, and behavior (2, 3). …