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Illustration of mice, humans, and flies and their gut microbiota
Infographic: Microbiome-Driven Adaptations in Animals
Researchers are using experiments and observational studies to look for host genetic variation that could be partly determined by the gut microbiota.
Infographic: Microbiome-Driven Adaptations in Animals
Infographic: Microbiome-Driven Adaptations in Animals

Researchers are using experiments and observational studies to look for host genetic variation that could be partly determined by the gut microbiota.

Researchers are using experiments and observational studies to look for host genetic variation that could be partly determined by the gut microbiota.

evolution, evolutionary biology, microbiology

An illustration of green bacteria floating above neutral-colored intestinal villi
The Inside Guide: The Gut Microbiome’s Role in Host Evolution
Catherine Offord | Jul 1, 2021 | 10+ min read
Bacteria that live in the digestive tracts of animals may influence the adaptive trajectories of their hosts.
Contributors
The Scientist | Jun 1, 2020 | 3 min read
Meet some of the people featured in the June 2020 issue of The Scientist.
shinkai submersible
Elusive Asgard Archaea Finally Cultured in Lab
Nicoletta Lanese | Aug 12, 2019 | 3 min read
The 12-year-long endeavor reveals Prometheoarchaeum as a tentacled cell, living in a symbiotic relationship with methane-producing microbes.
critic at large march 2019 the scientist
Opinion: Individuals Are Greater Than the Sum of Their Parts
Itzhak Mizrahi and Fotini Kokou | Mar 1, 2019 | 2 min read
The study of evolution requires consideration of organisms’ microbiomes.
Hot Off the Presses
Bob Grant | Jul 1, 2016 | 3 min read
The Scientist reviews Serendipity, Complexity, The Human Superorgasism, and Love and Ruin
Similar Data, Different Conclusions
Ashley P. Taylor | Feb 23, 2016 | 6 min read
By tweaking certain conditions of a long-running experiment on E. coli, scientists found that some bacteria could be prompted to express a mutant phenotype sooner, without the “generation of new genetic information.” The resulting debate—whether the data support evolutionary theory—is more about semantics than science.
Week in Review: March 3–7
Tracy Vence | Mar 7, 2014 | 3 min read
The gene behind a butterfly’s mimicry; the evolution of adipose fins; bacteria and bowel cancer; plants lacking plastid genomes
Crowd Control
Cristina Luiggi | Jul 1, 2013 | 10+ min read
Molecules, cells, or vertebrates—when individuals move and act as a single unit, surprisingly complex behaviors arise that hint at the origins of multicellularity.
Opinion: One Microbe’s 15 Minutes
David Smith | Jul 3, 2012 | 3 min read
The recently hyped amoeba-flagellate Collodictyon has many secrets to tell about early eukaryotic evolution.
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