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The Evolution Of Host Specialization In The Vertebrate Gut Symbiont Lactobacillus Reuteri, Steven A. Frese, Andrew K. Benson, Gerald W. Tannock, Diane M. Loach, Jaehyoung Kim, Min Zhang, Phaik Lyn Oh, Nicholas C. K. Heng, Prabhu B. Patil, Nathalie Juge, Donald A. Mackenzie, Bruce M. Pearson, Alla Lapidus, Eileen Dalin, Hope Tice, Eugene Goltsman, Miriam Land, Loren Hauser, Natalia Ivanova, Nikos C. Kyrpides, Jens Walter

Jens Walter Publications

Recent research has provided mechanistic insight into the important contributions of the gut microbiota to vertebrate biology, but questions remain about the evolutionary processes that have shaped this symbiosis. In the present study, we showed in experiments with gnotobiotic mice that the evolution of Lactobacillus reuteri with rodents resulted in the emergence of host specialization. To identify genomic events marking adaptations to the murine host, we compared the genome of the rodent isolate L. reuteri 100-23 with that of the human isolate L. reuteri F275, and we identified hundreds of genes that were specific to each strain. In order to …