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A holobiont birth narrative: the epigenetic transmission of the human microbiome
This essay plans to explore, expand, and re-tell the human birth narrative. Usually, human birth narratives focus on the origins of a new individual, focusing on the mother and fetus. This essay discusses birth as the origin of a new community. For not only is the eukaryotic body being reproduced, b...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2014
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4137224/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25191338 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2014.00282 |
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author | Gilbert, Scott F. |
author_facet | Gilbert, Scott F. |
author_sort | Gilbert, Scott F. |
collection | PubMed |
description | This essay plans to explore, expand, and re-tell the human birth narrative. Usually, human birth narratives focus on the origins of a new individual, focusing on the mother and fetus. This essay discusses birth as the origin of a new community. For not only is the eukaryotic body being reproduced, but so also are the bodies of its symbiotic microbes and so is the set of relationships between these organic components. Several parts of the new narrative are surprising: (1) bacterial symbionts might cause some of the characteristics of pregnancy and prepare a symbiotic community for transfer; (2) the first bacterial colonizers of the mammalian organism my enter the fetus prior to the lysing of the amniotic membrane and birth; (3) the same signals that often cause immunological attack against a microbe may serve under these conditions to signal homeostatic stability between symbiont and host; and (4) the mother may actively provide substances that promote the growth and settlement of helpful bacteria. The birth of the holobiont exemplifies principles of co-evolution, co-development, niche construction, and scaffolding. Birth is nothing less than the passage from one set of symbiotic relationships to another. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4137224 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-41372242014-09-04 A holobiont birth narrative: the epigenetic transmission of the human microbiome Gilbert, Scott F. Front Genet Genetics This essay plans to explore, expand, and re-tell the human birth narrative. Usually, human birth narratives focus on the origins of a new individual, focusing on the mother and fetus. This essay discusses birth as the origin of a new community. For not only is the eukaryotic body being reproduced, but so also are the bodies of its symbiotic microbes and so is the set of relationships between these organic components. Several parts of the new narrative are surprising: (1) bacterial symbionts might cause some of the characteristics of pregnancy and prepare a symbiotic community for transfer; (2) the first bacterial colonizers of the mammalian organism my enter the fetus prior to the lysing of the amniotic membrane and birth; (3) the same signals that often cause immunological attack against a microbe may serve under these conditions to signal homeostatic stability between symbiont and host; and (4) the mother may actively provide substances that promote the growth and settlement of helpful bacteria. The birth of the holobiont exemplifies principles of co-evolution, co-development, niche construction, and scaffolding. Birth is nothing less than the passage from one set of symbiotic relationships to another. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-08-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4137224/ /pubmed/25191338 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2014.00282 Text en Copyright © 2014 Gilbert. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Genetics Gilbert, Scott F. A holobiont birth narrative: the epigenetic transmission of the human microbiome |
title | A holobiont birth narrative: the epigenetic transmission of the human microbiome |
title_full | A holobiont birth narrative: the epigenetic transmission of the human microbiome |
title_fullStr | A holobiont birth narrative: the epigenetic transmission of the human microbiome |
title_full_unstemmed | A holobiont birth narrative: the epigenetic transmission of the human microbiome |
title_short | A holobiont birth narrative: the epigenetic transmission of the human microbiome |
title_sort | holobiont birth narrative: the epigenetic transmission of the human microbiome |
topic | Genetics |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4137224/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25191338 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2014.00282 |
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