1) The adaptive significance of gut microbial oscillations
In which evolutionary contexts do we expect the evolution of gut
microbial oscillations, and when would we expect food intake and the gut
microbiome to entrain host immunity? Based on f from murine models, one
predicts that food intake, metabolic requirement, and pathogen exposure
are synchronised to peak at the start of the active phase (i.e., at dusk
for mice). Such correlation between feeding, metabolic and immune
requirements is expected to be the norm, given that feeding introduces
both nutrients and pathogens to the gut. Hence, hosts appear to have
co-opted the gut microbiota to mediate both metabolic and innate immune
function simultaneously.