Exploring Interactions between the Gut Microbiota and Social Behavior through Nutrition

Cristian Pasquaretta (1) , Tamara Gómez-Moracho , Philipp Heeb (2) , Mathieu Lihoreau (1)

1 CRCA - Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale - UMR5169
2 Unibas - Université de Bâle = University of Basel = Basel Universität

Microbes influence a wide range of host social behaviors and vice versa. So far, however, the mechanisms underpinning these complex interactions remain poorly understood. In social animals, where individuals share microbes and interact around foods, the gut microbiota may have considerable consequences on host social interactions by acting upon the nutritional behavior of individual animals. Here we illustrate how conceptual advances in nutritional ecology can help the study of these processes and allow the formulation of new empirically testable predictions. First, we review key evidence showing that gut microbes influence the nutrition of individual animals, through modifications of their nutritional state and feeding decisions. Next, we describe how these microbial influences and their social consequences can be studied by modelling populations of hosts and their gut microbiota into a single conceptual framework derived from nutritional geometry. Our approach raises new perspectives for the study of holobiont nutrition and will facilitate theoretical and experimental research on the role of the gut microbiota in the mechanisms and evolution of social behavior.

Mots clés: social behavior; gut microbiota; nutrition; nutritional geometry

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Biologie animale; Alimentation et Nutrition; Ecologie, Environnement

Cristian Pasquaretta, Tamara Gómez-Moracho, Philipp Heeb, Mathieu Lihoreau. Exploring Interactions between the Gut Microbiota and Social Behavior through Nutrition. Genes, 2018, 9 (11), pp.534. ⟨10.3390/genes9110534⟩. ⟨hal-02105096⟩