Animals in a bacterial world, a new imperative for the life sciences

In the last two decades, the widespread application of genetic and genomic approaches has revealed a bacterial world astonishing in its ubiquity and diversity. This review examines how a growing knowledge of the vast range of animal-bacterial interactions, whether in shared ecosystems or intimate symbioses, is fundamentally altering our understanding of animal biology. Specifically, we highlight recent technological and intellectual advances that have changed our thinking about five questions: how have bacteria facilitated the origin and evolution of animals; how do animals and bacteria affect each other's genomes; how does normal animal development depend on bacterial partners; how is homeostasis maintained…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: EF-0905606, 0905606
• GA
  Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
• JS
  John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
• CI
  California Institute of Technology
• NE
  National Evolutionary Synthesis Center

  Awards: 0905606, EF-0905606