Exploring the Evolution of Critical Windows through Microbiome Succession Across Species: A Meta-Analysis of Temporality in Gut Microbial Composition

Abstract

Species across the tree of life have collections of microbes, their microbiome, living within them and participating in a mutualistic relationship with their host. In humans, it has been found that the gut microbiome has a lower diversity than ancestral human microbiomes because of contemporary ways of life, impacting these mutualistic relationships and exacerbating diseases of aging in the host at advanced ages. The A relatively recent increase in studies on microbiome diversity and composition differences across age groups for many non-human species presents an opportunity to study microbiome development as an indicator for critical windows. This project complies such studies for a meta-analysis of microbiome succession across ages for many species, while studying relationships that exist between species specific characteristics and critical windows in microbiome development. It aims to find trends between species-specific characteristics, and to compare organisms’ suitability as models for microbiome critical window modeling.