Complex host genetics influence the microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease

Dan Knights, Mark S Silverberg, Rinse K Weersma, Dirk Gevers, Gerard Dijkstra, Hailiang Huang, Andrea D Tyler, Suzanne van Sommeren, Floris Imhann, Joanne M Stempak, Hu Huang, Pajau Vangay, Gabriel A Al-Ghalith, Caitlin Russell, Jenny Sauk, Jo Knight, Mark J Daly, Curtis Huttenhower, Ramnik J Xavier

Human genetics and host-associated microbial communities have been associated independently with a wide range of chronic diseases. One of the strongest associations in each case is inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but disease risk cannot be explained fully by either factor individually. Recent findings point to interactions between host genetics and microbial exposures as important contributors to disease risk in IBD. These include evidence of the partial heritability of the gut microbiota and the conferral of gut mucosal inflammation by microbiome transplant even when the dysbiosis was initially genetically derived. Although there have been several tests for association of individual genetic loci with bacterial taxa, there has been no direct comparison of complex genome-microbiome associations in large cohorts of patients with an immunity-related disease.