Interspecies variation in hominid gut microbiota controls host gene regulation

The gut microbiome exhibits extreme compositional variation between hominid hosts. However, it is unclear how this variation impacts host physiology, and whether this effect can be mediated through microbial regulation of host gene expression in interacting epithelial cells. Here, we characterized the transcriptional response of colonic epithelial cells in vitro to live microbial communities extracted from humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.