Caenorhabditis elegans co-culture with native microbiome Raw sequence reads

Host genetic landscapes shape microbiome acquisition in the animal gut. To identify specific signaling pathways involved, we employed Caenorhabditis elegans and its native microbiome to model these host-microbiome relationships. We tested this by exposing a diverse panel of 38 C. elegans wild strains to the same model microbiome (BIGbiome) to examine natural variation in microbiome acquisition. C. elegans appears to regulate its microbiome by deterministically selecting the microbes that colonize the gut and/or their levels within the gut, which can impact its overall physiology. Our study illustrates how host genetic variation contributes to distinct gut types in C. elegans, and establishes a platform for comprehensive identification of the determinants of host microbiome management.