Animal development in a microbial world

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Abstract
Advances in molecular biology over the last decade have enabled researchers to identify and characterize microbial partners that live in association with animals. These data have indicated that symbiosis is the rule rather than the exception among animals and that interactions with microbes are essential for animal health. This chapter focuses on what we have learned about how such associations influence animal developmental programs. The chapter first considers the‘fingerprin’ of evolutionary circumstances on development of particular animal features. Specifically, the selective forces that have shaped the development of form and function of the immune and digestive systems over evolutionary history are likely to have been strongly influenced by the radiation of animal phyla in the microbe-rich marine environment. The subsequent sections of the chapter consider what biologists have learned and are learning about how microbes influence each stage of development, from the egg through maturation to the adult animal. Particular emphasis is placed on recent findings on the impact of symbiosis on gut development, immunology, brain development, and normal behaviour of the animal host.