From: hounddog23x@gmail.com   
      
   		   
   Did Our Microbiome Choose Our Spouse?   
   New research suggest microorganisms in and on our body might have had more   
   influence on selecting our spouse than we realized. True love chemistry!   
      
   BY WILLIAM B. MILLER, JR. M.D.   
      
      
   What nudges two people together might literally be the chemistry they have   
   together.   
      
   " It is becoming increasingly apparent that our microbiome has a tremendous   
   influence upon us."   
   What determines the chemistry between you and your spouse? Who has not said,   
   "They have good chemistry together?" We hear it so often that it seems trite.   
   Typically, we direct that remark towards a couple that looks mismatched to our   
   judgment. We ask    
   ourselves, "What do they see in each other?" Our usual answer is that their   
   chemistry is just right. This is often our only way of reconciling the force   
   of attraction between these two.   
      
   However, what if the concept of chemical attraction has a direct biological   
   basis? New research is revealing that it does and many of those reasons had   
   not been previously expected or explored. It is becoming increasingly apparent   
   that our microbiome has    
   a tremendous influence upon us.   
      
   The microbiome represents all the microorganisms that are in us and on us. The   
   combination of that microbial life and our innate cells is now called the   
   hologenome. Astoundingly, these are so numerous that they outnumber our own   
   innate cells by a factor    
   of 10 to one or more. The current estimate is that we harbor 100 trillion   
   cells that we would not think of as our own. Importantly, our relationship   
   with our microbial companions is essential to our wellbeing. Their influence   
   is a crucial element of    
   metabolic pathways. They are critical participants in glucose regulation, the   
   mediation of our immune systems, and even partially regulate our emotional   
   responses to stress. Our relationship with these obligatory microbial partners   
   is intimate. We cannot    
   survive without them and they cannot exist as they prefer without us. It   
   should not be totally surprising then that they can affect our social choices   
   and even our love for our significant other.   
      
   How could germs influence our sexual choices? Those factors had remained   
   hidden from our appraisal until recently. We simply did not have the   
   technological means to assess it. Now we do, and current research has found   
   that the amount of microbial life in    
   our mouths is startling and the transfer between kissing partners is   
   extensive. However, the particular surprise is that although frequent intimate   
   kissing between partners does correspond to the composition of the microbes   
   that are shared between each,    
   there is more afoot. It seems there is a shared linkage in microbial   
   composition between the mouths of sexual partners that operates regardless of   
   kissing frequency.   
      
   The implication is that there is a background connection with the microbial   
   realm that might influence our initial choices of sexual partners. For   
   example, the microbiota on the back of the tongue is more similar between   
   kissing partners than unrelated    
   individuals, but that identity does not clearly correlate to any kissing   
   behavior or frequency. Nor does it appear to be due to specifically shared   
   environmental factors. Something extends beyond that. Could it mean that we   
   are attracted to one another    
   on the basis of forces that are unapparent to our typical senses?   
      
   "Experiments have shown we are unconsciously attracted to other partners whose   
   immunological background is complementary to our own."   
      
   There is other evidence to suggest that this the case and that it is based on   
   our immunological status. We depend on that for our survival. So it should not   
   be shocking that our immunological status might affect our choice of mates. We   
   all exist on a    
   planet also inhabited by aggressive microorganisms. How might any organism   
   cope? Our evolutionary path, and that of all other complex organisms includes   
   mechanisms directed towards protecting our offspring as much as possible. This   
   imperative    
   significantly governs how we select mates. As part of this process, we each   
   have a group of genes that is crucial to immunological defenses.   
      
   Experiments have shown we are unconsciously attracted to other partners whose   
   immunological background is complementary to our own. In order to best protect   
   our children against an intrusive and agitating microbial realm, we tend to   
   seek to mate with    
   those that differ from ourselves on an immunological basis. Although this may   
   seem odd on first consideration, it actually makes sense from an evolutionary   
   perspective. The combination of immunological capacities of healthy mates that   
   differ confers    
   better protection to the next generation. There are research studies that   
   reinforce this finding.   
      
   Experiments have demonstrated that sexual partners are attracted to certain   
   body odors. For human odors, microbes matter. However, in a crucial   
   evolutionary twist, that odor attraction is not for similarity, but for   
   opposite types. In the aggregate as a    
   species, we seem to search for other sexual partners that are not our match   
   immunologically.   
      
   What might underlie this instinct? The answer lies within both our own   
   personal genes and our particular microbial complement. On an evolutionary   
   basis, our species is best protected by the mixing of opposing genes and   
   microbes. Successful mating    
   proceeds for many reasons, but there is an important one that has been   
   previously obscure. That additional reason is our critical association with a   
   vast microbial partnership that is crucial to our immunological balance. When   
   contrasting individuals    
   both mix genes and share microbes, the next generation gets a boost.   
      
   Even more astoundingly, the influence of the microbial sphere extends well   
   beyond these factors. Research has demonstrated that infection with certain   
   parasites can overtly guide sexual choice. Such an example is a parasite   
   called Toxoplasmosis. Cats    
   serve as an intermediate host but it also frequently infects humans.   
   Surprisingly, this common parasite has been shown to affect human behavior,   
   physiology and even our physical appearance. As strange as it may seem, in   
   carefully controlled experiments,    
   human females perceive infected males as more dominant and more masculine than   
   uninfected males.   
      
      
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