遗传力是数量遗传学中衡量性状遗传变异的重要参数之一,对动植物遗传育种、医学和进化生物学均具有重要意义。自1918年Fisher提出方差组分剖分思想后,遗传力的分析模型和估计方法不断迭代更新。近年来,一些研究者在研究肠道微生物与宿主表型关系的热点问题中,引入类似于遗传力的概念和估计方法,系统评估动物机体性状表现受肠道微生物因素的影响程度,本文将这一参数(microbiability,m ²)译为“肠菌力”。文章简要介绍了遗传力估计的发展历程,概述了肠道菌群与宿主基因组的复杂关系,重点阐释了肠菌力的概念和估计方法,以期为肠道微生物组塑造宿主表型变异的研究提供一定的借鉴和参考。

Heritability, one of the central quantitative genetic parameters, is critically important to measure the genetic variation of traits, especially in the studies of the response to selection in evolutionary biology and agriculture, and the prediction of disease risks in medicine. The statistical model and method for estimating heritability have been continually developed and improved, since the genetic variance components was first proposed by Fisher in 1918. Recently, the term “microbiability” (m ²), an analogous concept and estimated method to heritability, was introduced in gut microbiome research for evaluating the effect of entire microbiota on a host phenotype. In this review, we summarize the progress of statistical methods in the heritability estimation, as well as the current state of gut microbiome associations with the host genome, with a particular focus on the concept and estimated methods of microbiability. Our review will provide a reference for the future study of host phenotypic variation that can be inferred by the gut microbiota.