The social microbiome: the missing mechanism mediating the sociality-fitness nexus?

In many social mammals, early social life and social integration in adulthood largely predict individual health, lifespan and reproductive success. So far, research has mainly focused on chronic stress as the physiological mediator between social environment and fitness. Here, we propose an alternative, non-exclusive mechanism relying on microbially-mediated effects: social relationships with conspecifics in early life and adulthood might strongly contribute to diversifying host microbiomes and to the transmission of beneficial microbes. In turn, more diverse and valuable microbiomes would promote pathogen resistance and optimal health and translate into lifelong fitness benefits. This mechanism relies on recent findings showing that microbiomes are largely transmitted via social routes and play a pervasive role in host development, physiology and susceptibility to pathogens. We suggest that the social transmission of microbes could explain the sociality-fitness nexus to a similar or higher extent than chronic social stress and deserves empirical studies in social mammals.