, reflecting adaptive divergence of microbial functions. Collectively, these findings demonstrated that roundworm gut microbiomes exhibited taxonomic conservation but functional specialization, shaped by the evolutionary history of the parasites themselves. This study established a conceptual framework viewing the parasite as the primary host of its microbiome and provided new insights into the co-evolutionary relationships between helminths and their symbiotic bacteria.
Fan et al. (2026) studied this question.