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Rivera DS, Beltrán V, Gutiérrez-Cortés I, Vargas C, Alfaro FD. Insights into the Gut Microbiome of the South American Leaf-Toed Gecko ( Phylodactylus gerropygus) Inhabiting the Core of the Atacama Desert. Microorganisms 2024; 12:1194. [PMID: 38930576 PMCID: PMC11205927 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms12061194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2024] [Revised: 05/05/2024] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Living in arid environments presents unique challenges to organisms, including limited food and water, extreme temperatures, and UV exposure. Reptiles, such as the South American leaf-toed gecko (Phyllodactylus gerrhopygus), have evolved remarkable adaptations to thrive in such harsh conditions. The gut microbiome plays a critical role in host adaptation and health, yet its composition remains poorly characterized in desert reptiles. This study aimed to characterize the composition and abundance of the gut microbiome in P. gerrhopygus inhabiting the hyperarid Atacama Desert, taking into account potential sex differences. Fecal samples from adult female and male geckos were analyzed by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. No significant differences in bacterial alpha diversity were observed between the sexes. However, the phylum Bacteroidota was more abundant in females, while males had a higher Firmicutes/Bacteroidota ratio. The core microbiome was dominated by the phyla Bacteroidota, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria in both sexes. Analysis of bacterial composition revealed 481 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) shared by female and male geckos. In addition, 108 unique ASVs were exclusive to females, while 244 ASVs were unique to males. Although the overall bacterial composition did not differ significantly between the sexes, certain taxa exhibited higher relative abundances in each sex group. This study provides insight into the taxonomic structure of the gut microbiome in a desert-adapted reptile and highlights potential sex-specific differences. Understanding these microbial communities is critical for elucidating the mechanisms underlying host resilience in Earth's most arid environments, and for informing conservation efforts in the face of ongoing climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniela S. Rivera
- GEMA Center for Genomics, Ecology & Environment, Universidad Mayor, Camino La Piramide, 5750, Santiago 8580745, Chile;
| | - Valentina Beltrán
- GEMA Center for Genomics, Ecology & Environment, Universidad Mayor, Camino La Piramide, 5750, Santiago 8580745, Chile;
| | - Ignacio Gutiérrez-Cortés
- Extreme Ecosystem Microbiomics & Ecogenomics Lab., Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 8320165, Chile;
| | - Constanza Vargas
- Centro UC Desierto de Atacama, Instituto de Geografía, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago 7820436, Chile;
| | - Fernando D. Alfaro
- GEMA Center for Genomics, Ecology & Environment, Universidad Mayor, Camino La Piramide, 5750, Santiago 8580745, Chile;
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Kelly LA, Yost CK, Cooke SJ. Opportunities and challenges with transitioning to non-lethal sampling of wild fish for microbiome research. JOURNAL OF FISH BIOLOGY 2024; 104:912-919. [PMID: 38226503 DOI: 10.1111/jfb.15650] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/19/2023] [Indexed: 01/17/2024]
Abstract
The microbial communities of fish are considered an integral part of maintaining the overall health and fitness of their host. Research has shown that resident microbes reside on various mucosal surfaces, such as the gills, skin, and gastrointestinal tract, and play a key role in various host functions, including digestion, immunity, and disease resistance. A second, more transient group of microbes reside in the digesta, or feces, and are primarily influenced by environmental factors such as the host diet. The vast majority of fish microbiome research currently uses lethal sampling to analyse any one of these mucosal and/or digesta microbial communities. The present paper discusses the various opportunities that non-lethal microbiome sampling offers, as well as some inherent challenges, with the ultimate goal of creating a sound argument for future researchers to transition to non-lethal sampling of wild fish in microbiome research. Doing so will reduce animal welfare and population impacts on fish while creating novel opportunities to link host microbial communities to an individual's behavior and survival across space and time (e.g., life-stages, seasons). Current lethal sampling efforts constrain our ability to understand the mechanistic ecological consequences of variation in microbiome communities in the wild. Transitioning to non-lethal sampling will open new frontiers in ecological and microbial research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa A Kelly
- Fish Ecology and Conservation Physiology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Institute of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Christopher K Yost
- Department of Biology, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
- Institute for Microbial Systems and Society, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
| | - Steven J Cooke
- Fish Ecology and Conservation Physiology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Institute of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Hernández M, Ancona S, Hereira-Pacheco S, Díaz DE LA Vega-Pérez AH, Navarro-Noya YE. Comparative analysis of two nonlethal methods for the study of the gut bacterial communities in wild lizards. Integr Zool 2023; 18:1056-1071. [PMID: 36881373 DOI: 10.1111/1749-4877.12711] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/08/2023]
Abstract
Fecal samples or cloacal swabs are preferred over lethal dissections to study vertebrate gut microbiota for ethical reasons, but it remains unclear which nonlethal methods provide more accurate information about gut microbiota. We compared the bacterial communities of three gastrointestinal tract (GIT) segments, that is, stomach, small intestine (midgut), and rectum (hindgut) with the bacterial communities of the cloaca and feces in the mesquite lizard Sceloporus grammicus. The hindgut had the highest taxonomic and functional alpha diversity, followed by midgut and feces, whereas the stomach and cloaca showed the lowest diversities. The taxonomic assemblages of the GIT segments at the phylum level were strongly correlated with those retrieved from feces and cloacal swabs (rs > 0.84 in all cases). The turnover ratio of Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) between midgut and hindgut and the feces was lower than the ratio between these segments and the cloaca. More than half of the core-ASVs in the midgut (24 of 32) and hindgut (58 of 97) were also found in feces, while less than 5 were found in the cloaca. At the ASVs level, however, the structure of the bacterial communities of the midgut and hindgut were similar to those detected in feces and cloaca. Our findings suggest that fecal samples and cloacal swabs of spiny lizards provide a good approximation of the taxonomic assemblages and beta diversity of midgut and hindgut microbiota, while feces better represent the bacterial communities of the intestinal segments at a single nucleotide variation level than cloacal swabs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mauricio Hernández
- Doctorado en Ciencias Biológicas, Centro de Tlaxcala de Biología de la Conducta, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico
| | - Sergio Ancona
- Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Stephanie Hereira-Pacheco
- Estación Científica la Malinche, Centro de Tlaxcala de Biología de la Conducta, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico
| | - Aníbal H Díaz DE LA Vega-Pérez
- Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología-Centro Tlaxcala de Biología de la Conducta, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico
| | - Yendi E Navarro-Noya
- Laboratorio de Interacciones Bióticas, Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico
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Bunker ME, Arnold AE, Weiss SL. Wild microbiomes of striped plateau lizards vary with reproductive season, sex, and body size. Sci Rep 2022; 12:20643. [PMID: 36450782 PMCID: PMC9712514 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-24518-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2022] [Accepted: 11/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Long-term studies of animal microbiomes under natural conditions are valuable for understanding the effects of host demographics and environmental factors on host-associated microbial communities, and how those effects interact and shift over time. We examined how the cloacal microbiome of wild Sceloporus virgatus (the striped plateau lizard) varies under natural conditions in a multi-year study. Cloacal swabs were collected from wild-caught lizards across their entire active season and over three years in southeastern Arizona, USA. Analyses of 16S rRNA data generated on the Illumina platform revealed that cloacal microbiomes of S. virgatus vary as a function of season, sex, body size, and reproductive state, and do so independently of one another. Briefly, microbial diversity was lowest in both sexes during the reproductive season, was higher in females than in males, and was lowest in females when they were vitellogenic, and microbiome composition varied across seasons, sexes, and sizes. The pattern of decreased diversity during reproductive periods with increased sociality is surprising, as studies in other systems often suggest that microbial diversity generally increases with sociality. The cloacal microbiome was not affected significantly by hibernation and was relatively stable from year to year. This study highlights the importance of long term, wide-scale microbiome studies for capturing accurate perspectives on microbiome diversity and composition in animals. It also serves as a warning for comparisons of microbiomes across species, as each may be under a different suite of selective pressures or exhibit short-term variation from external or innate factors, which may differ in a species-specific manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie E. Bunker
- grid.267047.00000 0001 2105 7936Department of Biology, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA USA
| | - A. Elizabeth Arnold
- grid.134563.60000 0001 2168 186XSchool of Plant Sciences and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ USA
| | - Stacey L. Weiss
- grid.267047.00000 0001 2105 7936Department of Biology, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA USA
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Gut microbiota differs between two cold-climate lizards distributed in thermally different regions. BMC Ecol Evol 2022; 22:120. [PMID: 36271355 PMCID: PMC9585762 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-022-02077-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2022] [Accepted: 10/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The metabolic cold-climate adaption hypothesis predicts that animals from cold environments have relatively high metabolic rates compared with their warm-climate counterparts. However, studies testing this hypothesis are sparse. Here, we compared gut microbes between two cold-climate lizard species of the genus Phrynocephalus to see if gut microbiota could help lizards adapt to cold environments by promoting metabolism. We conducted a 2 species (P. erythrurus and P. przewalskii) × 2 temperatures (24 and 30 °C) factorial design experiment, whereby we kept lizards of two Phrynocephalus species at 24 and 30 °C for 25 d and then collected their fecal samples to analyze and compare the microbiota based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing technology. RESULTS The gut microbiota was mainly composed of bacteria of the phyla Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Verrucomicrobia in both species (Proteobacteria > Firmicutes > Verrucomicrobiota in P. erythrurus, and Bacteroidetes > Proteobacteria > Firmicutes in P. przewalskii). Further analysis revealed that the gut microbiota promoted thermal adaptation in both lizard species, but with differences in the relative abundance of the contributory bacteria between the two species. An analysis based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes revealed that the gut microbiota played important roles in metabolism, genetic information processing, cellular processes, and environmental information processing in both species. Furthermore, genes related to metabolism were more abundant in P. erythrurus at 24 °C than in other species ⋅ temperature combinations. CONCLUSION Our study provides evidence that gut microbiota promotes thermal adaptation in both species but more evidently in P. erythrurus using colder habitats than P. przewalskii all year round, thus confirming the role of gut microbiota in cold-climate adaptation in lizards.
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Spatial Variation of False Map Turtle (Graptemys pseudogeographica) Bacterial Microbiota in the Lower Missouri River, United States. J HERPETOL 2022. [DOI: 10.1670/20-100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Proximate Drivers of Population-Level Lizard Gut Microbial Diversity: Impacts of Diet, Insularity, and Local Environment. Microorganisms 2022; 10:microorganisms10081550. [PMID: 36013968 PMCID: PMC9413874 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms10081550] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2022] [Revised: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 07/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Diet has been suggested to be an important driver of variation in microbiota composition in mammals. However, whether this is a more general phenomenon and how fast changes in gut microbiota occur with changes in diet remains poorly understood. Forty-nine years ago, ten lizards of the species Podarcis siculus were taken from the island of Pod Kopište and introduced onto the island of Pod Mrčaru (Croatia). The introduced population underwent a significant dietary shift, and their descendants became omnivorous (consuming up to 80% plant material during summer). Variation in their gut microbiota has never been investigated. To elucidate the possible impact on the gut microbiota of this rapid change in diet, we compared the microbiota (V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene) of P. siculus from Pod Mrčaru, Pod Kopište, and the mainland. In addition, we explored other drivers of variation in gut microbiota including insularity, the population of origin, and the year of sampling. Alpha-diversity analyses showed that the microbial diversity of omnivorous lizards was higher than the microbial diversity of insectivorous lizards. Moreover, omnivorous individuals harbored significantly more Methanobrevibacter. The gut microbial diversity of insectivorous lizards was nonetheless more heterogeneous. Insectivorous lizards on the mainland had different gut microbial communities than their counterparts on the island of Pod Kopište. Bacillus and Desulfovibrio were more abundant in the gut microbiota from insular lizards compared to mainland lizards. Finally, we showed that the population of origin was also an important driver of the composition of the gut microbiota. The dietary shift that occurred in the introduced population of P. siculus has had a detectable impact on the gut microbiota, but other factors such as insularity and the population of origin also contributed to differences in the gut microbial composition of these lizards, illustrating the multifactorial nature of the drivers of variation in gut microbiota. Overall, our data show that changes in gut microbiota may take place on ecological timescales. Yet, diet is only one of many factors driving variation in gut microbiota across populations.
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Zhang L, Yang F, Li T, Dayananda B, Lin L, Lin C. Lessons from the diet: Captivity and sex shape the gut microbiota in an oviparous lizard (
Calotes versicolor
). Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e8586. [PMID: 35169453 PMCID: PMC8840884 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8586] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2021] [Revised: 01/10/2022] [Accepted: 01/13/2022] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies have indicated that the abundance and community structure of gut microbiota are altered by diet. In this study, next‐generation sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene amplicon was performed to evaluate variations in the gut microbiota of wild and captive individuals of both sexes of Calotes versicolor. The results showed that there was a significant sex difference in microbial community structure for wild C. versicolor, Bacteroide was the dominant genus in wild females (WF), whereas Ochrobactrum was the dominant genus in wild males (WM). Acinetobacter and Hymenobacter were the dominant genera in WF, while Clostridium was the dominant genus in captive females (CF). The results indicated that differences in diet between wild and captive C. versicolor also resulted in variations in gut microbiota. Thus, it was not surprising that captivity and sex shape the gut microbiota in C. versicolor. In summary, the fundamental information presented about the gut microbiota of both sexes of wild (and captive females) C. versicolor, indicates that the artificial environments are not suitable for the wild C. versicolor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lin Zhang
- School of Basic Medical Sciences Hubei University of Chinese Medicine WuhanChina
| | - Fang Yang
- School of Laboratory Medicine Hubei University of Chinese Medicine WuhanChina
| | - Tangliang Li
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Institute of Microbial Technology Shandong University QingdaoChina
| | - Buddhi Dayananda
- School of Agriculture and Food Sciences The University of Queensland Brisbane QLDAustralia
| | - Longhui Lin
- College of Life and Environmental Sciences Hangzhou Normal University HangzhouChina
| | - Chixian Lin
- MOE Key Laboratory of Utilization and Conservation for Tropical Marine Bioresources Hainan Key Laboratory of Herpetological Research College of Fisheries and Life Science Hainan Tropical Ocean University SanyaChina
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Bunker ME, Martin MO, Weiss SL. Recovered microbiome of an oviparous lizard differs across gut and reproductive tissues, cloacal swabs, and faeces. Mol Ecol Resour 2021; 22:1693-1705. [PMID: 34894079 DOI: 10.1111/1755-0998.13573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2021] [Revised: 11/26/2021] [Accepted: 12/06/2021] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Microbial diversity and community function are related, and can be highly specialized in different gut regions. The cloacal microbiome of Sceloporus virgatus females provides antifungal protection to eggshells, a specialized function that suggests a specialized microbiome. Here, we describe the cloacal, intestinal, and oviductal microbiome from S. virgatus gravid females, adding to growing evidence of microbiome localization in reptiles and other taxa. We further assessed whether common methods for sampling gastrointestinal (GI) microbes - cloacal swabs and faeces - provide accurate representations of these microbial communities. We found that different regions of the gut had unique microbial communities. The cloacal microbiome showed extreme specialization averaging 99% Proteobacteria (Phylum) and 83% Enterobacteriacaea (Family). Enterobacteriacaea decreased up the GI and reproductive tracts. Cloacal swabs recovered communities similar to that of lower intestine and cloacal tissues. In contrast, faecal samples had much higher diversity and a distinct composition (common Phyla: 62% Firmicutes, 18% Bacteroidetes, 10% Proteobacteria; common families: 39% Lachnospiraceae, 11% Ruminococcaceae, 11% Bacteroidaceae) relative to all gut regions. The common families in faecal samples made up <1% of cloacal tissue samples, increasing to 43% at the upper intestine. Similarly, the common families in gut tissue (Enterobacteriaceae and Helicobacteraceae) made up <1% of the faecal microbiome. Further, we found that cloacal swabs taken shortly after defaecation may be contaminated with faecal matter. Our results serve as a caution against using faeces as a proxy for GI microbes, and may help explain high between-sample variation seen in some studies using cloacal swabs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie E Bunker
- Department of Biology, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington, USA
| | - Mark O Martin
- Department of Biology, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington, USA
| | - Stacey L Weiss
- Department of Biology, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington, USA
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Environment-Dependent Variation in Gut Microbiota of an Oviparous Lizard ( Calotes versicolor). Animals (Basel) 2021; 11:ani11082461. [PMID: 34438918 PMCID: PMC8388656 DOI: 10.3390/ani11082461] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2021] [Revised: 08/09/2021] [Accepted: 08/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary The different gut sections potentially provide different habitats for gut microbiota. We found that Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria were the three primary phyla in gut microbiota of C. versicolor. The relative abundance of dominant phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes exhibited an increasing trend from the small intestine to the large intestine, and there was a higher abundance of genus Bacteroides (Class: Bacteroidia), Coprobacillus and Eubacterium (Class: Erysipelotrichia), Parabacteroides (Family: Porphyromonadaceae) and Ruminococcus (Family: Lachnospiraceae), and Family Odoribacteraceae and Rikenellaceae in the hindgut, and some metabolic pathways were higher in the hindgut. Our results reveal the variations of gut microbiota composition and metabolic pathways in different parts of the lizards’ intestine. Abstract Vertebrates maintain complex symbiotic relationships with microbiota living within their gastrointestinal tracts which reflects the ecological and evolutionary relationship between hosts and their gut microbiota. However, this understanding is limited in lizards and the spatial heterogeneity and co-occurrence patterns of gut microbiota inside the gastrointestinal tracts of a host and variations of microbial community among samples remain poorly understood. To address this issue and provide a guide for gut microbiota sampling from lizards, we investigated the bacteria in three gut locations of the oriental garden lizard (Calotes versicolor) and the data were analyzed for bacterial composition by 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) gene amplicon sequencing. We found the relative abundance of the dominant phyla exhibited an increasing trend from the small intestine to the large intestine, and phyla Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria were the three primary phyla in the gut microbiota of C. versicolor. There were a higher abundance of genus Bacteroides (Class: Bacteroidia), Coprobacillus and Eubacterium (Class: Erysipelotrichia), Parabacteroides (Family: Porphyromonadaceae) and Ruminococcus (Family: Lachnospiraceae), and Family Odoribacteraceae and Rikenellaceae in the sample from the hindgut. The secondary bile acid biosynthesis, glycosaminoglycan degradation, sphingolipid metabolism and lysosome were significantly higher in the hindgut than that in the small intestine. Taken together our results indicate variations of gut microbiota composition and metabolic pathway in different parts of the oriental garden lizard.
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Bunker ME, Elliott G, Heyer-Gray H, Martin MO, Arnold AE, Weiss SL. Vertically transmitted microbiome protects eggs from fungal infection and egg failure. Anim Microbiome 2021; 3:43. [PMID: 34134779 PMCID: PMC8207602 DOI: 10.1186/s42523-021-00104-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2020] [Accepted: 05/31/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Beneficial microbes can be vertically transmitted from mother to offspring in many organisms. In oviparous animals, bacterial transfer to eggs may improve egg success by inhibiting fungal attachment and infection from pathogenic microbes in the nest environment. Vertical transfer of these egg-protective bacteria may be facilitated through behavioral mechanisms such as egg-tending, but many species do not provide parental care. Thus, an important mechanism of vertical transfer may be the passage of the egg through the maternal cloaca during oviposition itself. In this study, we examined how oviposition affects eggshell microbial communities, fungal attachment, hatch success, and offspring phenotype in the striped plateau lizard, Sceloporus virgatus, a species with no post-oviposition parental care. Results Relative to dissected eggs that did not pass through the cloaca, oviposited eggs had more bacteria and fewer fungal hyphae when examined with a scanning electron microscope. Using high throughput Illumina sequencing, we also found a difference in the bacterial communities of eggshells that did and did not pass through the cloaca, and the diversity of eggshell communities tended to correlate with maternal cloacal diversity only for oviposited eggs, and not for dissected eggs, indicating that vertical transmission of microbes is occurring. Further, we found that oviposited eggs had greater hatch success and led to larger offspring than those that were dissected. Conclusions Overall, our results indicate that female S. virgatus lizards transfer beneficial microbes from their cloaca onto their eggs during oviposition, and that these microbes reduce fungal colonization and infection of eggs during incubation and increase female fitness. Cloacal transfer of egg-protective bacteria may be common among oviparous species, and may be especially advantageous to species that lack parental care. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s42523-021-00104-5.
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Affiliation(s)
- M E Bunker
- Department of Biology, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, USA
| | - G Elliott
- Department of Biology, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, USA
| | - H Heyer-Gray
- Department of Biology, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, USA
| | - M O Martin
- Department of Biology, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, USA
| | - A E Arnold
- School of Plant Sciences and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, AZ, Tucson, USA
| | - S L Weiss
- Department of Biology, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, USA.
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12
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Ibáñez A, Bletz MC, Quezada G, Geffers R, Jarek M, Vences M, Steinfartz S. No impact of a short-term climatic "El Niño" fluctuation on gut microbial diversity in populations of the Galápagos marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus). Naturwissenschaften 2021; 108:7. [PMID: 33528676 PMCID: PMC7854437 DOI: 10.1007/s00114-020-01714-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2020] [Revised: 11/26/2020] [Accepted: 11/29/2020] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
Gut microorganisms are crucial for many biological functions playing a pivotal role in the host's well-being. We studied gut bacterial community structure of marine iguana populations across the Galápagos archipelago. Marine iguanas depend heavily on their specialized gut microbiome for the digestion of dietary algae, a resource whose growth was strongly reduced by severe "El Niño"-related climatic fluctuations in 2015/2016. As a consequence, marine iguana populations showed signs of starvation as expressed by a poor body condition. Body condition indices (BCI) varied between island populations indicating that food resources (i.e., algae) are affected differently across the archipelago during 'El Niño' events. Though this event impacted food availability for marine iguanas, we found that reductions in body condition due to "El Niño"-related starvation did not result in differences in bacterial gut community structure. Species richness of gut microorganisms was instead correlated with levels of neutral genetic diversity in the distinct host populations. Our data suggest that marine iguana populations with a higher level of gene diversity and allelic richness may harbor a more diverse gut microbiome than those populations with lower genetic diversity. Since low values of these diversity parameters usually correlate with small census and effective population sizes, we use our results to propose a novel hypothesis according to which small and genetically less diverse host populations might be characterized by less diverse microbiomes. Whether such genetically depauperate populations may experience additional threats from reduced dietary flexibility due to a limited intestinal microbiome is currently unclear and calls for further investigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Ibáñez
- Zoological Institute, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany. .,Department of Comparative Anatomy, Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research, Jagiellonian University, ul. Gronostajowa 9, 30-387, Kraków, Poland.
| | - Molly C Bletz
- Zoological Institute, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany.,Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Galo Quezada
- Dirección Parque Nacional Galápagos, Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galápagos, Ecuador
| | - Robert Geffers
- Department of Genome Analytics, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Michael Jarek
- Department of Genome Analytics, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Miguel Vences
- Zoological Institute, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Sebastian Steinfartz
- Zoological Institute, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany. .,Institute of Biology, Molecular Evolution and Systematics of Animals, University of Leipzig, Talstrasse 33, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
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13
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Zhou J, Zhao YT, Dai YY, Jiang YJ, Lin LH, Li H, Li P, Qu YF, Ji X. Captivity affects diversity, abundance, and functional pathways of gut microbiota in the northern grass lizard Takydromus septentrionalis. Microbiologyopen 2020; 9:e1095. [PMID: 32666685 PMCID: PMC7520994 DOI: 10.1002/mbo3.1095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2020] [Revised: 05/15/2020] [Accepted: 05/30/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Animals in captivity undergo a range of environmental changes from wild animals. An increasing number of studies show that captivity significantly affects the abundance and community structure of gut microbiota. The northern grass lizard (Takydromus septentrionalis) is an extensively studied lacertid lizard and has a distributional range covering the central and southeastern parts of China. Nonetheless, little is known about the gut microbiota of this species, which may play a certain role in nutrient and energy metabolism as well as immune homeostasis. Here, we examined the differences in the gut microbiota between two groups (wild and captive) of lizards through 16S rRNA sequencing using the Illumina HiSeq platform. The results demonstrated that the dominant microbial components in both groups consisted of Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Tenericutes. The two groups did not differ in the abundance of these three phyla. Citrobacter was the most dominant genus in wild lizards, while Morganella was the most dominant genus in captive lizards. Moreover, gene function predictions showed that genes at the KEGG pathway levels2 were more abundant in wild lizards than in captive lizards but, at the KEGG pathway levels1, the differences in gene abundances between wild and captive lizards were not significant. In summary, captivity exerted a significant impact on the gut microbial community structure and diversity in T. septentrionalis, and future work could usefully investigate the causes of these changes using a comparative approach.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jin Zhou
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
| | - Yu-Tian Zhao
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
| | - Ying-Yu Dai
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
| | - Yi-Jin Jiang
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
| | - Long-Hui Lin
- Hangzhou Key Laboratory for Ecosystem Protection and Restoration, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Hong Li
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
| | - Peng Li
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
| | - Yan-Fu Qu
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
| | - Xiang Ji
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
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14
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Scheelings TF, Moore RJ, Van TTH, Klaassen M, Reina RD. The gut bacterial microbiota of sea turtles differs between geographically distinct populations. ENDANGER SPECIES RES 2020. [DOI: 10.3354/esr01042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The microbiota of metazoans can be influenced by a variety of factors including diet, environment and genetics. In this study we sampled multiple populations from 2 host species that do not overlap in distribution, in order to test whether their bacterial microbiotas are species-specific or more variable. Intestinal swabs were collected from loggerhead turtles originating from Florida, USA, and Queensland, Australia, as well as from flatback turtles from Crab Island, Queensland, and Port Hedland, Western Australia. We then manually extracted bacterial DNA and used 16S rRNA sequencing to explore bacterial microbial community composition and structure. Our investigation showed that the bacterial microbiota of sea turtles is heavily influenced by geography, with loggerhead turtles originating from the USA and Australia harbouring significantly different bacterial microbial populations in terms of composition. Similarly, we also found that flatback turtles from Crab Island had significantly less diverse microbiotas, with a predominance of the bacterial phylum Firmicutes, in comparison to their genetically similar counterparts from Port Hedland. Factors that may explain these observed differences between populations include host genetics, differences in foraging habitat quality and differences in migratory distance (and thus durations of inappetence) between foraging and breeding grounds. The mechanisms by which these factors may influence bacterial microbial composition of sea turtle gastrointestinal tracts warrants further investigation. The results of this study highlight the importance of interpreting microbiota data of wild animals in the context of geography.
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Affiliation(s)
- TF Scheelings
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Wellington Rd, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - RJ Moore
- School of Science, RMIT University, Bundoora West Campus, Plenty Rd, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia
| | - TTH Van
- School of Science, RMIT University, Bundoora West Campus, Plenty Rd, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia
| | - M Klaassen
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, Victoria 3216, Australia
| | - RD Reina
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Wellington Rd, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
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15
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Scheelings TF, Moore RJ, Van TTH, Klaassen M, Reina RD. Microbial symbiosis and coevolution of an entire clade of ancient vertebrates: the gut microbiota of sea turtles and its relationship to their phylogenetic history. Anim Microbiome 2020; 2:17. [PMID: 33499954 PMCID: PMC7807503 DOI: 10.1186/s42523-020-00034-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2020] [Accepted: 04/22/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Background The microbiota plays a critical role in host homeostasis and has been shown to be a major driving force in host evolution. However, our understanding of these important relationships is hampered by a lack of data for many species, and by significant gaps in sampling of the evolutionary tree. In this investigation we improve our understanding of the host-microbiome relationship by obtaining samples from all seven extant species of sea turtle, and correlate microbial compositions with host evolutionary history. Results Our analysis shows that the predominate phyla in the microbiota of nesting sea turtles was Proteobacteria. We also demonstrate a strong relationship between the bacterial phyla SR1 and sea turtle phylogeny, and that sea turtle microbiotas have changed very slowly over time in accordance with their similarly slow phenotypic changes. Conclusions This is one of the most comprehensive microbiota studies to have been performed in a single clade of animals and further improves our knowledge of how microbial populations have influenced vertebrate evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Robert J Moore
- RMIT University School of Science, Bundoora West Campus, Plenty Rd, Bundoora, Victoria, 3083, Australia
| | - Thi Thu Hao Van
- RMIT University School of Science, Bundoora West Campus, Plenty Rd, Bundoora, Victoria, 3083, Australia
| | - Marcel Klaassen
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, Victoria, 3216, Australia
| | - Richard D Reina
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Wellington Rd, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia
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16
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Tang GS, Liang XX, Yang MY, Wang TT, Chen JP, Du WG, Li H, Sun BJ. Captivity Influences Gut Microbiota in Crocodile Lizards ( Shinisaurus crocodilurus). Front Microbiol 2020; 11:550. [PMID: 32390955 PMCID: PMC7190797 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.00550] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2020] [Accepted: 03/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Captivity is an important measure for conservation of an endangered species, and it is becoming a hot topic in conservation biology, which integrates gut microbiota and endangered species management in captivity. As an ancient reptile, the crocodile lizard (Shinisaurus crocodilurus) is facing extreme danger of extinction, resulting in great significance to species conservation in the reserve. Thus, it is critical to understand the differences in gut microbiota composition between captive and wild populations, as it could provide fundamental information for conservative management of crocodile lizards. Here, fecal samples of crocodile lizards were collected from two wild and one captive populations with different ages (i.e., juveniles and adults) and were analyzed for microbiota composition by 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene amplicon sequencing. This study showed that the lizard gut microbiota was mainly composed of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. The gut microbiota composition of crocodile lizard did not differ between juveniles and adults, as well as between two wild populations. Interestingly, captivity increased community richness and influenced community structures of gut microbiota in crocodile lizards, compared with wild congeners. This was indicated by higher abundances of the genera Epulopiscium and Glutamicibacter. These increases might be induced by complex integration of simple food resources or human contact in captivity. The gut microbiota functions of crocodile lizards are primarily enriched in metabolism, environmental information processing, genetic information processing, and cellular processes based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database. This study provides fundamental information about the gut microbiota of crocodile lizards in wild and captive populations. In the future, exploring the relationship among diet, gut microbiota, and host health is necessary for providing animal conservation strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guo-Shuai Tang
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xi-Xi Liang
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Meng-Yuan Yang
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Ting-Ting Wang
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fuwai Hospital, National Center of Cardiovascular Disease, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Jin-Ping Chen
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Guangzhou, China
| | - Wei-Guo Du
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Huan Li
- Institute of Occupational Health and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Bao-Jun Sun
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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17
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Wenzel MA, Douglas A, Piertney SB. Microbiome composition within a sympatric species complex of intertidal isopods (Jaera albifrons). PLoS One 2018; 13:e0202212. [PMID: 30157257 PMCID: PMC6114722 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2018] [Accepted: 07/29/2018] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The increasingly recognised effects of microbiomes on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of their hosts are promoting a view of the "hologenome" as an integral host-symbiont evolutionary entity. For example, sex-ratio distorting reproductive parasites such as Wolbachia are well-studied pivotal drivers of invertebrate reproductive processes, and more recent work is highlighting novel effects of microbiome assemblages on host mating behaviour and developmental incompatibilities that underpin or reinforce reproductive isolation processes. However, examining the hologenome and its eco-evolutionary effects in natural populations is challenging because microbiome composition is considerably influenced by environmental factors. Here we illustrate these challenges in a sympatric species complex of intertidal isopods (Jaera albifrons spp.) with pervasive sex-ratio distortion and ecological and behavioural reproductive isolation mechanisms. We deep-sequence the bacterial 16S rRNA gene among males and females collected in spring and summer from two coasts in north-east Scotland, and examine microbiome composition with a particular focus on reproductive parasites. Microbiomes of all species were diverse (overall 3,317 unique sequences among 3.8 million reads) and comprised mainly Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes taxa typical of the marine intertidal zone, in particular Vibrio spp. However, we found little evidence of the reproductive parasites Wolbachia, Rickettsia, Spiroplasma and Cardinium, suggesting alternative causes of sex-ratio distortion. Notwithstanding, a significant proportion of the variance in microbiome composition among samples was explained by sex (14.1 %), nested within geographic (26.9 %) and seasonal (39.6 %) variance components. The functional relevance of this sex signal was difficult to ascertain given the absence of reproductive parasites, the ephemeral nature of the species assemblages and substantial environmental variability. These results establish the Jaera albifrons species complex as an intriguing system for examining the effects of microbiomes on reproductive processes and speciation, and highlight the difficulties associated with snapshot assays of microbiome composition in dynamic and complex environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marius A. Wenzel
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
| | - Alex Douglas
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
| | - Stuart B. Piertney
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
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18
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Teyssier A, Rouffaer LO, Saleh Hudin N, Strubbe D, Matthysen E, Lens L, White J. Inside the guts of the city: Urban-induced alterations of the gut microbiota in a wild passerine. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2018; 612:1276-1286. [PMID: 28898933 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.09.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2017] [Revised: 09/04/2017] [Accepted: 09/04/2017] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
Urbanisation represents one of the most radical forms of terrestrial land use change and has been shown to lead to alterations in ecosystem functioning and community dynamics and changes in individual phenotypic traits. While the recent surge in microbiome studies has brought about a paradigm shift by which individuals cannot truly be considered independently of the bacterial communities they host, the role of gut microbiota in organismal response to human-induced environmental change is still scarcely studied. Here, we applied a metabarcoding approach to examine the impact of urbanisation on the gut microbiota of Passer domesticus. We found urbanisation to be associated to lower microbiota species diversity, modifications in taxonomic composition and community structure, and changes in functional composition. The strength of these relationships, however, depended on the spatial scale and season at which they were considered. Such spatio-temporal effect suggests that urbanisation may dampen the natural seasonal variation of the gut microbiota observed in more pristine habitats, potentially influencing the fitness of urban organisms. Our results hence shed light on a hitherto little considered perspective, i.e. that the negative effects of urbanisation on city-dwelling organisms may extend to their microbiomes, causing potential dysbioses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aimeric Teyssier
- Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Department of Biology, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium; Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Belgium; Laboratoire Evolution & Diversité Biologique, UMR 5174 CNRS-Université Paul Sabatier-ENSFEA-IRD, 118 route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
| | - Lieze Oscar Rouffaer
- Department of Pathology, Bacteriology and Avian Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium
| | - Noraine Saleh Hudin
- Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Department of Biology, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
| | - Diederik Strubbe
- Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Department of Biology, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
| | - Erik Matthysen
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Luc Lens
- Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Department of Biology, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
| | - Joël White
- Laboratoire Evolution & Diversité Biologique, UMR 5174 CNRS-Université Paul Sabatier-ENSFEA-IRD, 118 route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse, France
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19
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Videvall E, Strandh M, Engelbrecht A, Cloete S, Cornwallis CK. Measuring the gut microbiome in birds: Comparison of faecal and cloacal sampling. Mol Ecol Resour 2017; 18:424-434. [PMID: 29205893 DOI: 10.1111/1755-0998.12744] [Citation(s) in RCA: 87] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2017] [Revised: 11/17/2017] [Accepted: 11/20/2017] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The gut microbiomes of birds and other animals are increasingly being studied in ecological and evolutionary contexts. Numerous studies on birds and reptiles have made inferences about gut microbiota using cloacal sampling; however, it is not known whether the bacterial community of the cloaca provides an accurate representation of the gut microbiome. We examined the accuracy with which cloacal swabs and faecal samples measure the microbiota in three different parts of the gastrointestinal tract (ileum, caecum, and colon) using a case study on juvenile ostriches, Struthio camelus, and high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing. We found that faeces were significantly better than cloacal swabs in representing the bacterial community of the colon. Cloacal samples had a higher abundance of Gammaproteobacteria and fewer Clostridia relative to the gut and faecal samples. However, both faecal and cloacal samples were poor representatives of the microbial communities in the caecum and ileum. Furthermore, the accuracy of each sampling method in measuring the abundance of different bacterial taxa was highly variable: Bacteroidetes was the most highly correlated phylum between all three gut sections and both methods, whereas Actinobacteria, for example, was only strongly correlated between faecal and colon samples. Based on our results, we recommend sampling faeces, whenever possible, as this sample type provides the most accurate assessment of the colon microbiome. The fact that neither sampling technique accurately portrayed the bacterial community of the ileum nor the caecum illustrates the difficulty in noninvasively monitoring gut bacteria located further up in the gastrointestinal tract. These results have important implications for the interpretation of avian gut microbiome studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elin Videvall
- Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Maria Strandh
- Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Anel Engelbrecht
- Directorate Animal Sciences, Western Cape Department of Agriculture, Elsenburg, South Africa
| | - Schalk Cloete
- Directorate Animal Sciences, Western Cape Department of Agriculture, Elsenburg, South Africa.,Department of Animal Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa
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20
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Jiang HY, Ma JE, Li J, Zhang XJ, Li LM, He N, Liu HY, Luo SY, Wu ZJ, Han RC, Chen JP. Diets Alter the Gut Microbiome of Crocodile Lizards. Front Microbiol 2017; 8:2073. [PMID: 29118742 PMCID: PMC5660983 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.02073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2017] [Accepted: 10/10/2017] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The crocodile lizard is a critically endangered reptile, and serious diseases have been found in this species in recent years, especially in captive lizards. Whether these diseases are caused by changes in the gut microbiota and the effect of captivity on disease remains to be determined. Here, we examined the relationship between the gut microbiota and diet and disease by comparing the fecal microbiota of wild lizards with those of sick and healthy lizards in captivity. The gut microbiota in wild crocodile lizards was consistently dominated by Proteobacteria (∼56.4%) and Bacteroidetes (∼19.1%). However, the abundance of Firmicutes (∼2.6%) in the intestine of the wild crocodile lizards was distinctly lower than that in other vertebrates. In addition, the wild samples from Guangdong Luokeng Shinisaurus crocodilurus National Nature Reserve also had a high abundance of Deinococcus-Thermus while the wild samples from Guangxi Daguishan Crocodile Lizard National Nature Reserve had a high abundance of Tenericutes. The gut microbial community in loach-fed crocodile lizards was significantly different from the gut microbial community in the earthworm-fed and wild lizards. In addition, significant differences in specific bacteria were detected among groups. Notably, in the gut microbiota, the captive lizards fed earthworms resulted in enrichment of Fusobacterium, and the captive lizards fed loaches had higher abundances of Elizabethkingia, Halomonas, Morganella, and Salmonella, all of which are pathogens or opportunistic pathogens in human or other animals. However, there is no sufficient evidence that the gut microbiota contributes to either disease A or disease B. These results provide a reference for the conservation of endangered crocodile lizards and the first insight into the relationship between disease and the gut microbiota in lizards.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hai-Ying Jiang
- South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Guangzhou, China
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huairou, China
| | - Jing-E Ma
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Guangzhou, China
| | - Juan Li
- South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Guangzhou, China
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huairou, China
| | - Xiu-Juan Zhang
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Guangzhou, China
| | - Lin-Miao Li
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Guangzhou, China
| | - Nan He
- Guangdong Luokeng Shinisaurus crocodilurus National Nature Reserve, Shaoguan, China
| | - Hai-Yang Liu
- Guangdong Luokeng Shinisaurus crocodilurus National Nature Reserve, Shaoguan, China
| | - Shu-Yi Luo
- Guangxi Daguishan Crocodile Lizard National Nature Reserve, Hezhou, China
| | - Zheng-Jun Wu
- College of Life Science, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, China
| | - Ri-Chou Han
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jin-Ping Chen
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Guangzhou, China
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21
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Astudillo‐García C, Bell JJ, Webster NS, Glasl B, Jompa J, Montoya JM, Taylor MW. Evaluating the core microbiota in complex communities: A systematic investigation. Environ Microbiol 2017; 19:1450-1462. [DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.13647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 118] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2016] [Revised: 12/14/2016] [Accepted: 12/15/2016] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Carmen Astudillo‐García
- School of Biological SciencesUniversity of AucklandAuckland New Zealand
- Institute of Marine Science, University of AucklandAuckland New Zealand
| | - James J. Bell
- School of Biological SciencesVictoria University of WellingtonWellington New Zealand
| | | | - Bettina Glasl
- AIMS@JCU, Australian Institute of Marine Science, College of Science and EngineeringJames Cook UniversityTownsville Australia
| | - Jamaluddin Jompa
- Research and Development Centre on Marine, Coastal and Small IslandsHasanuddin UniversityMakassar Indonesia
| | - Jose M. Montoya
- Ecological Networks and Global Change Group, Experimental and Theoretical Ecology StationCNRS‐University Paul SabatierMoulis France
| | - Michael W. Taylor
- School of Biological SciencesUniversity of AucklandAuckland New Zealand
- Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular BiodiscoveryUniversity of AucklandAuckland New Zealand
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22
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Kohl KD, Brun A, Magallanes M, Brinkerhoff J, Laspiur A, Acosta JC, Caviedes-Vidal E, Bordenstein SR. Gut microbial ecology of lizards: insights into diversity in the wild, effects of captivity, variation across gut regions and transmission. Mol Ecol 2016; 26:1175-1189. [PMID: 27862531 DOI: 10.1111/mec.13921] [Citation(s) in RCA: 120] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2016] [Revised: 10/24/2016] [Accepted: 11/01/2016] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Animals maintain complex associations with a diverse microbiota living in their guts. Our understanding of the ecology of these associations is extremely limited in reptiles. Here, we report an in-depth study into the microbial ecology of gut communities in three syntopic and viviparous lizard species (two omnivores: Liolaemus parvus and Liolaemus ruibali and an herbivore: Phymaturus williamsi). Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing to inventory various bacterial communities, we elucidate four major findings: (i) closely related lizard species harbour distinct gut bacterial microbiota that remain distinguishable in captivity; a considerable portion of gut bacterial diversity (39.1%) in nature overlap with that found on plant material, (ii) captivity changes bacterial community composition, although host-specific communities are retained, (iii) faecal samples are largely representative of the hindgut bacterial community and thus represent acceptable sources for nondestructive sampling, and (iv) lizards born in captivity and separated from their mothers within 24 h shared 34.3% of their gut bacterial diversity with their mothers, suggestive of maternal or environmental transmission. Each of these findings represents the first time such a topic has been investigated in lizard hosts. Taken together, our findings provide a foundation for comparative analyses of the faecal and gastrointestinal microbiota of reptile hosts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin D Kohl
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, 465 21st Ave South, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA.,Laboratorio de Biología Integrativa, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones Biológicas de San Luis, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, San Luis, 5700, Argentina.,Departamento de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Chacabuco 917, San Luis, 5700, Argentina
| | - Antonio Brun
- Laboratorio de Biología Integrativa, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones Biológicas de San Luis, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, San Luis, 5700, Argentina.,Departamento de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Chacabuco 917, San Luis, 5700, Argentina
| | - Melisa Magallanes
- Laboratorio de Biología Integrativa, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones Biológicas de San Luis, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, San Luis, 5700, Argentina.,Departamento de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Chacabuco 917, San Luis, 5700, Argentina
| | - Joshua Brinkerhoff
- Laboratorio de Biología Integrativa, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones Biológicas de San Luis, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, San Luis, 5700, Argentina.,Departamento de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Chacabuco 917, San Luis, 5700, Argentina
| | - Alejandro Laspiur
- Centro de Investigaciones de la Geósfera y la Biósfera (CIGEOBIO-CONICET) - Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Av. José I. de la Roza 590 Oeste, J5402DCS, San Juan, Argentina
| | - Juan Carlos Acosta
- Centro de Investigaciones de la Geósfera y la Biósfera (CIGEOBIO-CONICET) - Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Av. José I. de la Roza 590 Oeste, J5402DCS, San Juan, Argentina
| | - Enrique Caviedes-Vidal
- Laboratorio de Biología Integrativa, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones Biológicas de San Luis, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, San Luis, 5700, Argentina.,Departamento de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Chacabuco 917, San Luis, 5700, Argentina
| | - Seth R Bordenstein
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, 465 21st Ave South, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA.,Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University, 465 21st Ave South, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA
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Ren T, Kahrl AF, Wu M, Cox RM. Does adaptive radiation of a host lineage promote ecological diversity of its bacterial communities? A test using gut microbiota of Anolis lizards. Mol Ecol 2016; 25:4793-804. [PMID: 27497270 DOI: 10.1111/mec.13796] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2016] [Revised: 07/08/2016] [Accepted: 07/11/2016] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Adaptive radiations provide unique opportunities to test whether and how recent ecological and evolutionary diversification of host species structures the composition of entire bacterial communities. We used 16S rRNA gene sequencing of faecal samples to test for differences in the gut microbiota of six species of Puerto Rican Anolis lizards characterized by the evolution of distinct 'ecomorphs' related to differences in habitat use. We found substantial variation in the composition of the microbiota within each species and ecomorph (trunk-crown, trunk-ground, grass-bush), but no differences in bacterial alpha diversity among species or ecomorphs. Beta diversity analyses revealed subtle but significant differences in bacterial composition related to host phylogeny and species, but these differences were not consistently associated with Anolis ecomorph. Comparison of a trunk-ground species from this clade (A. cristatellus) with a distantly related member of the same ecomorph class (A. sagrei) where the two species have been introduced and are now sympatric in Florida revealed pronounced differences in the alpha diversity and beta diversity of their microbiota despite their ecological similarity. Comparisons of these populations with allopatric conspecifics also revealed geographic differences in bacterial alpha diversity and beta diversity within each species. Finally, we observed high intraindividual variation over time and strong effects of a simplified laboratory diet on the microbiota of A. sagrei. Collectively, our results indicate that bacterial communities are only weakly shaped by the diversification of their lizard hosts due to the strikingly high levels of bacterial diversity and variation observed within Anolis species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tiantian Ren
- Department of Biology, University of Virginia, PO Box 400328, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA
| | - Ariel F Kahrl
- Department of Biology, University of Virginia, PO Box 400328, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA
| | - Martin Wu
- Department of Biology, University of Virginia, PO Box 400328, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA
| | - Robert M Cox
- Department of Biology, University of Virginia, PO Box 400328, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA.
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Cohen C, Einav M, Hawlena H. Path analyses of cross-sectional and longitudinal data suggest that variability in natural communities of blood-associated parasites is derived from host characteristics and not interspecific interactions. Parasit Vectors 2015; 8:429. [PMID: 26286391 PMCID: PMC4545369 DOI: 10.1186/s13071-015-1029-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2015] [Accepted: 08/02/2015] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The parasite composition of wild host individuals often impacts their behavior and physiology, and the transmission dynamics of pathogenic species thereby determines disease risk in natural communities. Yet, the determinants of parasite composition in natural communities are still obscure. In particular, three fundamental questions remain open: (1) what are the relative roles of host and environmental characteristics compared with direct interactions between parasites in determining the community composition of parasites? (2) do these determinants affect parasites belonging to the same guild and those belonging to different guilds in similar manners? and (3) can cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses work interchangeably in detecting community determinants? Our study was designed to answer these three questions in a natural community of rodents and their fleas, ticks, and two vector-borne bacteria. METHODS We sampled a natural population of Gerbillus andersoni rodents and their blood-associated parasites on two occasions. By combining path analysis and model selection approaches, we then explored multiple direct and indirect paths that connect (i) the environmental and host-related characteristics to the infection probability of a host by each of the four parasite species, and (ii) the infection probabilities of the four species by each other. RESULTS Our results suggest that the majority of paths shaping the blood-associated communities are indirect, mostly determined by host characteristics and not by interspecific interactions or environmental conditions. The exact effects of host characteristics on infection probability by a given parasite depend on its life history and on the method of sampling, in which the cross-sectional and longitudinal methods are complementary. CONCLUSIONS Despite the awareness of the need of ecological investigations into natural host-vector-parasite communities in light of the emergence and re-emergence of vector-borne diseases, we lack sampling methods that are both practical and reliable. Here we illustrated how comprehensive patterns can be revealed from observational data by applying path analysis and model selection approaches and combining cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. By employing this combined approach on blood-associated parasites, we were able to distinguish between direct and indirect effects and to predict the causal relationships between host-related characteristics and the parasite composition over time and space. We concluded that direct interactions within the community play only a minor role in determining community composition relative to host characteristics and the life history of the community members.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carmit Cohen
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel.
| | - Monica Einav
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel.
| | - Hadas Hawlena
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel.
- Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
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25
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Cohen C, Toh E, Munro D, Dong Q, Hawlena H. Similarities and seasonal variations in bacterial communities from the blood of rodents and from their flea vectors. ISME JOURNAL 2015; 9:1662-76. [PMID: 25575310 DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2014.255] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2014] [Revised: 11/20/2014] [Accepted: 11/24/2014] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
Vector-borne microbes are subject to the ecological constraints of two distinct microenvironments: that in the arthropod vector and that in the blood of its vertebrate host. Because the structure of bacterial communities in these two microenvironments may substantially affect the abundance of vector-borne microbes, it is important to understand the relationship between bacterial communities in both microenvironments and the determinants that shape them. We used pyrosequencing analyses to compare the structure of bacterial communities in Synosternus cleopatrae fleas and in the blood of their Gerbillus andersoni hosts. We also monitored the interindividual and seasonal variability in these bacterial communities by sampling the same individual wild rodents during the spring and again during the summer. We show that the bacterial communities in each sample type (blood, female flea or male flea) had a similar phylotype composition among host individuals, but exhibited seasonal variability that was not directly associated with host characteristics. The structure of bacterial communities in male fleas and in the blood of their rodent hosts was remarkably similar and was dominated by flea-borne Bartonella and Mycoplasma phylotypes. A lower abundance of flea-borne bacteria and the presence of Wolbachia phylotypes distinguished bacterial communities in female fleas from those in male fleas and in rodent blood. These results suggest that the overall abundance of a certain vector-borne microbe is more likely to be determined by the abundance of endosymbiotic bacteria in the vector, abundance of other vector-borne microbes co-occurring in the vector and in the host blood and by seasonal changes, than by host characteristics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carmit Cohen
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
| | - Evelyn Toh
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
| | - Daniel Munro
- Department of Biology, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
| | - Qunfeng Dong
- 1] Department of Biology, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA [2] Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
| | - Hadas Hawlena
- 1] Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel [2] Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel
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26
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Gavish Y, Kedem H, Messika I, Cohen C, Toh E, Munro D, Dong Q, Fuqua C, Clay K, Hawlena H. Association of host and microbial species diversity across spatial scales in desert rodent communities. PLoS One 2014; 9:e109677. [PMID: 25343259 PMCID: PMC4208758 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109677] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2014] [Accepted: 09/03/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Relationships between host and microbial diversity have important ecological and applied implications. Theory predicts that these relationships will depend on the spatio-temporal scale of the analysis and the niche breadth of the organisms in question, but representative data on host-microbial community assemblage in nature is lacking. We employed a natural gradient of rodent species richness and quantified bacterial communities in rodent blood at several hierarchical spatial scales to test the hypothesis that associations between host and microbial species diversity will be positive in communities dominated by organisms with broad niches sampled at large scales. Following pyrosequencing of rodent blood samples, bacterial communities were found to be comprised primarily of broad niche lineages. These communities exhibited positive correlations between host diversity, microbial diversity and the likelihood for rare pathogens at the regional scale but not at finer scales. These findings demonstrate how microbial diversity is affected by host diversity at different spatial scales and suggest that the relationships between host diversity and overall disease risk are not always negative, as the dilution hypothesis predicts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yoni Gavish
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
| | - Hadar Kedem
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
| | - Irit Messika
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
| | - Carmit Cohen
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
| | - Evelyn Toh
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States of America
| | - Daniel Munro
- Department of Biology, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, United States of America
| | - Qunfeng Dong
- Department of Biology, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, United States of America
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, United States of America
| | - Clay Fuqua
- Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States of America
| | - Keith Clay
- Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States of America
| | - Hadas Hawlena
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
- * E-mail:
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White J, Richard M, Massot M, Meylan S. Cloacal bacterial diversity increases with multiple mates: evidence of sexual transmission in female common lizards. PLoS One 2011; 6:e22339. [PMID: 21811590 PMCID: PMC3141023 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0022339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2011] [Accepted: 06/24/2011] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Sexually transmitted diseases have often been suggested as a potential cost of multiple mating and as playing a major role in the evolution of mating systems. Yet there is little empirical data relating mating strategies to sexually transmitted microorganisms in wild populations. We investigated whether mating behaviour influences the diversity and composition of cloacal assemblages by comparing bacterial communities in the cloaca of monandrous and polyandrous female common lizards Zootoca vivipara sampled after the mating period. We found that polyandrous females harboured more diverse communities and differed more in community composition than did monandrous females. Furthermore, cloacal diversity and variability were found to decrease with age in polyandrous females. Our results suggest that the higher bacterial diversity found in polyandrous females is due to the sexual transmission of bacteria by multiple mates. The impact of mating behaviour on the cloacal microbiota may have fitness consequences for females and may comprise a selective pressure shaping the evolution of mating systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joël White
- Ecologie & Evolution (UMPC-ENS-CNRS), Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.
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