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Storm MB, Arfaoui EMR, Simelane P, Denlinger J, Dias CA, da Conceição AG, Monadjem A, Bohmann K, Poulsen M, Bodawatta KH. Diet components associated with specific bacterial taxa shape overall gut community compositions in omnivorous African viverrids. Ecol Evol 2024; 14:e11486. [PMID: 39005885 PMCID: PMC11239323 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.11486] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2024] [Revised: 05/14/2024] [Accepted: 05/15/2024] [Indexed: 07/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Gut bacterial communities provide flexibility to hosts during dietary changes. Despite the increasing number of studies exploring the associations between broader dietary guilds of mammalian hosts and their gut bacteria, it is generally unclear how diversity and variability in consumed diets link to gut bacterial taxa in wild non-primate mammals, particularly in omnivores. Here, we contribute to filling this gap by exploring consumed diets and gut bacterial community compositions with metabarcoding of faecal samples for two African mammals, Civettictis civetta and Genetta spp., from the family Viverridae. For each individual sample, we characterised bacterial communities and identified dietary taxa by sequencing vertebrate, invertebrate and plant markers. This led us to establish diet compositions that diverged from what has previously been found from visual identification methods. Specifically, while the two genera have been categorised into the same dietary guild, we detected more animal dietary items than plant items in C. civetta, while in Genetta spp., we observed the opposite. We further found that individuals with similar diets have similar gut bacterial communities within both genera. This association tended to be driven by specific links between dietary items and gut bacterial genera, rather than communities as a whole, implying diet-driven selection for specific gut microbes in individual wild hosts. Our findings underline the importance of molecular tools for improving characterisations of omnivorous mammalian diets and highlight the opportunities for simultaneously disentangling links between diets and gut symbionts. Such insights can inform robustness and flexibility in host-microbe symbioses to dietary change associated with seasonal and habitat changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Malou B Storm
- Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark
- Section for Molecular Ecology and Evolution Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark
| | - Emilia M R Arfaoui
- Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark
- Section for Molecular Ecology and Evolution Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark
| | - Phumlile Simelane
- Department of Biological Sciences University of Eswatini Kwaluseni Eswatini
| | | | | | | | - Ara Monadjem
- Department of Biological Sciences University of Eswatini Kwaluseni Eswatini
- Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology and Entomology University of Pretoria Hatfield, Pretoria South Africa
| | - Kristine Bohmann
- Section for Molecular Ecology and Evolution Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark
| | - Michael Poulsen
- Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark
| | - Kasun H Bodawatta
- Section for Molecular Ecology and Evolution Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark
- Natural History Museum of Denmark University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark
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Tsang CTT, Hui TKL, Chung NM, Yuen WT, Tsang LM. Comparative analysis of gut microbiome of mangrove brachyuran crabs revealed patterns of phylosymbiosis and codiversification. Mol Ecol 2024; 33:e17377. [PMID: 38713089 DOI: 10.1111/mec.17377] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2023] [Revised: 04/17/2024] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 05/08/2024]
Abstract
The acquisition of microbial symbionts enables animals to rapidly adapt to and exploit novel ecological niches, thus significantly enhancing the evolutionary fitness and success of their hosts. However, the dynamics of host-microbe interactions and their evolutionary implications remain largely underexplored in marine invertebrates. Crabs of the family Sesarmidae (Crustacea: Brachyura) are dominant inhabitants of mangrove forests and are considered keystone species there. Their rapid diversification, particularly after adopting a plant-feeding lifestyle, is believed to have been facilitated by symbiotic gut microbes, enabling successful colonization of intertidal and terrestrial environments. To investigate the patterns and mechanisms shaping the microbial communities and the role of microbes in the evolution of Sesarmidae, we characterized and compared the gut microbiome compositions across 43 crab species from Sesarmidae and other mangrove-associated families using 16S metabarcoding. We found that the gut microbiome assemblages in crabs are primarily determined by host identity, with a secondary influence from environmental factors such as microhabitat and sampling location, and to a lesser extent influenced by biological factors such as sex and gut region. While patterns of phylosymbiosis (i.e. when microbial community relationships recapitulate the phylogeny of their hosts) were consistently observed in all beta-diversity metrics analysed, the strength of phylosymbiosis varied across crab families. This suggests that the bacterial assemblages in each family were differentially shaped by different degrees of host filtering and/or other evolutionary processes. Notably, Sesarmidae displayed signals of cophylogeny with its core gut bacterial genera, which likely play crucial functional roles in their hosts by providing lignocellulolytic enzymes, essential amino acids, and fatty acids supplementation. Our results support the hypothesis of microbial contribution to herbivory and terrestrialization in mangrove crabs, highlighting the tight association and codiversification of the crab holobiont.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chandlar Tsz To Tsang
- Simon F. S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Tom Kwok Lun Hui
- Simon F. S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Nga Man Chung
- Simon F. S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Wing Tan Yuen
- Simon F. S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Ling Ming Tsang
- Simon F. S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
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Kondo K, Suzuki M, Amadaira M, Araki C, Watanabe R, Murakami K, Ochiai S, Ogura T, Hayakawa T. Association of maternal genetics with the gut microbiome and eucalypt diet selection in captive koalas. PeerJ 2024; 12:e17385. [PMID: 38818452 PMCID: PMC11138522 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.17385] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2024] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 06/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Koalas, an Australian arboreal marsupial, depend on eucalypt tree leaves for their diet. They selectively consume only a few of the hundreds of available eucalypt species. Since the koala gut microbiome is essential for the digestion and detoxification of eucalypts, their individual differences in the gut microbiome may lead to variations in their eucalypt selection and eucalypt metabolic capacity. However, research focusing on the relationship between the gut microbiome and differences in food preferences is very limited. We aimed to determine whether individual and regional differences exist in the gut microbiome of koalas as well as the mechanism by which these differences influence eucalypt selection. Methods Foraging data were collected from six koalas and a total of 62 feces were collected from 15 koalas of two zoos in Japan. The mitochondrial phylogenetic analysis was conducted to estimate the mitochondrial maternal origin of each koala. In addition, the 16S-based gut microbiome of 15 koalas was analyzed to determine the composition and diversity of each koala's gut microbiome. We used these data to investigate the relationship among mitochondrial maternal origin, gut microbiome and eucalypt diet selection. Results and Discussion This research revealed that diversity and composition of the gut microbiome and that eucalypt diet selection of koalas differs among regions. We also revealed that the gut microbiome alpha diversity was correlated with foraging diversity in koalas. These individual and regional differences would result from vertical (maternal) transmission of the gut microbiome and represent an intraspecific variation in koala foraging strategies. Further, we demonstrated that certain gut bacteria were strongly correlated with both mitochondrial maternal origin and eucalypt foraging patterns. Bacteria found to be associated with mitochondrial maternal origin included bacteria involved in fiber digestion and degradation of secondary metabolites, such as the families Rikenellaceae and Synergistaceae. These bacteria may cause differences in metabolic capacity between individual and regional koalas and influence their eucalypt selection. Conclusion We showed that the characteristics (composition and diversity) of the gut microbiome and eucalypt diet selection of koalas differ by individuals and regional origins as we expected. In addition, some gut bacteria that could influence eucalypt foraging of koalas showed the relationships with both mitochondrial maternal origin and eucalypt foraging pattern. These differences in the gut microbiome between regional origins may make a difference in eucalypt selection. Given the importance of the gut microbiome to koalas foraging on eucalypts and their strong symbiotic relationship, future studies should focus on the symbiotic relationship and coevolution between koalas and the gut microbiome to understand individual and regional differences in eucalypt diet selection by koalas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kotaro Kondo
- Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
| | - Mirei Suzuki
- Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
| | - Mana Amadaira
- School of Veterinary Medicine, Kitasato University, Towada, Aomori, Japan
| | - Chiharu Araki
- School of Veterinary Medicine, Kitasato University, Towada, Aomori, Japan
| | - Rie Watanabe
- School of Veterinary Medicine, Kitasato University, Towada, Aomori, Japan
| | | | | | - Tadatoshi Ogura
- School of Veterinary Medicine, Kitasato University, Towada, Aomori, Japan
| | - Takashi Hayakawa
- Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
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Ma ZS, Shi P. Critical complex network structures in animal gastrointestinal tract microbiomes. Anim Microbiome 2024; 6:23. [PMID: 38702785 PMCID: PMC11067214 DOI: 10.1186/s42523-024-00291-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2023] [Accepted: 01/21/2024] [Indexed: 05/06/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Living things from microbes to their hosts (plants, animals and humans) interact with each other, and their relationships may be described with complex network models. The present study focuses on the critical network structures, specifically the core/periphery nodes and backbones (paths of high-salience skeletons) in animal gastrointestinal microbiomes (AGMs) networks. The core/periphery network (CPN) mirrors nearly ubiquitous nestedness in ecological communities, particularly dividing the network as densely interconnected core-species and periphery-species that only sparsely linked to the core. Complementarily, the high-salience skeleton network (HSN) mirrors the pervasive asymmetrical species interactions (strictly microbial species correlations), particularly forming heterogenous pathways in AGM networks with both "backbones" and "rural roads" (regular or weak links). While the cores and backbones can act as critical functional structures, the periphery nodes and weak links may stabilize network functionalities through redundancy. RESULTS Here, we build and analyze 36 pairs of CPN/HSN for the AGMs based on 4903 gastrointestinal-microbiome samples containing 473,359 microbial species collected from 318 animal species covering all vertebrate and four major invertebrate classes. The network analyses were performed at host species, order, class, phylum, kingdom scales and diet types with selected and comparative taxon pairs. Besides diet types, the influence of host phylogeny, measured with phylogenetic (evolutionary) timeline or "age", were integrated into the analyses. For example, it was found that the evolutionary trends of three primary microbial phyla (Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes/Proteobacteria) and their pairwise abundance-ratios in animals do not mirror the patterns in modern humans phylogenetically, although they are consistent in terms of diet types. CONCLUSIONS Overall, the critical network structures of AGMs are qualitatively and structurally similar to those of the human gut microbiomes. Nevertheless, it appears that the critical composition (the three phyla of Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria) in human gut microbiomes has broken the evolutionary trend from animals to humans, possibly attributable to the Anthropocene epoch and reflecting the far-reaching influences of agriculture and industrial revolution on the human gut microbiomes. The influences may have led to the deviations between modern humans and our hunter-gather ancestors and animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhanshan Sam Ma
- Computational Biology and Medical Ecology Lab, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
- Faculty of Arts and Science, Harvard Forest, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
| | - Peng Shi
- Evolutionary and Functional Genomics Lab, State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
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Amin A, Mekadim C, Modrackova N, Bolechova P, Mrazek J, Neuzil-Bunesova V. Microbiome composition and presence of cultivable commensal groups of Southern Tamanduas (Tamandua tetradactyla) varies with captive conditions. Anim Microbiome 2024; 6:21. [PMID: 38698458 PMCID: PMC11064412 DOI: 10.1186/s42523-024-00311-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 05/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Southern Tamanduas (Tamandua tetradactyla) belong to the specialized placental myrmecophages. There is not much information about their intestinal microbiome. Moreover, due to their food specialization, it is difficult to create an adequate diet under breeding conditions. Therefore, we used 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing to analyze the fecal microbiome of captive Southern Tamanduas from four locations in the Czech Republic and evaluated the impact of the incoming diet and facility conditions on microbiome composition. Together with the microbiome analysis, we also quantified and identified cultivable commensals. The anteater fecal microbiome was dominated by the phyla Bacillota and Bacteroidota, while Pseudomonadota, Spirochaetota, and Actinobacteriota were less abundant. At the taxonomic family level, Lachnospiraceae, Prevotellaceae, Bacteroidaceae, Oscillospiraceae, Erysipelotrichaceae, Spirochaetaceae, Ruminococcaceae, Leuconostocaceae, and Streptococcaceae were mainly represented in the fecal microbiome of animals from all locations. Interestingly, Lactobacillaceae dominated in the location with a zoo-made diet. These animals also had significantly lower diversity of gut microbiome in comparison with animals from other locations fed mainly with a complete commercial diet. Moreover, captive conditions of analyzed anteater included other factors such as the enrichment of the diet with insect-based products, probiotic interventions, the presence of other animals in the exposure, which can potentially affect the composition of the microbiome and cultivable microbes. In total, 63 bacterial species from beneficial commensal to opportunistic pathogen were isolated and identified using MALDI-TOF MS in the set of more than one thousand selected isolates. Half of the detected species were present in the fecal microbiota of most animals, the rest varied across animals and locations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ahmad Amin
- Department of Microbiology, Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, 165 00, Prague 6, Czech Republic
| | - Chahrazed Mekadim
- Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics, The Czech Academy of Sciences, v. v. i., Videnska 1083, 142 20, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Nikol Modrackova
- Department of Microbiology, Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, 165 00, Prague 6, Czech Republic
| | - Petra Bolechova
- Department of Ethology and Companion Animal Science, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamycka 129, 165 00, Prague 6, Czech Republic
| | - Jakub Mrazek
- Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics, The Czech Academy of Sciences, v. v. i., Videnska 1083, 142 20, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Vera Neuzil-Bunesova
- Department of Microbiology, Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, 165 00, Prague 6, Czech Republic.
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Gu T, Hu J, Yu L. Evolution and conservation genetics of pangolins. Integr Zool 2024; 19:426-441. [PMID: 38146613 DOI: 10.1111/1749-4877.12796] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2023]
Abstract
Pangolins (Pholidota, Manidae) are classified as an evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered mammal due to their unique morphology (nail-like scales and a myrmecophagous diet) and being the victim of heavy poaching and worldwide trafficking. As such, pangolins serve as a textbook example for studying the special phenotypic evolutionary adaptations and conservation genetics of an endangered species. Recent years have demonstrated significant advancements in the fields of molecular genetics and genomics, which have translated to a series of important research achievements and breakthroughs concerning the evolution and conservation genetics of pangolins. This review comprehensively presents the hitherto advances in phylogeny, adaptive evolution, conservation genetics, and conservation genomics that are related to pangolins, which will provide an ample understanding of their diversity, molecular adaptation mechanisms, and evolutionary potentials. In addition, we highlight the priority of investigating species/population diversity among pangolins and suggest several avenues of research that are highly relevant for future pangolin conservation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tongtong Gu
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resource in Yunnan, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
| | - Jingyang Hu
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resource in Yunnan, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
| | - Li Yu
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resource in Yunnan, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
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Carhuaricra-Huaman D, Gonzalez IHL, Ramos PL, da Silva AM, Setubal JC. Analysis of twelve genomes of the bacterium Kerstersia gyiorum from brown-throated sloths ( Bradypus variegatus), the first from a non-human host. PeerJ 2024; 12:e17206. [PMID: 38584940 PMCID: PMC10999152 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.17206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2024] [Accepted: 03/18/2024] [Indexed: 04/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Kerstersia gyiorum is a Gram-negative bacterium found in various animals, including humans, where it has been associated with various infections. Knowledge of the basic biology of K. gyiorum is essential to understand the evolutionary strategies of niche adaptation and how this organism contributes to infectious diseases; however, genomic data about K. gyiorum is very limited, especially from non-human hosts. In this work, we sequenced 12 K. gyiorum genomes isolated from healthy free-living brown-throated sloths (Bradypus variegatus) in the Parque Estadual das Fontes do Ipiranga (São Paulo, Brazil), and compared them with genomes from isolates of human origin, in order to gain insights into genomic diversity, phylogeny, and host specialization of this species. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that these K. gyiorum strains are structured according to host. Despite the fact that sloth isolates were sampled from a single geographic location, the intra-sloth K. gyiorum diversity was divided into three clusters, with differences of more than 1,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms between them, suggesting the circulation of various K. gyiorum lineages in sloths. Genes involved in mobilome and defense mechanisms against mobile genetic elements were the main source of gene content variation between isolates from different hosts. Sloth-specific K. gyiorum genome features include an IncN2 plasmid, a phage sequence, and a CRISPR-Cas system. The broad diversity of defense elements in K. gyiorum (14 systems) may prevent further mobile element flow and explain the low amount of mobile genetic elements in K. gyiorum genomes. Gene content variation may be important for the adaptation of K. gyiorum to different host niches. This study furthers our understanding of diversity, host adaptation, and evolution of K. gyiorum, by presenting and analyzing the first genomes of non-human isolates.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Irys H L Gonzalez
- Coordenadoria de Fauna Silvestre, Secretaria do Meio Ambiente, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - Patricia L Ramos
- Coordenadoria de Fauna Silvestre, Secretaria do Meio Ambiente, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - Aline M da Silva
- Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - Joao C Setubal
- Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
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Guo J, Shi W, Li X, Yang B, Qin C, Su L. Comparative Analysis of Gut Microbiomes in Laboratory Chinchillas, Ferrets, and Marmots: Implications for Pathogen Infection Research. Microorganisms 2024; 12:646. [PMID: 38674591 PMCID: PMC11051751 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms12040646] [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: 02/20/2024] [Revised: 03/17/2024] [Accepted: 03/21/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Gut microbes play a vital role in the health and disease of animals, especially in relation to pathogen infections. Chinchillas, ferrets, and marmots are commonly used as important laboratory animals for infectious disease research. Here, we studied the bacterial and fungal microbiota and discovered that chinchillas had higher alpha diversity and a higher abundance of bacteria compared to marmots and ferrets by using the metabarcoding of 16S rRNA genes and ITS2, coupled with co-occurrence network analysis. The dominant microbes varied significantly among the three animal species, particularly in the gut mycobiota. In the ferrets, the feces were dominated by yeast such as Rhodotorula and Kurtzmaniella, while in the chinchillas, we found Teunomyces and Penicillium dominating, and Acaulium, Piromyces, and Kernia in the marmots. Nevertheless, the dominant bacterial genera shared some similarities, such as Clostridium and Pseudomonas across the three animal species. However, there were significant differences observed, such as Vagococcus and Ignatzschineria in the ferrets, Acinetobacter and Bacteroides in the chinchillas, and Bacteroides and Cellvibrio in the marmots. Additionally, our differential analysis revealed significant differences in classification levels among the three different animal species, as well as variations in feeding habitats that resulted in distinct contributions from the host microbiome. Therefore, our data are valuable for monitoring and evaluating the impacts of the microbiome, as well as considering potential applications.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Lei Su
- NHC Key Laboratory of Human Disease Comparative Medicine, Beijing Engineering Research Center for Experimental Animal Models of Human Critical Diseases, International Center for Technology and Innovation of Animal Model, Institute of Laboratory Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) & Comparative Medicine Center, Peking Union Medical College (PUMC), Beijing 100021, China; (J.G.); (W.S.); (X.L.); (B.Y.); (C.Q.)
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Fong JJ, Sung YH, Ding L. Fine-scale geographic difference of the endangered Big-headed Turtle (Platysternon megacephalum) fecal microbiota, and comparison with the syntopic Beale's Eyed Turtle (Sacalia bealei). BMC Microbiol 2024; 24:71. [PMID: 38418973 PMCID: PMC10902975 DOI: 10.1186/s12866-024-03227-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2023] [Accepted: 02/15/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Studies have elucidated the importance of gut microbiota for an organism, but we are still learning about the important influencing factors. Several factors have been identified in helping shape the microbiome of a host, and in this study we focus on two factors-geography and host. We characterize the fecal microbiota of the Big-headed Turtle (Platysternon megacephalum) and compare across a relatively fine geographic scale (three populations within an 8-km radius) and between two syntopic hosts (P. megacephalum and Sacalia bealei). Both species are endangered, which limits the number of samples we include in the study. Despite this limitation, these data serve as baseline data for healthy, wild fecal microbiotas of two endangered turtle species to aid in conservation management. RESULTS For geography, the beta diversity of fecal microbiota differed between the most distant sites. The genus Citrobacter significantly differs between sites, which may indicate a difference in food availability, environmental microbiota, or both. Also, we identify the common core microbiome for Platysternon across Hong Kong as the shared taxa across the three sites. Additionally, beta diversity differs between host species. Since the two species are from the same site and encounter the same environmental microbiota, we infer that there is a host effect on the fecal microbiota, such as diet or the recruitment of host-adapted bacteria. Lastly, functional analyses found metabolism pathways (KEGG level 1) to be the most common, and pathways (KEGG level 3) to be statistically significant between sites, but statistically indistinguishable between species at the same site. CONCLUSIONS We find that fecal microbiota can significantly differ at a fine geographic scale and between syntopic hosts. Also, the function of fecal microbiota seems to be strongly affected by geographic site, rather than species. This study characterizes the identity and function of the fecal microbiota of two endangered turtle species, from what is likely their last remaining wild populations. These data of healthy, wild fecal microbiota will serve as a baseline for comparison and contribute to the conservation of these two endangered species.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Yik-Hei Sung
- Science Unit, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China
- School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Suffolk, 19 Neptune Quay, Ipswich, IP4 1QJ, UK
| | - Li Ding
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, China.
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10
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Wang S, Su M, Hu X, Wang X, Han Q, Yu Q, Heděnec P, Li H. Gut diazotrophs in lagomorphs are associated with season but not altitude and host phylogeny. FEMS Microbiol Lett 2024; 371:fnad135. [PMID: 38124623 DOI: 10.1093/femsle/fnad135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2023] [Revised: 11/27/2023] [Accepted: 12/19/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Invertebrates such as termites feeding on nutrient-poor substrate receive essential nitrogen by biological nitrogen fixation of gut diazotrophs. However, the diversity and composition of gut diazotrophs of vertebrates such as Plateau pikas living in nutrient-poor Qinghai-Tibet Plateau remain unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, we studied gut diazotrophs of Plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae) and its related species, Daurian pikas (Ochotona daurica), Hares (Lepus europaeus) and Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) by high-throughput amplicon sequencing methods. We analyzed whether the gut diazotrophs of Plateau pikas are affected by season, altitude, and species, and explored the relationship between gut diazotrophs and whole gut microbiomes. Our study showed that Firmicutes, Spirochaetes, and Euryarchaeota were the dominant gut diazotrophs of Plateau pikas. The beta diversity of gut diazotrophs of Plateau pikas was significantly different from the other three lagomorphs, but the alpha diversity did not show a significant difference among the four lagomorphs. The gut diazotrophs of Plateau pikas were the most similarly to that of Rabbits, followed by Daurian pikas and Hares, which was inconsistent with gut microbiomes or animal phylogeny. The dominant gut diazotrophs of the four lagomorphs may reflect their living environment and dietary habits. Season significantly affected the alpha diversity and abundance of dominant gut diazotrophs. Altitude had no significant effect on the gut diazotrophs of Plateau pikas. In addition, the congruence between gut microbiomes and gut diazotrophs was low. Our results proved that the gut of Plateau pikas was rich in gut diazotrophs, which is of great significance for the study of ecology and evolution of lagomorphs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sijie Wang
- School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China
| | - Ming Su
- Central South Inventory and Planning Institute of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, 143 Xiangzhang East Road, Changsha, Hunan Province 410014, China
| | - Xueqian Hu
- School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China
| | - Xiaochen Wang
- School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China
| | - Qian Han
- School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China
| | - Qiaoling Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, Center for Grassland Microbiome, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, 768 Jiayuguan West Road, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730020, China
| | - Petr Heděnec
- Institute for Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, University Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus, Terengganu 21030, Malaysia
| | - Huan Li
- School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, Center for Grassland Microbiome, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, 768 Jiayuguan West Road, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730020, China
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11
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Mazel F, Guisan A, Parfrey LW. Transmission mode and dispersal traits correlate with host specificity in mammalian gut microbes. Mol Ecol 2024; 33:e16862. [PMID: 36786039 DOI: 10.1111/mec.16862] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2022] [Revised: 11/24/2022] [Accepted: 01/09/2023] [Indexed: 02/15/2023]
Abstract
Different host species associate with distinct gut microbes in mammals, a pattern sometimes referred to as phylosymbiosis. However, the processes shaping this host specificity are not well understood. One model proposes that barriers to microbial transmission promote specificity by limiting microbial dispersal between hosts. This model predicts that specificity levels measured across microbes is correlated to transmission mode (vertical vs. horizontal) and individual dispersal traits. Here, we leverage two large publicly available gut microbiota data sets (1490 samples from 195 host species) to test this prediction. We found that host specificity varies widely across bacteria (i.e., there are generalist and specialist bacteria) and depends on transmission mode and dispersal ability. Horizontally-like transmitted bacteria equipped with traits that facilitate switches between host (e.g., tolerance to oxygen) were found to be less specific (more generalist) than microbes without those traits, for example, vertically-like inherited bacteria that are intolerant to oxygen. Altogether, our findings are compatible with a model in which limited microbial dispersal abilities foster host specificity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florent Mazel
- Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Antoine Guisan
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Laura Wegener Parfrey
- Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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12
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Čížková D, Schmiedová L, Kváč M, Sak B, Macholán M, Piálek J, Kreisinger J. The effect of host admixture on wild house mouse gut microbiota is weak when accounting for spatial autocorrelation. Mol Ecol 2024; 33:e17192. [PMID: 37933543 DOI: 10.1111/mec.17192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2023] [Revised: 10/18/2023] [Accepted: 10/20/2023] [Indexed: 11/08/2023]
Abstract
The question of how interactions between the gut microbiome and vertebrate hosts contribute to host adaptation and speciation is one of the major problems in current evolutionary research. Using bacteriome and mycobiome metabarcoding, we examined how these two components of the gut microbiota vary with the degree of host admixture in secondary contact between two house mouse subspecies (Mus musculus musculus and M. m. domesticus). We used a large data set collected at two replicates of the hybrid zone and model-based statistical analyses to ensure the robustness of our results. Assuming that the microbiota of wild hosts suffers from spatial autocorrelation, we directly compared the results of statistical models that were spatially naive with those that accounted for spatial autocorrelation. We showed that neglecting spatial autocorrelation can strongly affect the results and lead to misleading conclusions. The spatial analyses showed little difference between subspecies, both in microbiome composition and in individual bacterial lineages. Similarly, the degree of admixture had minimal effects on the gut bacteriome and mycobiome and was caused by changes in a few microbial lineages that correspond to the common symbionts of free-living house mice. In contrast to previous studies, these data do not support the hypothesis that the microbiota plays an important role in host reproductive isolation in this particular model system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dagmar Čížková
- Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Lucie Schmiedová
- Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Martin Kváč
- Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Agriculture and Technology, South Bohemia University, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Bohumil Sak
- Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Miloš Macholán
- Laboratory of Mammalian Evolutionary Genetics, Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Jaroslav Piálek
- Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Jakub Kreisinger
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
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13
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Buthgamuwa I, Fenelon JC, Roser A, Meer H, Johnston SD, Dungan AM. Gut microbiota in the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus Aculeatus) shows stability across gestation. Microbiologyopen 2023; 12:e1392. [PMID: 38129978 PMCID: PMC10721944 DOI: 10.1002/mbo3.1392] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2023] [Revised: 11/05/2023] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Indigenous gut microbial communities (microbiota) play critical roles in health and may be especially important for the mother and fetus during pregnancy. Monotremes, such as the short-beaked echidna, have evolved to lay and incubate an egg, which hatches in their pouch where the young feeds. Since both feces and eggs pass through the cloaca, the fecal microbiota of female echidnas provides an opportunity for vertical transmission of microbes to their offspring. Here, we characterize the gut/fecal microbiome of female short-beaked echidnas and gain a better understanding of the changes that may occur in their microbiome as they go through pregnancy. Fecal samples from four female and five male echidnas were obtained from the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in Queensland and sequenced to evaluate bacterial community structure. We identified 25 core bacteria, most of which were present in male and female samples. Genera such as Fusobacterium, Bacteroides, Escherichia-Shigella, and Lactobacillus were consistently abundant, regardless of sex or gestation stage, accounting for 58.00% and 56.14% of reads in male and female samples, respectively. The echidna microbiome remained stable across the different gestation stages, though there was a significant difference in microbiota composition between male and female echidnas. This study is the first to describe the microbiome composition of short-beaked echidnas across reproductive phases and allows the opportunity for this novel information to be used as a metric of health to aid in the detection of diseases triggered by microbiota dysbiosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isini Buthgamuwa
- School of BioSciencesUniversity of MelbourneMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
| | - Jane C. Fenelon
- School of BioSciencesUniversity of MelbourneMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
- Colossal Laboratories and BiosciencesDallasTexasUSA
| | - Alice Roser
- Currumbin Wildlife SanctuaryCurrumbinQueenslandAustralia
| | - Haley Meer
- Currumbin Wildlife SanctuaryCurrumbinQueenslandAustralia
| | - Stephen D. Johnston
- School of EnvironmentThe University of QueenslandGattonQueenslandAustralia
- School of Veterinary ScienceThe University of QueenslandGattonQueenslandAustralia
| | - Ashley M. Dungan
- School of BioSciencesUniversity of MelbourneMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
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14
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Brunetti AE, Lyra ML, Monteiro JPC, Zurano JP, Baldo D, Haddad CFB, Moeller AH. Convergence of gut microbiota in myrmecophagous amphibians. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20232223. [PMID: 37964521 PMCID: PMC10646458 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2023] [Accepted: 10/20/2023] [Indexed: 11/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The gut microbiome composition of terrestrial vertebrates is known to converge in response to common specialized dietary strategies, like leaf-eating (folivory) or ant- and termite-eating (myrmecophagy). To date, such convergence has been studied in mammals and birds, but has been neglected in amphibians. Here, we analysed 15 anuran species (frogs and toads) representing five Neotropical families and demonstrated the compositional convergence of the gut microbiomes of distantly related myrmecophagous species. Specifically, we found that the gut microbial communities of bufonids and microhylids, which have independently evolved myrmecophagy, were significantly more similar than expected based on their hosts' evolutionary divergence. Conversely, we found that gut microbiome composition was significantly associated with host evolutionary history in some cases. For instance, the microbiome composition of Xenohyla truncata, one of the few known amphibians that eat fruits, was not different from those of closely related tree frogs with an arthropod generalist diet. Bacterial taxa overrepresented in myrmecophagous species relative to other host families include Paludibacter, Treponema, and Rikenellaceae, suggesting diet-mediated selection and prey-to-predator transmission likely driving the observed compositional convergence. This study provides a basis for examining the roles of the gut microbiome in host tolerance and sequestration of toxic alkaloids from ants and termites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrés E. Brunetti
- Laboratorio de Genética Evolutiva, Instituto de Biología Subtropical (IBS, UNaM-CONICET), Posadas, Misiones 3300, Argentina
- Department of Insect Symbiosis, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena 07745, Germany
| | - Mariana L. Lyra
- New York University Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | - Juliane P. C. Monteiro
- Departamento de Biodiversidade e Centro de Aquicultura da UNESP (CAUNESP), Instituto de Biociências, UNESP-Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rio Claro, SP 13506-900, Brazil
| | - Juan P. Zurano
- Instituto de Biología Subtropical (IBS, UNaM-CONICET), Puerto Iguazú, Misiones 3370, Argentina
| | - Diego Baldo
- Laboratorio de Genética Evolutiva, Instituto de Biología Subtropical (IBS, UNaM-CONICET), Posadas, Misiones 3300, Argentina
| | - Celio F. B. Haddad
- Departamento de Biodiversidade e Centro de Aquicultura da UNESP (CAUNESP), Instituto de Biociências, UNESP-Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rio Claro, SP 13506-900, Brazil
| | - Andrew H. Moeller
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
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15
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Lin D, Hong J, Sanogo B, Du S, Xiang S, Hui JHL, Ding T, Wu Z, Sun X. Core gut microbes Cloacibacterium and Aeromonas associated with different gastropod species could be persistently transmitted across multiple generations. MICROBIOME 2023; 11:267. [PMID: 38017581 PMCID: PMC10685545 DOI: 10.1186/s40168-023-01700-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2022] [Accepted: 10/17/2023] [Indexed: 11/30/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Studies on the gut microbiota of animals have largely focused on vertebrates. The transmission modes of commensal intestinal bacteria in mammals have been well studied. However, in gastropods, the relationship between gut microbiota and hosts is still poorly understood. To gain a better understanding of the composition of gut microbes and their transmission routes in gastropods, a large-scale and long-term experiment on the dynamics and transmission modes of gut microbiota was conducted on freshwater snails. RESULTS We analyzed 244 microbial samples from the digestive tracts of freshwater gastropods and identified Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes as dominant gut microbes. Aeromonas, Cloacibacterium, and Cetobacterium were identified as core microbes in the guts, accounting for over 50% of the total sequences. Furthermore, both core bacteria Aeromonas and Cloacibacterium, were shared among 7 gastropod species and played an important role in determining the gut microbial community types of both wild and cultured gastropods. Analysis of the gut microbiota at the population level, including wild gastropods and their offspring, indicated that a proportion of gut microbes could be consistently vertically transmitted inheritance, while the majority of the gut microbes resulted from horizontal transmission. Comparing cultured snails to their wild counterparts, we observed an increasing trend in the proportion of shared microbes and a decreasing trend in the number of unique microbes among wild gastropods and their offspring reared in a cultured environment. Core gut microbes, Aeromonas and Cloacibacterium, remained persistent and dispersed from wild snails to their offspring across multiple generations. Interestingly, under cultured environments, the gut microbiota in wild gastropods could only be maintained for up to 2 generations before converging with that of cultured snails. The difference observed in gut bacterial metabolism functions was associated with this transition. Our study also demonstrated that the gut microbial compositions in gastropods are influenced by developmental stages and revealed the presence of Aeromonas and Cloacibacterium throughout the life cycle in gastropods. Based on the dynamics of core gut microbes, it may be possible to predict the health status of gastropods during their adaptation to new environments. Additionally, gut microbial metabolic functions were found to be associated with the adaptive evolution of gastropods from wild to cultured environments. CONCLUSIONS Our findings provide novel insights into the dynamic processes of gut microbiota colonization in gastropod mollusks and unveil the modes of microbial transmission within their guts. Video Abstract.
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Affiliation(s)
- Datao Lin
- Department of Parasitology, Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control (Ministry of Education), Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
- Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Diseases-vectors Control and Chinese Atomic Energy Agency Center of Excellence on Nuclear Technology Applications for Insect Control, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
| | - Jinni Hong
- Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Benjamin Sanogo
- Department of Parasitology, Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control (Ministry of Education), Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
- Laboratory of Parasitology, Institut National de Recherche en Sante Publique, Bamako, Mali
| | - Shuling Du
- Department of Parasitology, Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control (Ministry of Education), Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
- Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Diseases-vectors Control and Chinese Atomic Energy Agency Center of Excellence on Nuclear Technology Applications for Insect Control, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Suoyu Xiang
- Department of Parasitology, Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control (Ministry of Education), Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
- Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Diseases-vectors Control and Chinese Atomic Energy Agency Center of Excellence on Nuclear Technology Applications for Insect Control, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jerome Ho-Lam Hui
- State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, School of Life Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Tao Ding
- Department of Parasitology, Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control (Ministry of Education), Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
- Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Diseases-vectors Control and Chinese Atomic Energy Agency Center of Excellence on Nuclear Technology Applications for Insect Control, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
| | - Zhongdao Wu
- Department of Parasitology, Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control (Ministry of Education), Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
- Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Diseases-vectors Control and Chinese Atomic Energy Agency Center of Excellence on Nuclear Technology Applications for Insect Control, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
| | - Xi Sun
- Department of Parasitology, Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control (Ministry of Education), Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
- Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Diseases-vectors Control and Chinese Atomic Energy Agency Center of Excellence on Nuclear Technology Applications for Insect Control, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
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16
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Williams CE, Brown AE, Williams CL. The role of diet and host species in shaping the seasonal dynamics of the gut microbiome. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 2023; 99:fiad156. [PMID: 38070877 PMCID: PMC10750813 DOI: 10.1093/femsec/fiad156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Revised: 10/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/08/2023] [Indexed: 12/27/2023] Open
Abstract
The gut microbiome plays an important role in the health and fitness of hosts. While previous studies have characterized the importance of various ecological and evolutionary factors in shaping the composition of the gut microbiome, most studies have been cross-sectional in nature, ignoring temporal variation. Thus, it remains unknown how these same factors might affect the stability and dynamics of the gut microbiome over time, resulting in variation across the tree of life. Here, we used samples collected in each of four seasons for three taxa: the herbivorous southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum, n = 5); the carnivorous Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae, n = 5); and the red panda (Ailurus fulgens, n = 9), a herbivorous carnivore that underwent a diet shift in its evolutionary history from carnivory to a primarily bamboo-based diet. We characterize the variability of the gut microbiome among these three taxa across time to elucidate the influence of diet and host species on these dynamics. Altogether, we found that red pandas exhibit marked seasonal variation in their gut microbial communities, experiencing both high microbial community turnover and high variation in how individual red panda's gut microbiota respond to seasonal changes. Conversely, while the gut microbiota of rhinoceros change throughout the year, all individuals respond in the same way to seasonal changes. Tigers experience relatively low levels of turnover throughout the year, yet the ways in which individuals respond to seasonal transitions are highly varied. We highlight how the differences in microbiome richness and network connectivity between these three species may affect the level of temporal stability in the gut microbiota across the year.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire E Williams
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557, United States
| | - Ashli E Brown
- Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology, and Plant Pathology, Mississippi State University, MS State, MS 39762, United States
| | - Candace L Williams
- Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology, and Plant Pathology, Mississippi State University, MS State, MS 39762, United States
- Beckman Center for Conservation Science, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, San Diego, CA 92027, United States
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17
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Teullet S, Tilak MK, Magdeleine A, Schaub R, Weyer NM, Panaino W, Fuller A, Loughry WJ, Avenant NL, de Thoisy B, Borrel G, Delsuc F. Metagenomics uncovers dietary adaptations for chitin digestion in the gut microbiota of convergent myrmecophagous mammals. mSystems 2023; 8:e0038823. [PMID: 37650612 PMCID: PMC10654083 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00388-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Accepted: 06/19/2023] [Indexed: 09/01/2023] Open
Abstract
IMPORTANCE Myrmecophagous mammals are specialized in the consumption of ants and/or termites. They do not share a direct common ancestor and evolved convergently in five distinct placental orders raising questions about the underlying adaptive mechanisms involved and the relative contribution of natural selection and phylogenetic constraints. Understanding how these species digest their prey can help answer these questions. More specifically, the role of their gut microbial symbionts in the digestion of the insect chitinous exoskeleton has not been investigated in all myrmecophagous orders. We generated 29 new gut metagenomes from nine myrmecophagous species to reconstruct more than 300 bacterial genomes in which we identified chitin-degrading enzymes. Studying the distribution of these chitinolytic bacteria among hosts revealed both shared and specific bacteria between ant-eating species. Overall, our results highlight the potential role of gut symbionts in the convergent dietary adaptation of myrmecophagous mammals and the evolutionary mechanisms shaping their gut microbiota.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Teullet
- Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier (ISEM), Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Montpellier, France
| | - Marie-Ka Tilak
- Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier (ISEM), Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Montpellier, France
| | - Amandine Magdeleine
- Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier (ISEM), Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Montpellier, France
| | - Roxane Schaub
- CIC AG/Inserm 1424, Centre Hospitalier de Cayenne Andrée Rosemon, Cayenne, French Guiana, France
- Tropical Biome and immunopathology, Université de Guyane, Labex CEBA, DFR Santé, Cayenne, French Guiana, France
| | - Nora M. Weyer
- Brain Function Research Group, School of Physiology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Wendy Panaino
- Brain Function Research Group, School of Physiology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Centre for African Ecology, School of Animals, Plant, and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Andrea Fuller
- Brain Function Research Group, School of Physiology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - W. J. Loughry
- Department of Biology, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia, USA
| | - Nico L. Avenant
- National Museum and Centre for Environmental Management, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
| | - Benoit de Thoisy
- Institut Pasteur de la Guyane, Cayenne, French Guiana, France
- Kwata NGO, Cayenne, French Guiana, France
| | - Guillaume Borrel
- Evolutionary Biology of the Microbial Cell, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
| | - Frédéric Delsuc
- Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier (ISEM), Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Montpellier, France
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18
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Wang Y, Long Z, Zhang Y, Li X, Zhang X, Su H. Host genetic background rather than diet-induced gut microbiota shifts of sympatric black-necked crane, common crane and bar-headed goose. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1270716. [PMID: 37933251 PMCID: PMC10625752 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1270716] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2023] [Accepted: 09/19/2023] [Indexed: 11/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Gut microbiota of wild birds are affected by many factors, and host genetic background and diet are considered to be two important factors affecting their structure and function. Methods In order to clarify how these two factors influence the gut microbiota, this study selected the sympatric and closely related and similar-sized Black-necked Crane (Grus nigricollis) and Common Crane (Grus grus), as well as the distantly related and significantly different-sized Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus). The fecal samples identified using sanger sequencing as the above three bird species were subjected to high-throughput sequencing of rbcL gene and 16S rRNA gene to identify the feeding types phytophagous food and gut microbiota. Results The results showed significant differences in food diversity between black-necked cranes and Common Cranes, but no significant differences in gut microbiota, Potatoes accounted for approximately 50% of their diets. Bar-headed Geese mainly feed on medicinal plants such as Angelica sinensis, Alternanthera philoxeroides, and Ranunculus repens. Black-necked cranes and Common Cranes, which have a high-starch diet, have a similar degree of enrichment in metabolism and synthesis functions, which is significantly different from Bar-headed Geese with a high-fiber diet. The differences in metabolic pathways among the three bird species are driven by food. The feeding of medicinal plants promotes the health of Bar-headed Geese, indicating that food influences the functional pathways of gut microbiota. Spearman analysis showed that there were few gut microbiota related to food, but almost all metabolic pathways were related to food. Conclusion The host genetic background is the dominant factor determining the composition of the microbiota. Monitoring the changes in gut microbiota and feeding types of wild birds through bird feces is of great reference value for the conservation of other endangered species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yeying Wang
- Key Laboratory of State Forestry Administration on Biodiversity Conservation in Karst Mountainous Area of Southwestern of China, School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China
- Research Center for Biodiversity and Natural Conservation, Guizhou University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China
- Guizhou Caohai Observation and Research Station for Wet Ecosystem, National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Bijie, Guizhou, China
| | - Zhengmin Long
- Key Laboratory of State Forestry Administration on Biodiversity Conservation in Karst Mountainous Area of Southwestern of China, School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China
| | - Yu Zhang
- Key Laboratory of State Forestry Administration on Biodiversity Conservation in Karst Mountainous Area of Southwestern of China, School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China
| | - Xianyu Li
- Key Laboratory of State Forestry Administration on Biodiversity Conservation in Karst Mountainous Area of Southwestern of China, School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China
| | - Xu Zhang
- Research Center for Biodiversity and Natural Conservation, Guizhou University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China
| | - Haijun Su
- Research Center for Biodiversity and Natural Conservation, Guizhou University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China
- Guizhou Caohai Observation and Research Station for Wet Ecosystem, National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Bijie, Guizhou, China
- College of Forestry, Guizhou University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China
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19
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Zhang XY, Khakisahneh S, Liu W, Zhang X, Zhai W, Cheng J, Speakman JR, Wang DH. Phylogenetic signal in gut microbial community rather than in rodent metabolic traits. Natl Sci Rev 2023; 10:nwad209. [PMID: 37928774 PMCID: PMC10625476 DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwad209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2022] [Revised: 07/10/2023] [Accepted: 07/19/2023] [Indexed: 11/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Host phylogeny and environment have all been implicated in shaping the gut microbiota and host metabolic traits of mammals. However, few studies have evaluated phylogeny-associated microbial assembly and host metabolic plasticity concurrently, and their relationships on both short-term and evolutionary timescales. We report that the branching order of a gut microbial dendrogram was nearly congruent with phylogenetic relationships of seven rodent species, and this pattern of phylosymbiosis was intact after diverse laboratory manipulations. Laboratory rearing, diet or air temperature (Ta) acclimation induced alterations in gut microbial communities, but could not override host phylogeny in shaping microbial community assembly. A simulative heatwave reduced core microbiota diversity by 26% in these species, and led to an unmatched relationship between the microbiota and host metabolic phenotypes in desert species. Moreover, the similarity of metabolic traits across species at different Tas was not correlated with phylogenetic distance. These data demonstrated that the gut microbial assembly showed strong concordance with host phylogeny and may be shaped by environmental variables, whereas host metabolic traits did not seem to be linked with phylogeny.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xue-Ying Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Saeid Khakisahneh
- State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Wei Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Xinyi Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
| | - Weiwei Zhai
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
| | - Jilong Cheng
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - John R Speakman
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Metabolic Health, Center for Energy Metabolism and Reproduction, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
- Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB39 2PN, UK
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - De-Hua Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
- School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Biotic Interactions, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
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Zhang C, Hu L, Hao J, Cai W, Qin M, Gao Q, Nie M, Qi D, Ma R. Effects of plant-derived protein and rapeseed oil on growth performance and gut microbiomes in rainbow trout. BMC Microbiol 2023; 23:255. [PMID: 37704987 PMCID: PMC10498547 DOI: 10.1186/s12866-023-02998-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/28/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is becoming popular with the increased demand for fish protein. However, the limited resources and expense of fish meal and oil have become restrictive factors for the development of the rainbow trout related industry. To solve this problem, plant-derived proteins and vegetable oils have been developed as alternative resources. The present study focuses on evaluating the effects of two experimental diets, FMR (fish meal replaced with plant-derived protein) and FOR (fish oil replaced with rapeseed oil), through the alteration of the gut microbiota in triploid rainbow trout. The commercial diet was used in the control group (FOM). RESULTS Amplicon sequencing of the 16S and 18S rRNA genes was used to assess the changes in gut bacteria and fungi. Our analysis suggested that the α-diversity of both bacteria and fungi decreased significantly in the FMR and FOR groups, and β-diversity was distinct between FOM/FMR and FOM/FOR based on principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). The abundance of the Planctomycetota phylum increased significantly in the FMR group, while that of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes decreased. We also found that the fungal phylum Ascomycota was significantly increased in the FMR and FOR groups. At the genus level, we found that the abundance of Citrobacter was the lowest and that of pathogenic Schlesneria, Brevundimonas, and Mycoplasma was highest in the FMR and FOR groups. Meanwhile, the pathogenic fungal genera Verticillium and Aspergillus were highest in the FMR and FOR groups. Furthermore, canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and network analysis suggested that the relatively low-abundance genera, including the beneficial bacteria Methylobacterium, Enterococcus, Clostridium, Exiguobacterium, Sphingomonas and Bacteroides and the fungi Papiliotrema, Preussia, and Stachybotrys, were positively correlated with plant protein or rapeseed oil. There were more modules that had the above beneficial genera as the hub nodes in the FMR and FOR groups. CONCLUSIONS Our study suggested that the FMR and FOR diets could affect the gut microbiome in rainbow trout, which might offset the effects of the dominant and pathogenic microbial genera. This could be the underlying mechanism of explaining why no significant difference was observed in body weight between the different groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cunfang Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining, 810001, China
| | - Lingyong Hu
- Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, 810001, China
| | - Jiahui Hao
- State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining, 810001, China
- College of Eco-Environmental Engineering, Qinghai University, Xining, 810001, China
| | - Weijie Cai
- State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining, 810001, China
- College of Eco-Environmental Engineering, Qinghai University, Xining, 810001, China
| | - Minxin Qin
- State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining, 810001, China
- College of Eco-Environmental Engineering, Qinghai University, Xining, 810001, China
| | - Qiang Gao
- State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining, 810001, China
| | - Miaomiao Nie
- State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining, 810001, China
| | - Delin Qi
- State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining, 810001, China
| | - Rui Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining, 810001, China.
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21
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Pacheco-Torres I, Hernández-Sánchez D, García-De la Peña C, Tarango-Arámbula LA, Crosby-Galván MM, Sánchez-Santillán P. Analysis of the Intestinal and Faecal Bacterial Microbiota of the Cervidae Family Using 16S Next-Generation Sequencing: A Review. Microorganisms 2023; 11:1860. [PMID: 37513032 PMCID: PMC10386072 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms11071860] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Revised: 07/01/2023] [Accepted: 07/15/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
The Cervidae family has a wide distribution due to its adaptation to numerous ecological environments, which allows it to develop a diverse microbial community in its digestive tract. Recently, research has focused on the taxonomic composition and functionality of the intestinal and faecal microbiota of different cervid species worldwide, as well as their microbial diversity and variation under different associated factors such as age, sex, diet, distribution, and seasonal variation. In addition, there is special interest in knowing how cervids act as reservoirs of zoonotic pathogenic microorganisms, which represent a threat to public health. This review provides a synthesis of the growing field of microbiota determination in cervids worldwide, focusing on intestinal and faecal samples using 16S next-generation sequencing. It also documents factors influencing microbial diversity and composition, the microorganisms reported as pathogenic/zoonotic, and the perspectives regarding the conservation of these species. Knowing the interactions between bacteria and cervid health can drive management and conservation strategies for these species and help develop an understanding of their evolutionary history and the interaction with emerging disease-causing microorganisms.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Paulino Sánchez-Santillán
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics No. 2, Autonomous University of Guerrero, Cuajinicuilapa 41940, Mexico
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Klećkowska-Nawrot J, Barszcz K, Miniajluk JP, Melnyk O, Goździewska-Harłajczuk K. Comparative Histology and Histochemistry of the Parotid Gland and Mandibular Gland in the Lowland Tapir ( Tapirus terrestris Perissodactyla) and Aardvark ( Orycteropus afer Tubulidentata). Animals (Basel) 2023; 13:ani13101684. [PMID: 37238113 DOI: 10.3390/ani13101684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Revised: 05/15/2023] [Accepted: 05/16/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023] Open
Abstract
In terrestrial mammals, the parotid and mandibular glands secrete different types of saliva into the oral cavity. Both glands were obtained from two female lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) and one female aardvark (Orycteropus afer) from the Wroclaw Zoological Garden (Poland) and examined by light microscopy (hematoxylin and eosin, mucicarmine, periodic acid-Schiff, Alcian blue pH 1.0, Alcian blue pH 2.5, Alcian blue pH 2.5/PAS, and Hale's dialysed iron). Both the parotid glands observed in the lowland tapir and aardvark were compound alveolar serous secretory units, and in both species, the secretion was composed of neutral and acidic mucopolysaccharides (sialo and sulfated mucins). However, in both the lowland tapir and aardvark, a histological examination found the stroma of the mandibular gland was divided into very large lobes by poorly marked connective tissue. While many interlobar and striated ducts were found in the aardvark, very few were found in the lowland tapir. The mandibular gland was a branched tubular (mucous secretion) type in the lowland tapir, but it was a branched tubuloalveolar (mucous-serous) type in the aardvark. In all tested glands, the secretion was composed of neutral mucopolysaccharides, acid-sulfated mucosubstances, and sialomucins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joanna Klećkowska-Nawrot
- Department of Biostructure and Animal Physiology, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Kozuchowska 1, 51-631 Wrocław, Poland
| | - Karolina Barszcz
- Department of Morphological Sciences, Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, Nowoursynowska 159c, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Jan Paweł Miniajluk
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, "Alkmeon" Anatomy Scientific Society, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Kozuchowska 1, 51-631 Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Oleksii Melnyk
- Department of Animal Anatomy, Histology and Pathomorphology, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Heroiv Oborony Str. 15, 03041 Kyiv, Ukraine
| | - Karolina Goździewska-Harłajczuk
- Department of Biostructure and Animal Physiology, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Kozuchowska 1, 51-631 Wrocław, Poland
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23
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Hu Y, Wang X, Xu Y, Yang H, Tong Z, Tian R, Xu S, Yu L, Guo Y, Shi P, Huang S, Yang G, Shi S, Wei F. Molecular mechanisms of adaptive evolution in wild animals and plants. SCIENCE CHINA. LIFE SCIENCES 2023; 66:453-495. [PMID: 36648611 PMCID: PMC9843154 DOI: 10.1007/s11427-022-2233-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 29.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2022] [Accepted: 08/30/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
Wild animals and plants have developed a variety of adaptive traits driven by adaptive evolution, an important strategy for species survival and persistence. Uncovering the molecular mechanisms of adaptive evolution is the key to understanding species diversification, phenotypic convergence, and inter-species interaction. As the genome sequences of more and more non-model organisms are becoming available, the focus of studies on molecular mechanisms of adaptive evolution has shifted from the candidate gene method to genetic mapping based on genome-wide scanning. In this study, we reviewed the latest research advances in wild animals and plants, focusing on adaptive traits, convergent evolution, and coevolution. Firstly, we focused on the adaptive evolution of morphological, behavioral, and physiological traits. Secondly, we reviewed the phenotypic convergences of life history traits and responding to environmental pressures, and the underlying molecular convergence mechanisms. Thirdly, we summarized the advances of coevolution, including the four main types: mutualism, parasitism, predation and competition. Overall, these latest advances greatly increase our understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms for diverse adaptive traits and species interaction, demonstrating that the development of evolutionary biology has been greatly accelerated by multi-omics technologies. Finally, we highlighted the emerging trends and future prospects around the above three aspects of adaptive evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yibo Hu
- CAS Key Lab of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
| | - Xiaoping Wang
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources in Yunnan, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650091, China
| | - Yongchao Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China
| | - Hui Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China
| | - Zeyu Tong
- Institute of Evolution and Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China
| | - Ran Tian
- College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China
| | - Shaohua Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Key Lab of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China
| | - Li Yu
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources in Yunnan, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650091, China.
| | - Yalong Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.
| | - Peng Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China.
| | - Shuangquan Huang
- Institute of Evolution and Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China.
| | - Guang Yang
- Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, 511458, China.
- College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China.
| | - Suhua Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Key Lab of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
| | - Fuwen Wei
- CAS Key Lab of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
- Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, 511458, China.
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24
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Li H, Xia W, Liu X, Wang X, Liu G, Chen H, Zhu L, Li D. Food provisioning results in functional, but not compositional, convergence of the gut microbiomes of two wild Rhinopithecus species: Evidence of functional redundancy in the gut microbiome. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 858:159957. [PMID: 36343820 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159957] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2022] [Revised: 10/29/2022] [Accepted: 10/31/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
The consumption of similar diets has led to the convergence of gut microbial compositions and functions across phylogenetically distinct animals. However, given the functional redundancy in gut microbiomes, it remains unclear whether synchrony occurs in their functions only and not in their composition, even within phylogenetically close animals consuming a similar diet. In this study, we collected fresh fecal samples from a Rhinopithecus roxellana population in April 2021 (before food provisioning) and June and December 2021 (after food provisioning) and used high-throughput sequencing methods (full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing and metagenomes) to investigate changes in the gut microbiome due to food provisioning. Combining the results from our previous studies on a wild Rhinopithecus bieti population, we found that the artificial food provisions (e.g., apples, carrots, and peanuts) affected the gut microbiome, and synchrony occurred only in its functions and antibiotic resistance gene community in both Rhinopithecus species, reflecting its ecological functional redundancy. Given the current findings (e.g., depletion in probiotic microbes, dysbiosis in the gut microbial community, and changes in the antibiotic resistance gene profile), anthropogenic disturbances (e.g., food provisioning) would have potential negative effects on host health. Therefore, human activity in animal conservation should be rethought from the standpoint of gut microbial diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hong Li
- Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan, China; Horticulture Research Institute, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Wancai Xia
- Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan, China
| | - Xingyu Liu
- Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan, China
| | - Xueyu Wang
- Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan, China
| | - Guoqi Liu
- Mingke Biotechnology, Hangzhou, China
| | - Hua Chen
- Mingke Biotechnology, Hangzhou, China
| | - Lifeng Zhu
- School of Medicine & Holistic Integrative Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China.
| | - Dayong Li
- Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan, China.
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25
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Joakim RL, Irham M, Haryoko T, Rowe KMC, Dalimunthe Y, Anita S, Achmadi AS, McGuire JA, Perkins S, Bowie RCK. Geography and elevation as drivers of cloacal microbiome assemblages of a passerine bird distributed across Sulawesi, Indonesia. Anim Microbiome 2023; 5:4. [PMID: 36647179 PMCID: PMC9841722 DOI: 10.1186/s42523-022-00219-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2022] [Accepted: 12/13/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Empirical field studies allow us to view how ecological and environmental processes shape the biodiversity of our planet, but collecting samples in situ creates inherent challenges. The majority of empirical vertebrate gut microbiome research compares multiple host species against abiotic and biotic factors, increasing the potential for confounding environmental variables. To minimize these confounding factors, we focus on a single species of passerine bird found throughout the geologically complex island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. We assessed the effects of two environmental factors, geographic Areas of Endemism (AOEs) and elevation, as well as host sex on the gut microbiota assemblages of the Sulawesi Babbler, Pellorneum celebense, from three different mountains across the island. Using cloacal swabs, high-throughput-amplicon sequencing, and multiple statistical models, we identified the core microbiome and determined the signal of these three factors on microbial composition. RESULTS The five most prevalent bacterial phyla within the gut microbiome of P. celebense were Proteobacteria (32.6%), Actinobacteria (25.2%), Firmicutes (22.1%), Bacteroidetes (8.7%), and Plantomycetes (2.6%). These results are similar to those identified in prior studies of passeriform microbiomes. Overall, microbiota diversity decreased as elevation increased, irrespective of sex or AOE. A single ASV of Clostridium was enriched in higher elevation samples, while lower elevation samples were enriched with the genera Perlucidibaca (Family Moraxellaceae), Lachnoclostridium (Family Lachnospiraceae), and an unidentified species in the Family Pseudonocardiaceae. CONCLUSIONS While the core microbiota families recovered here are consistent with other passerine studies, the decreases in diversity as elevation increases has only been seen in non-avian hosts. Additionally, the increased abundance of Clostridium at high elevations suggests a potential microbial response to lower oxygen levels. This study emphasizes the importance of incorporating multiple statistical models and abiotic factors such as elevation in empirical microbiome research, and is the first to describe an avian gut microbiome from the island of Sulawesi.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachael L. Joakim
- grid.254250.40000 0001 2264 7145Department of Biology, The City College of New York, 160 Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031 USA ,grid.253482.a0000 0001 0170 7903The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, Biology Program, 365 5Th Ave, New York, NY 10016 USA ,grid.241963.b0000 0001 2152 1081Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024 USA ,grid.241963.b0000 0001 2152 1081The Richard Gilder Graduate School, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024 USA
| | - Mohammad Irham
- Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Centre for Biology, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jl. Raya Jakarta - Bogor Km 46, Cibinong, 16911 Indonesia
| | - Tri Haryoko
- Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Centre for Biology, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jl. Raya Jakarta - Bogor Km 46, Cibinong, 16911 Indonesia
| | - Karen M. C. Rowe
- grid.436717.00000 0004 0500 6540Sciences Department, Museums Victoria, Carlton, VIC Australia ,grid.1008.90000 0001 2179 088XBioSciences Department, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC Australia
| | - Yohanna Dalimunthe
- Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Centre for Biology, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jl. Raya Jakarta - Bogor Km 46, Cibinong, 16911 Indonesia
| | - Syahfitri Anita
- Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Centre for Biology, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jl. Raya Jakarta - Bogor Km 46, Cibinong, 16911 Indonesia
| | - Anang S. Achmadi
- Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Centre for Biology, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jl. Raya Jakarta - Bogor Km 46, Cibinong, 16911 Indonesia
| | - Jimmy A. McGuire
- grid.47840.3f0000 0001 2181 7878Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
| | - Susan Perkins
- grid.254250.40000 0001 2264 7145Department of Biology, The City College of New York, 160 Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031 USA ,grid.253482.a0000 0001 0170 7903The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, Biology Program, 365 5Th Ave, New York, NY 10016 USA
| | - Rauri C. K. Bowie
- grid.47840.3f0000 0001 2181 7878Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
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26
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Chen C, Chen S, Wang B. A glance at the gut microbiota and the functional roles of the microbes based on marmot fecal samples. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1035944. [PMID: 37125200 PMCID: PMC10140447 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1035944] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2022] [Accepted: 03/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Research on the gut microbiota, which involves a large and complex microbial community, is an important part of infectious disease control. In China, few studies have been reported on the diversity of the gut microbiota of wild marmots. To obtain full details of the gut microbiota, including bacteria, fungi, viruses and archaea, in wild marmots, we have sequenced metagenomes from five sample-sites feces on the Hulun Buir Grassland in Inner Mongolia, China. We have created a comprehensive database of bacterial, fungal, viral, and archaeal genomes and aligned metagenomic sequences (determined based on marmot fecal samples) against the database. We delineated the detailed and distinct gut microbiota structures of marmots. A total of 5,891 bacteria, 233 viruses, 236 fungi, and 217 archaea were found. The dominant bacterial phyla were Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Actinomycetes. The viral families were Myoviridae, Siphoviridae, Phycodnaviridae, Herpesviridae and Podoviridae. The dominant fungi phyla were Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Blastocladiomycota. The dominant archaea were Biobacteria, Omoarchaea, Nanoarchaea, and Microbacteria. Furthermore, the gut microbiota was affected by host species and environment, and environment was the most important factor. There were 36,989 glycoside hydrolase genes in the microbiota, with 365 genes homologous to genes encoding β-glucosidase, cellulase, and cellulose β-1,4-cellobiosidase. Additionally, antibiotic resistance genes such as macB, bcrA, and msbA were abundant. To sum up, the gut microbiota of marmot had population diversity and functional diversity, which provides a basis for further research on the regulatory effects of the gut microbiota on the host. In addition, metagenomics revealed that the gut microbiota of marmots can degrade cellulose and hemicellulose.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chuizhe Chen
- Department of Pathology, Hainan General Hospital, Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
- Key Laboratory of Tropical Translational Medicine of Ministry of Education, NHC Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control, School of Tropical Medicine and the Second Affiliated Hospital, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
| | - Shu Chen
- Medical Laboratory Center, Hainan General Hospital, Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
| | - Bo Wang
- Department of Pathology, Hainan General Hospital, Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
- *Correspondence: Bo Wang,
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Vasconcelos DS, Harris DJ, Damas-Moreira I, Pereira A, Xavier R. Factors shaping the gut microbiome of five species of lizards from different habitats. PeerJ 2023; 11:e15146. [PMID: 37187519 PMCID: PMC10178224 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.15146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2022] [Accepted: 03/09/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Host-gut microbiota interactions are complex and can have a profound impact on the ecology and evolution of both counterparts. Several host traits such as systematics, diet and social behavior, and external factors such as prey availability and local environment are known to influence the composition and diversity of the gut microbiota. Methods In this study, we investigate the influence of systematics, sex, host size, and locality/habitat on gut microbiota diversity in five lizard species from two different sites in Portugal: Podarcis bocagei and Podarcis lusitanicus, living in syntopy in a rural area in northern Portugal (Moledo); the invasive Podarcis siculus and the native Podarcis virescens, living in sympatry in an urbanized environment (Lisbon); and the invasive Teira dugesii also living in an urban area (Lisbon). We also infer the potential microbial transmission occurring between species living in sympatry and syntopy. To achieve these goals, we use a metabarcoding approach to characterize the bacterial communities from the cloaca of lizards, sequencing the V4 region of the 16S rRNA. Results Habitat/locality was an important factor explaining differences in gut bacterial composition and structure, with species from urbanized environments having higher bacterial diversity. Host systematics (i.e., species) influenced gut bacterial community structure only in lizards from the urbanized environment. We also detected a significant positive correlation between lizard size and gut bacterial alpha-diversity in the invasive species P. siculus, which could be due to its higher exploratory behavior. Moreover, estimates of bacterial transmission indicate that P. siculus may have acquired a high proportion of local microbiota after its introduction. These findings confirm that a diverse array of host and environmental factors can influence lizards' gut microbiota.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diana S. Vasconcelos
- CIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão da Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal
- Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
- BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO - Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal
| | - D. James Harris
- CIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão da Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal
- BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO - Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal
| | | | - Ana Pereira
- CIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão da Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal
- Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
- BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO - Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal
| | - Raquel Xavier
- CIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão da Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal
- BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO - Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal
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28
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Härer A, Rennison DJ. Quantifying (non)parallelism of gut microbial community change using multivariate vector analysis. Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e9674. [PMID: 36590339 PMCID: PMC9797641 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.9674] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2022] [Revised: 11/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/09/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Parallel evolution of phenotypic traits is regarded as strong evidence for natural selection and has been studied extensively in a variety of taxa. However, we have limited knowledge of whether parallel evolution of host organisms is accompanied by parallel changes of their associated microbial communities (i.e., microbiotas), which are crucial for their hosts' ecology and evolution. Determining the extent of microbiota parallelism in nature can improve our ability to identify the factors that are associated with (putatively adaptive) shifts in microbial communities. While it has been emphasized that (non)parallel evolution is better considered as a quantitative continuum rather than a binary phenomenon, quantitative approaches have rarely been used to study microbiota parallelism. We advocate using multivariate vector analysis (i.e., phenotypic change vector analysis) to quantify direction and magnitude of microbiota changes and discuss the applicability of this approach for studying parallelism, and we compiled an R package for multivariate vector analysis of microbial communities ('multivarvector'). We exemplify its use by reanalyzing gut microbiota data from multiple fish species that exhibit parallel shifts in trophic ecology. We found that multivariate vector analysis results were largely consistent with other statistical methods, parallelism estimates were not affected by the taxonomic level at which the microbiota is studied, and parallelism might be stronger for gut microbiota function compared to taxonomic composition. This approach provides an analytical framework for quantitative comparisons across host lineages, thereby providing the potential to advance our capacity to predict microbiota changes. Hence, we emphasize that the development and application of quantitative measures, such as multivariate vector analysis, should be further explored in microbiota research in order to better understand the role of microbiota dynamics during their hosts' adaptive evolution, particularly in settings of parallel evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas Härer
- School of Biological Sciences, Department of Ecology, Behavior, & EvolutionUniversity of California San DiegoLa JollaCaliforniaUSA
| | - Diana J. Rennison
- School of Biological Sciences, Department of Ecology, Behavior, & EvolutionUniversity of California San DiegoLa JollaCaliforniaUSA
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Zhang W, Xie J, Xia S, Fan X, Schmitz-Esser S, Zeng B, Zheng L, Huang H, Wang H, Zhong J, Zhang Z, Zhang L, Jiang M, Hou R. Evaluating a potential model to analyze the function of the gut microbiota of the giant panda. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:1086058. [PMID: 36605506 PMCID: PMC9808404 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.1086058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2022] [Accepted: 11/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
To contribute to the conservation of endangered animals, the utilization of model systems is critical to analyze the function of their gut microbiota. In this study, the results of a fecal microbial transplantation (FMT) experiment with germ-free (GF) mice receiving giant panda or horse fecal microbiota showed a clear clustering by donor microbial communities in GF mice, which was consistent with the results of blood metabolites from these mice. At the genus level, FMT re-established approximately 9% of the giant panda donor microbiota in GF mice compared to about 32% for the horse donor microbiota. In line with this, the difference between the panda donor microbiota and panda-mice microbiota on whole-community level was significantly larger than that between the horse donor microbiota and the horse-mice microbiota. These results were consistent with source tracking analysis that found a significantly higher retention rate of the horse donor microbiota (30.9%) than the giant panda donor microbiota (4.0%) in GF mice where the microbiota remained stable after FMT. Further analyzes indicated that the possible reason for the low retention rate of the panda donor microbiota in GF mice was a low relative abundance of Clostridiaceae in the panda donor microbiota. Our results indicate that the donor microbiota has a large effect on GF mice microbiota after FMT.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenping Zhang
- Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu, Sichuan, China,Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu, Sichuan, China,*Correspondence: Wenping Zhang, ; Mingfeng Jiang, ; Rong Hou,
| | - Junjin Xie
- Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu, Sichuan, China,Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu, Sichuan, China,Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Shan Xia
- College of Chemistry and Life Science, Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Xueyang Fan
- Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu, Sichuan, China,Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | | | - Benhua Zeng
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Southwest Hospital, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, China
| | - Lijun Zheng
- Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu, Sichuan, China,Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - He Huang
- Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu, Sichuan, China,Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Hairui Wang
- Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu, Sichuan, China,Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Jincheng Zhong
- Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Zhihe Zhang
- Sichuan Academy of Giant Panda, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Liang Zhang
- Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu, Sichuan, China,Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Mingfeng Jiang
- Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China,*Correspondence: Wenping Zhang, ; Mingfeng Jiang, ; Rong Hou,
| | - Rong Hou
- Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu, Sichuan, China,Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu, Sichuan, China,*Correspondence: Wenping Zhang, ; Mingfeng Jiang, ; Rong Hou,
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Tan M, Caro Y, Lebeau J, Shum-Cheong-Sing A, François JM, Regnier T, Petit T. Screening for Volatile α-Unsaturated Ester-Producing Yeasts from the Feces of Wild Animals in South Africa. LIFE (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2022; 12:life12121999. [PMID: 36556363 PMCID: PMC9782132 DOI: 10.3390/life12121999] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2022] [Revised: 11/15/2022] [Accepted: 11/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022]
Abstract
α-unsaturated esters are fruity-aromatic compounds which are largely spread in the volatilome of many different fruits, but they are rarely found in the volatilome of yeasts. The yeast S. suaveolens has been recently shown to produce relatively high amounts of α-unsaturated esters and it appears to be an interesting model for the production of these compounds. This study aimed to isolate new α-unsaturated ester-producing yeasts by focusing on strains displaying a similar metabolism to S. suaveolens. While the production of α-unsaturated esters by S. suaveolens is believed to be closely related to its ability to grow on media containing branched-chain amino acids (isoleucine, leucine and valine) as the sole carbon source (ILV+ phenotype), in this study, an original screening method was developed that selects for yeast strains displaying ILV+ phenotypes and is able to produce α-unsaturated esters. Among the 119 yeast strains isolated from the feces of 42 different South African wild animal species, 43 isolates showed the ILV+ phenotype, among which 12 strains were able to produce α-unsaturated esters. Two interesting α-unsaturated esters were detected in two freshly isolated strains, both identified as Galactomyces candidus. These new esters were detected neither in the volatilome of the reference strain S. suaveolens, nor in any other yeast species previously studied for their aroma production. This work demonstrated the efficiency of an original method to rapidly screen for α-unsaturated ester-producing yeasts. In addition, it demonstrated that wild animal feces are interesting resources to isolate novel strains producing compounds with original aromas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mélissa Tan
- Laboratoire de Chimie et Biotechnologies des Produits Naturels, Université de la Réunion, 97400 Reunion, France
- Département Hygiène, Sécurité et Environnement (HSE), IUT de la Réunion, 97410 Reunion, France
| | - Yanis Caro
- Laboratoire de Chimie et Biotechnologies des Produits Naturels, Université de la Réunion, 97400 Reunion, France
- Département Hygiène, Sécurité et Environnement (HSE), IUT de la Réunion, 97410 Reunion, France
| | - Juliana Lebeau
- Laboratoire de Chimie et Biotechnologies des Produits Naturels, Université de la Réunion, 97400 Reunion, France
| | - Alain Shum-Cheong-Sing
- Laboratoire de Chimie et Biotechnologies des Produits Naturels, Université de la Réunion, 97400 Reunion, France
| | - Jean Marie François
- Toulouse Biotechnology Institute (TBI), INSA Toulouse, 31400 Toulouse, France
| | - Thierry Regnier
- Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
| | - Thomas Petit
- Laboratoire de Chimie et Biotechnologies des Produits Naturels, Université de la Réunion, 97400 Reunion, France
- Département Hygiène, Sécurité et Environnement (HSE), IUT de la Réunion, 97410 Reunion, France
- Correspondence:
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Swanson MT, Henson MW, Handika H, Achmadi AS, Anita S, Rowe KC, Esselstyn JA. Mycoplasmataceae dominate microbial community differences between gut regions in mammals with a simple gut architecture. J Mammal 2022. [DOI: 10.1093/jmammal/gyac098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Faunivorous mammals with simple guts are thought to rely primarily on endogenously produced enzymes to digest food, in part because they lack fermentation chambers for facilitating mutualistic interactions with microbes. However, variation in microbial community composition along the length of the gastrointestinal tract has yet to be assessed in faunivorous species with simple guts. We tested for differences in bacterial taxon abundances and community compositions between the small intestines and colons of 26 individuals representing four species of shrew in the genus Crocidura. We sampled these hosts from a single locality on Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, to control for potential geographic and temporal variation. Bacterial community composition differed significantly between the two gut regions and members of the family Mycoplasmataceae contributed substantially to these differences. Three operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of an unclassified genus in this family were more abundant in the small intestine, whereas 1 OTU of genus Ureaplasma was more abundant in the colon. Species of Ureaplasma encode an enzyme that degrades urea, a metabolic byproduct of protein catabolism. Additionally, a Hafnia–Obesumbacterium OTU, a genus known to produce chitinase in bat gastrointestinal tracts, was also more abundant in the colon compared to the small intestine. The presence of putative chitinase- and urease-producing bacteria in shrew guts suggests mutualisms with microorganisms play a role in facilitating the protein-rich, faunivorous diets of simple gut mammals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark T Swanson
- Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences, 119 Foster Hall, Louisiana State University , Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 , USA
| | - Michael W Henson
- Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago , Illinois 60616 , USA
| | - Heru Handika
- Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences, 119 Foster Hall, Louisiana State University , Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 , USA
| | - Anang S Achmadi
- Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Center for Biosystematics and Evolution, Research Organization for Life Sciences and Environment, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) , Cibinong 16912 , Indonesia
| | - Syahfitri Anita
- Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Center for Biosystematics and Evolution, Research Organization for Life Sciences and Environment, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) , Cibinong 16912 , Indonesia
| | - Kevin C Rowe
- Sciences Department, Museums Victoria Research Institute , G.P.O. Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001 , Australia
- School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne , Royal Parade, Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria 3052 , Australia
| | - Jacob A Esselstyn
- Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences, 119 Foster Hall, Louisiana State University , Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 , USA
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Wang X, Wu X, Shang Y, Mei X, Zhou S, Wei Q, Sun G, Dong Y, Zhang H. Convergent evolution of the gut microbiome in marine carnivores. Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e9373. [PMID: 36203637 PMCID: PMC9526120 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.9373] [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: 07/25/2022] [Revised: 08/22/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
The gut microbiome can help the host adapt to a variety of environments and is affected by many factors. Marine carnivores have unique habitats in extreme environments. The question of whether marine habitats surpass phylogeny to drive the convergent evolution of the gut microbiome in marine carnivores remains unanswered. In the present study, we compared the gut microbiomes of 16 species from different habitats. Principal component analysis (PCA) and principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) separated three groups according to their gut microbiomes: marine carnivores, terrestrial carnivores, and terrestrial herbivores. The alpha diversity and niche breadth of the gut microbiome of marine carnivores were lower than those of the gut microbiome of terrestrial carnivores and terrestrial herbivores. The gut microbiome of marine carnivores harbored many marine microbiotas, including those belonging to the phyla Planctomycetes, Cyanobacteria, and Proteobacteria, and the genus Peptoclostridium. Collectively, these results revealed that marine habitats drive the convergent evolution of the gut microbiome of marine carnivores. This study provides a new perspective on the adaptive evolution of marine carnivores.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xibao Wang
- College of Life Sciences Qufu Normal University Qufu China
| | - Xiaoyang Wu
- College of Life Sciences Qufu Normal University Qufu China
| | - Yongquan Shang
- College of Life Sciences Qufu Normal University Qufu China
| | - Xuesong Mei
- College of Life Sciences Qufu Normal University Qufu China
| | - Shengyang Zhou
- College of Life Sciences Qufu Normal University Qufu China
| | - Qinguo Wei
- College of Life Sciences Qufu Normal University Qufu China
| | - Guolei Sun
- College of Life Sciences Qufu Normal University Qufu China
| | - Yuehuan Dong
- College of Life Sciences Qufu Normal University Qufu China
| | - Honghai Zhang
- College of Life Sciences Qufu Normal University Qufu China
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Tamang S, Sharma HP, Belant JL. Foraging Burrow Site Selection and Diet of Chinese Pangolins, Chandragiri Municipality, Nepal. Animals (Basel) 2022; 12:ani12192518. [PMID: 36230258 PMCID: PMC9558550 DOI: 10.3390/ani12192518] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2022] [Revised: 09/18/2022] [Accepted: 09/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) is a myrmecophagous, nocturnal mammal species that occurs in forests, agricultural lands, and grasslands. It is critically endangered due to illegal hunting and habitat loss. Characterizing the Chinese pangolin’s habitat and diet could improve our knowledge of the conditions necessary for species persistence; however, limited information is available. We investigated the habitat and diet of Chinese pangolins in the Chandragiri Municipality, Kathmandu, Nepal from November 2021−March 2022. We identified foraging burrows within plots established along 20 transects, collected scats opportunistically at these burrows, and used a generalized linear model to assess the site-level habitat characteristics related to burrow occurrence. We recorded 88 foraging burrows which occurred in forests with 50−75% canopy closure at 1500−1700 m elevation with 20−40° slopes. The probability of detecting a Chinese pangolin foraging burrow was greater with the increasing slope gradient and decreased with increasing distance to agricultural lands and ant nests or termite mounds. The analysis of 10 scats revealed that Aphaenogastersymthiesii, Camponotus sp., Monomorium sp., and Pheidole sp. were the dominant ant prey species; no termites were detected. Baseline data from this study could be used for ex-situ conservation and the captive breeding of Chinese pangolins as well as aiding site-specific management plans in Nepal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sharmila Tamang
- Central Department of Zoology, Institute of Science and Technology, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu 44618, Nepal
| | - Hari Prasad Sharma
- Central Department of Zoology, Institute of Science and Technology, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu 44618, Nepal
- Nepal Zoological Society, Kirtipur, Kathmandu 44618, Nepal
- Correspondence:
| | - Jerrold L. Belant
- Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
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34
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Huang G, Qu Q, Wang M, Huang M, Zhou W, Wei F. Global landscape of gut microbiome diversity and antibiotic resistomes across vertebrates. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2022; 838:156178. [PMID: 35618126 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156178] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2022] [Revised: 05/07/2022] [Accepted: 05/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Multiple factors influence gut microbiome diversity in vertebrate hosts. Most previous studies have only investigated specific factors and certain host species or taxa. However, a comprehensive assessment of the relative contributions of individual factors towards gut microbial diversity within a broader evolutionary context remains lacking. Here, 2202 16S rRNA gene sequencing samples of gut bacterial communities collected from 452 host species across seven classes were analyzed together to understand the factors broadly affecting vertebrate gut microbiomes across hosts with different diets, threatened status, captivity status, and habitat environmental factors. Among wild vertebrates, diet was most significantly associated with gut microbiome alpha diversity, while host phylogeny and diet were significantly associated with beta diversity, consistent with a previous study. Host threatened status and habitat environmental factors (e.g., geography and climate) were also associated with gut bacterial community beta diversity. Subsequent ecological modeling revealed a strong association between stochastic assembly processes and patterns of gut bacterial diversity among free-ranging vertebrates. In addition, metagenomic analysis of gut microbiomes from 62 captive vertebrates and sympatric humans revealed similar diversity and resistome profiles despite differences in host phylogeny, diet, and threatened status. These results thus suggest that captivity diminishes the effects of host phylogeny, diet, and threatened status on the diversity of vertebrate gut bacterial communities. The most overrepresented antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) observed in these samples are involved in resistance to β-lactams, aminoglycosides, and tetracycline. These results also revealed potential horizontal transfers of ARGs between captive animals and humans, thereby jointly threatening public health and vertebrate conservation. Together, this study provides a comprehensive overview of the diversity and resistomes of vertebrate gut microbiomes. These combined analyses will help guide future vertebrate conservation via the rational manipulation of microbial diversity and reducing antibiotic usage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guangping Huang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Qingyue Qu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Meng Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Mingpan Huang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Wenliang Zhou
- Center for Evolution and Conservation Biology, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou 511458, China
| | - Fuwen Wei
- CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Center for Evolution and Conservation Biology, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou 511458, China.
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Ghori I, Tubassam M, Ahmad T, Zuberi A, Imran M. Gut microbiome modulation mediated by probiotics: Positive impact on growth and health status of Labeo rohita. Front Physiol 2022; 13:949559. [PMID: 36160848 PMCID: PMC9507060 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2022.949559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2022] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The current study was targeted to determine the effect of probiotics on the growth, physiology, and gut microbiology of Labeo rohita fingerlings. One hundred and twenty fishes were divided into four dietary groups, each in triplicate for a feeding trial of 90 days. These treatments included T0 (control, basal diet) used as the reference, and three probiotic-supplemented diets represented as Tbc (Bacillus cereus), Tgc (Geotrichum candidum), and Tmc (B. cereus and G. candidum). The probiotics were supplemented at a level of 1 × 109 CFU/g feed. Fishes nurtured on probiotic-added diet showed significantly high physiological improvement (p < 0.05) in terms of growth, feed utilization capacity, hematological profile, and digestive enzymes as compared to control. The fish were subjected to a challenge test after a 90-day feeding trial. The Tmc exhibited maximum fish growth when challenged by Staphylococcus aureus and showed fish survival when compared to control, in which fish mortality was examined. Fish gut microbial composition was modulated by probiotic treatments, especially in Tgc and Tmc as compared to control. The absence of opportunistic pathogens such as Staphylococcus saprophyticus and Sporobolomyces lactosus and detection of lower levels of Trichosporon and Cryptococcus in treated groups indicate the gut modulation driven by applied probiotics. The G. candidum QAUGC01 was retrieved in yeast metagenomics data, which might be due to the production of polyamines by them that facilitated adherence and consequent persistence. In conclusion, it can be suggested that the probiotic-supplemented diet could enhance fish growth and feed efficiency through community modulation and digestive enzymes, which could be a milestone in local aquaculture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ifra Ghori
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
- Department of Biotechnology, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
| | - Misbah Tubassam
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Tanveer Ahmad
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Amina Zuberi
- Fisheries and Aquaculture Laboratory, Department of Animal Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Muhammad Imran
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
- *Correspondence: Muhammad Imran,
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Meng L, Xia C, Jin Z, Zhang H. Investigation of Gut Bacterial Communities of Asian Citrus Psyllid (Diaphorina citri) Reared on Different Host Plants. INSECTS 2022; 13:insects13080694. [PMID: 36005319 PMCID: PMC9409139 DOI: 10.3390/insects13080694] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2022] [Revised: 07/03/2022] [Accepted: 07/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022]
Abstract
Simple Summary Diaphorina citri is a crucial natural vector of the Huanglongbing pathogen, which has devastated the citrus industry. The host plant is a critical factor that affects insect biology and its symbiont abundance. However, little is known about how host plants affect the bacterial community located in D. citri. In this work, the guts of five different host-plant-feeding populations (i.e., Citrus reticulata cv. Shatangju, Citrus poonensis cv. Ponkan, Murraya paniculata (orange jasmine), Citrus limon (lemon), and Citrus sinensis (navel orange)) were analyzed for bacterial communities by next-generation sequencing. The dominant phylum was Proteobacteria. The most common and abundant bacterial genera in D. citri were Wolbachia, Escherichia-Shigella, and Candidatus Profftella, but their relative abundance varied among the different host plant groups. There were obvious differences in the gut microbiota among the different hosts, and the gut microbe diversity was the highest in the ponkan-feeding population, while the lowest was in the Shatangju-feeding population. Overall, our findings indicate that the host plant can significantly affect the gut microbial community of D. citri. This result can provide new insights into the co-adaptation of D. citri and its symbionts. Abstract Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Liviidae) can cause severe damage to citrus plants, as it transmits Candidatus Liberibacter spp., a causative agent of Huanglongbing disease. Symbiotic bacteria play vital roles in the ecology and biology of herbivore hosts, thereby affecting host growth and adaptation. In our research, the effects of Rutaceous plants (i.e., Citrus reticulata cv. Shatangju, Citrus poonensis cv. Ponkan, Murraya paniculata (orange jasmine), Citrus limon (lemon), and Citrus sinensis (navel orange)) on the gut microbiota (GM) and microbial diversity of D. citri adults were investigated by 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing. It was found that Proteobacteria dominated the GM communities. The gut microbe diversity was the highest in the ponkan-feeding population, and the lowest in the Shatangju-feeding population. The NMDS analysis revealed that there were obvious differences in the GM communities among the different hosts. PICRUSt function prediction indicated significant differences in host function, and those pathways were crucial for maintaining population reproduction, growth, development, and adaptation to environmental stress in D. citri. Our study sheds new light on the interactions between symbionts, herbivores, and host plants and expands our knowledge on host adaptation related to GM in D. citri.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lixue Meng
- School of Basic Medical Sciences, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan 442000, China;
- State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology (MOE), Institute of Urban and Horticultural Entomology, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
| | - Changxiu Xia
- Ganzhou Citrus Science Institute, Ganzhou 341000, China;
| | - Zhixiong Jin
- The Department of Clinical Laboratory, Sinopharm Dongfeng Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan 442000, China;
| | - Hongyu Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology (MOE), Institute of Urban and Horticultural Entomology, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +86-027-87286962
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Eason J, Mason L. Characterization of Microbial Communities from the Alimentary Canal of Typhaea stercorea (L.) (Coleoptera: Mycetophagidae). INSECTS 2022; 13:insects13080685. [PMID: 36005310 PMCID: PMC9408915 DOI: 10.3390/insects13080685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2022] [Revised: 07/18/2022] [Accepted: 07/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/10/2022]
Abstract
Simple Summary Hairy fungus beetle, Typhaea stercorea, is a secondary post-harvest pest of stored grains that thrives by feeding on mytoxigenic fungi. Bacterial communities residing in the alimentary canal of most insects contribute to their host’s development. While there are many examples, little is known about the role of bacterial communities in the alimentary canal of T. stercorea. The objectives of this study were to (1) characterize the microbial communities residing in T. stercorea and (2) compare the microbial compositions of field-collected and laboratory-reared populations. In this study, we were able to identify bacterial communities that possess mycolytic properties and track mark changes in the microbiota profiles associated with development. The genus Pseudomonas was enriched in T. stercorea larvae compared to adults. Furthermore, field-collected T. sterocrea adults had a lower species richness than both larva and adult laboratory-reared T. sterocrea. Moreover, the gut microbial compositions of field-collected and laboratory-reared populations were vastly different. Overall, our results suggest that the environment and physiology can shift the microbial composition in the alimentary canal of T. stercorea. Abstract The gut microbiomes of symbiotic insects typically mediate essential functions lacking in their hosts. Here, we describe the composition of microbes residing in the alimentary canal of the hairy fungus beetle, Typhaea stercorea (L.), at various life stages. This beetle is a post-harvest pest of stored grains that feeds on fungi and serves as a vector of mycotoxigenic fungi. It has been reported that the bacterial communities found in most insects’ alimentary canals contribute to nutrition, immune defenses, and protection from pathogens. Hence, bacterial symbionts may play a key role in the digestive system of T. stercorea. Using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, we examined the microbiota of T. stercorea. We found no difference in bacterial species richness between larvae and adults, but there were compositional differences across life stages (PERMANOVA:pseudo-F(8,2) = 8.22; p = 0.026). The three most abundant bacteria found in the alimentary canal of the larvae and adults included Pseudomonas (47.67% and 0.21%, respectively), an unspecified genus of the Enterobacteriaceae family (46.60 % and 90.97%, respectively), and Enterobacter (3.89% and 5.75%, respectively). Furthermore, Pseudomonas spp. are the predominant bacteria in the larval stage. Our data indicated that field-collected T. stercorea tended to have lower species richness than laboratory-reared beetles (Shannon: H = 5.72; p = 0.057). Furthermore, the microbial communities of laboratory-reared insects resembled one another, whereas field-collected adults exhibited variability (PERMANOVA:pseudo-F(10,3) = 4.41; p = 0.006). We provide evidence that the environment and physiology can shift the microbial composition in the alimentary canal of T. stercorea.
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Rocha FP, Ronque MUV, Lyra ML, Bacci M, Oliveira PS. Habitat and Host Species Drive the Structure of Bacterial Communities of Two Neotropical Trap-Jaw Odontomachus Ants : Habitat and Host Species Drive the Structure of Bacterial Communities of Two Neotropical Trap-Jaw Odontomachus Ants. MICROBIAL ECOLOGY 2022:10.1007/s00248-022-02064-y. [PMID: 35802173 DOI: 10.1007/s00248-022-02064-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2022] [Accepted: 06/27/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Ants have long been known for their associations with other taxa, including macroscopic fungi and symbiotic bacteria. Recently, many ant species have had the composition and function of their bacterial communities investigated. Due to its behavioral and ecological diversity, the subfamily Ponerinae deserves more attention regarding its associated microbiota. Here, we used the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene to characterize the bacterial communities of Odontomachus chelifer (ground-nesting) and Odontomachus hastatus (arboreal), two ponerine trap-jaw species commonly found in the Brazilian savanna ("Cerrado") and Atlantic rainforest. We investigated habitat effects (O. chelifer in the Cerrado and the Atlantic rainforest) and species-specific effects (both species in the Atlantic rainforest) on the bacterial communities' structure (composition and abundance) in two different body parts: cuticle and gaster. Bacterial communities differed in all populations studied. Cuticular communities were more diverse, while gaster communities presented variants common to other ants, including Wolbachia and Candidatus Tokpelaia hoelldoblerii. Odontomachus chelifer populations presented different communities in both body parts, highlighting the influence of habitat type. In the Atlantic rainforest, the outcome depended on the body part targeted. Cuticular communities were similar between species, reinforcing the habitat effect on bacterial communities, which are mainly composed of environmentally acquired taxa. Gaster communities, however, differed between the two Odontomachus species, suggesting species-specific effects and selective filters. Unclassified Firmicutes and uncultured Rhizobiales variants are the main components accounting for the observed differences. Our study indicates that both host species and habitat act synergistically, but to different degrees, to shape the bacterial communities in these Odontomachus species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felipe P Rocha
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, 13083-862, Brazil
- The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong Island, SAR, Hong Kong
| | - Mariane U V Ronque
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, 13083-862, Brazil
- Universidade Estadual do Norte do Paraná, Ciências Biológicas, Cornélio Procópio, PR, Brazil
| | - Mariana L Lyra
- Departamento de Biodiversidade, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista - Campus Rio Claro, Rio Claro, SP, 13506-900, Brazil
- New York University Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Island, P.O. Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | - Maurício Bacci
- Centro de Estudos de Insetos Sociais, Departamento de Biologia Geral e Aplicada, Universidade Estadual Paulista - Campus Rio Claro, Rio Claro, SP, 13506-900, Brazil
| | - Paulo S Oliveira
- Departamento de Biologia Animal, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, 13083-862, Brazil.
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Wang X, Wu X, Shang Y, Gao Y, Li Y, Wei Q, Dong Y, Mei X, Zhou S, Sun G, Liu L, Lige B, Zhang Z, Zhang H. High-Altitude Drives the Convergent Evolution of Alpha Diversity and Indicator Microbiota in the Gut Microbiomes of Ungulates. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:953234. [PMID: 35875556 PMCID: PMC9301279 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.953234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Convergent evolution is an important sector of evolutionary biology. High-altitude environments are one of the extreme environments for animals, especially in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, driving the inquiry of whether, under broader phylogeny, high-altitude factors drive the convergent evolution of Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla gut microbiomes. Therefore, we profiled the gut microbiome of Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla at high and low altitudes using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. According to cluster analyses, the gut microbiome compositions of high-altitude Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla were not grouped together and were far from those of low-altitude Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla. The Wilcoxon’s test in high-altitude ungulates showed significantly higher Sobs and Shannon indices than in low-altitude ungulates. At the phylum level, Firmicutes and Patescibacteria were significantly enriched in the gut microbiomes of high-altitude ungulates, which also displayed a higher Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes value than low-altitude ungulates. At the family level, Ruminococcaceae, Christensenellaceae, and Saccharimonadaceae were significantly enriched in the gut microbiomes of high-altitude ungulates. Our results also indicated that the OH and FH groups shared two significantly enriched genera, Christensenellaceae_R_7_group and Candidatus_Saccharimonas. These findings indicated that a high altitude cannot surpass the order level to drive the convergent evolution of ungulate gut microbiome composition but can drive the convergent evolution of alpha diversity and indicator microbiota in the gut microbiome of ungulates. Overall, this study provides a novel perspective for understanding the adaptation of ungulates to high-altitude environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xibao Wang
- College of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Xiaoyang Wu
- College of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Yongquan Shang
- College of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | | | - Ying Li
- Wild World Jinan, Jinan, China
| | - Qinguo Wei
- College of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Yuehuan Dong
- College of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Xuesong Mei
- College of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Shengyang Zhou
- College of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Guolei Sun
- College of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | | | - Bi Lige
- Forestry and Grassland Station, Golmud, China
| | - Zhihao Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Honghai Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
- *Correspondence: Honghai Zhang,
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Perry T, West E, Eisenhofer R, Stenhouse A, Wilson I, Laming B, Rismiller P, Shaw M, Grützner F. Characterising the Gut Microbiomes in Wild and Captive Short-Beaked Echidnas Reveals Diet-Associated Changes. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:687115. [PMID: 35847103 PMCID: PMC9279566 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.687115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2021] [Accepted: 05/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The gut microbiome plays a vital role in health and wellbeing of animals, and an increasing number of studies are investigating microbiome changes in wild and managed populations to improve conservation and welfare. The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) is an iconic Australian species, the most widespread native mammal, and commonly held in zoos. Echidnas are cryptic animals, and much is still unknown about many aspects of their biology. Furthermore, some wild echidna populations are under threat, while echidnas held in captivity can have severe gastric health problems. Here, we used citizen science and zoos to collect echidna scats from across Australia to perform the largest gut microbiome study on any native Australian animal. Using 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding of scat samples, we characterised and compared the gut microbiomes of echidnas in wild (n = 159) and managed (n = 44) populations, which were fed four different diets. Wild echidna samples were highly variable, yet commonly dominated by soil and plant-fermenting bacteria, while echidnas in captivity were dominated by gut commensals and plant-fermenting bacteria, suggesting plant matter may play a significant role in echidna diet. This work demonstrates significant differences between zoo held and wild echidnas, as well as managed animals on different diets, revealing that diet is important in shaping the gut microbiomes in echidnas. This first analysis of echidna gut microbiome highlights extensive microbial diversity in wild echidnas and changes in microbiome composition in managed populations. This is a first step towards using microbiome analysis to better understand diet, gastrointestinal biology, and improve management in these iconic animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tahlia Perry
- The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
- Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Ella West
- The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Raphael Eisenhofer
- Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Alan Stenhouse
- The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Isabella Wilson
- The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | | | - Peggy Rismiller
- The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
- Pelican Lagoon Research and Wildlife Centre, Penneshaw, SA, Australia
| | - Michelle Shaw
- The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
- Taronga Wildlife Nutrition Centre, Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Mosman, NSW, Australia
| | - Frank Grützner
- The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
- Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
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Paddock KJ, Finke DL, Kim KS, Sappington TW, Hibbard BE. Patterns of Microbiome Composition Vary Across Spatial Scales in a Specialist Insect. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:898744. [PMID: 35722352 PMCID: PMC9201478 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.898744] [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: 03/17/2022] [Accepted: 05/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Microbial communities associated with animals vary based on both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Of many possible determinants affecting microbiome composition, host phylogeny, host diet, and local environment are the most important. How these factors interact across spatial scales is not well understood. Here, we seek to identify the main influences on microbiome composition in a specialist insect, the western corn rootworm (WCR; Diabrotica virgifera virgifera), by analyzing the bacterial communities of adults collected from their obligate host plant, corn (Zea mays), across several geographic locations and comparing the patterns in communities to its congeneric species, the northern corn rootworm (NCR; Diabrotica barberi). We found that bacterial communities of WCR and NCR shared a portion of their bacterial communities even when collected from disparate locations. However, within each species, the location of collection significantly influenced the composition of their microbiome. Correlations of geographic distance between sites with WCR bacterial community composition revealed different patterns at different spatial scales. Community similarity decreased with increased geographic distance at smaller spatial scales (~25 km between the nearest sites). At broad spatial scales (>200 km), community composition was not correlated with distances between sites, but instead reflected the historical invasion path of WCR across the United States. These results suggest bacterial communities are structured directly by dispersal dynamics at small, regional spatial scales, while landscape-level genetic or environmental differences may drive community composition across broad spatial scales in this specialist insect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyle J Paddock
- Division of Plant Science and Technology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, United States
| | - Deborah L Finke
- Division of Plant Science and Technology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, United States
| | - Kyung Seok Kim
- Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
| | - Thomas W Sappington
- USDA-ARS, Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research Unit, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
| | - Bruce E Hibbard
- USDA-ARS, Plant Genetics Research Unit, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, United States
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Factors shaping the abundance and diversity of the gut archaeome across the animal kingdom. Nat Commun 2022; 13:3358. [PMID: 35688919 PMCID: PMC9187648 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31038-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2021] [Accepted: 05/30/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Archaea are common constituents of the gut microbiome of humans, ruminants, and termites but little is known about their diversity and abundance in other animals. Here, we analyse sequencing and quantification data of archaeal and bacterial 16S rRNA genes from 250 species of animals covering a large taxonomic spectrum. We detect the presence of archaea in 175 animal species belonging to invertebrates, fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals. We identify five dominant gut lineages, corresponding to Methanobrevibacter, Methanosphaera, Methanocorpusculum, Methanimicrococcus and "Ca. Methanomethylophilaceae". Some archaeal clades, notably within Methanobrevibacter, are associated to certain hosts, suggesting specific adaptations. The non-methanogenic lineage Nitrososphaeraceae (Thaumarchaeota) is frequently present in animal samples, although at low abundance, but may have also adapted to the gut environment. Host phylogeny, diet type, fibre content, and intestinal tract physiology are major drivers of the diversity and abundance of the archaeome in mammals. The overall abundance of archaea is more influenced by these factors than that of bacteria. Methanogens reducing methyl-compounds with H2 can represent an important fraction of the overall methanogens in many animals. Together with CO2-reducing methanogens, they are influenced by diet and composition of gut bacteria. Our results provide key elements toward our understanding of the ecology of archaea in the gut, an emerging and important field of investigation.
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Butler-Valverde MJ, DeVault TL, Beasley JC. Trophic interactions at avian carcasses: Do scavengers feed on vulture carrion? FOOD WEBS 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.fooweb.2022.e00230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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44
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Kohl KD, Dieppa-Colón E, Goyco-Blas J, Peralta-Martínez K, Scafidi L, Shah S, Zawacki E, Barts N, Ahn Y, Hedayati S, Secor SM, Rowe MP. Gut Microbial Ecology of Five Species of Sympatric Desert Rodents in Relation to Herbivorous and Insectivorous Feeding Strategies. Integr Comp Biol 2022; 62:237-251. [PMID: 35587374 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icac045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2022] [Revised: 05/12/2022] [Accepted: 05/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The gut microbial communities of mammals provide numerous benefits to their hosts. However, given the recent development of the microbiome field, we still lack a thorough understanding of the variety of ecological and evolutionary factors that structure these communities across species. Metabarcoding is a powerful technique that allows for multiple microbial ecology questions to be investigated simultaneously. Here, we employed DNA metabarcoding techniques, predictive metagenomics, and culture-dependent techniques to inventory the gut microbial communities of several species of rodent collected from the same environment that employ different natural feeding strategies [granivorous pocket mice (Chaetodipus penicillatus); granivorous kangaroo rats (Dipodomys merriami); herbivorous woodrats (Neotoma albigula); omnivorous cactus mice (Peromyscus eremicus), and insectivorous grasshopper mice (Onychomys torridus)]. Of particular interest were shifts in gut microbial communities in rodent species with herbivorous and insectivorous diets, given the high amounts of indigestible fibers and chitinous exoskeleton in these diets, respectively. We found that herbivorous woodrats harbored the greatest microbial diversity. Granivorous pocket mice and kangaroo rats had the highest abundances of the genus Ruminococcus and highest predicted abundances of genes related to the digestion of fiber, representing potential adaptations in these species to the fiber content of seeds and the limitations to digestion given their small body size. Insectivorous grasshopper mice exhibited the greatest inter-individual variation in the membership of their microbiomes, and also exhibited the highest predicted abundances of chitin-degrading genes. Culture-based approaches identified 178 microbial isolates (primarily Bacillus and Enterococcus) capable of degrading cellulose and chitin. We observed several instances of strain-level diversity in these metabolic capabilities across isolates, somewhat highlighting the limitations and hidden diversity underlying DNA metabarcoding techniques. However, these methods offer power in allowing the investigation of several questions concurrently, thus enhancing our understanding of gut microbial ecology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin D Kohl
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260
| | - Etan Dieppa-Colón
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260.,Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison WI 53706
| | - José Goyco-Blas
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260
| | | | - Luke Scafidi
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260
| | - Sarth Shah
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260
| | - Emma Zawacki
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260
| | - Nick Barts
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260
| | - Young Ahn
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260
| | - Stefanie Hedayati
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260
| | - Stephen M Secor
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa AL 35487
| | - Matthew P Rowe
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman OK 73019
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Marsh KJ, Raulo AM, Brouard M, Troitsky T, English HM, Allen B, Raval R, Venkatesan S, Pedersen AB, Webster JP, Knowles SCL. Synchronous Seasonality in the Gut Microbiota of Wild Mouse Populations. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:809735. [PMID: 35547129 PMCID: PMC9083407 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.809735] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2021] [Accepted: 03/08/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The gut microbiome performs many important functions in mammalian hosts, with community composition shaping its functional role. However, the factors that drive individual microbiota variation in wild animals and to what extent these are predictable or idiosyncratic across populations remains poorly understood. Here, we use a multi-population dataset from a common rodent species (the wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus), to test whether a consistent “core” gut microbiota is identifiable in this species, and to what extent the predictors of microbiota variation are consistent across populations. Between 2014 and 2018 we used capture-mark-recapture and 16S rRNA profiling to intensively monitor two wild wood mouse populations and their gut microbiota, as well as characterising the microbiota from a laboratory-housed colony of the same species. Although the microbiota was broadly similar at high taxonomic levels, the two wild populations did not share a single bacterial amplicon sequence variant (ASV), despite being only 50km apart. Meanwhile, the laboratory-housed colony shared many ASVs with one of the wild populations from which it is thought to have been founded decades ago. Despite not sharing any ASVs, the two wild populations shared a phylogenetically more similar microbiota than either did with the colony, and the factors predicting compositional variation in each wild population were remarkably similar. We identified a strong and consistent pattern of seasonal microbiota restructuring that occurred at both sites, in all years, and within individual mice. While the microbiota was highly individualised, some seasonal convergence occurred in late winter/early spring. These findings reveal highly repeatable seasonal gut microbiota dynamics in multiple populations of this species, despite different taxa being involved. This provides a platform for future work to understand the drivers and functional implications of such predictable seasonal microbiome restructuring, including whether it might provide the host with adaptive seasonal phenotypic plasticity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirsty J Marsh
- Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Hatfield, United Kingdom.,College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall, United Kingdom
| | - Aura M Raulo
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Marc Brouard
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Tanya Troitsky
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Holly M English
- Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Hatfield, United Kingdom.,Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Bryony Allen
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, United Kingdom
| | - Rohan Raval
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, United Kingdom
| | - Saudamini Venkatesan
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Amy B Pedersen
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Joanne P Webster
- Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Hatfield, United Kingdom
| | - Sarah C L Knowles
- Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Hatfield, United Kingdom.,Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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Gregor R, Probst M, Eyal S, Aksenov A, Sasson G, Horovitz I, Dorrestein PC, Meijler MM, Mizrahi I. Mammalian gut metabolomes mirror microbiome composition and host phylogeny. THE ISME JOURNAL 2022; 16:1262-1274. [PMID: 34903850 PMCID: PMC9038745 DOI: 10.1038/s41396-021-01152-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2021] [Revised: 10/18/2021] [Accepted: 11/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
In the past decade, studies on the mammalian gut microbiome have revealed that different animal species have distinct gut microbial compositions. The functional ramifications of this variation in microbial composition remain unclear: do these taxonomic differences indicate microbial adaptations to host-specific functionality, or are these diverse microbial communities essentially functionally redundant, as has been indicated by previous metagenomics studies? Here, we examine the metabolic content of mammalian gut microbiomes as a direct window into ecosystem function, using an untargeted metabolomics platform to analyze 101 fecal samples from a range of 25 exotic mammalian species in collaboration with a zoological center. We find that mammalian metabolomes are chemically diverse and strongly linked to microbiome composition, and that metabolome composition is further correlated to the phylogeny of the mammalian host. Specific metabolites enriched in different animal species included modified and degraded host and dietary compounds such as bile acids and triterpenoids, as well as fermentation products such as lactate and short-chain fatty acids. Our results suggest that differences in microbial taxonomic composition are indeed translated to host-specific metabolism, indicating that taxonomically distant microbiomes are more functionally diverse than redundant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel Gregor
- Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel
- National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel
| | - Maraike Probst
- National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel
| | - Stav Eyal
- National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel
| | - Alexander Aksenov
- Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Goor Sasson
- National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel
| | - Igal Horovitz
- The Zoological Center Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Pieter C Dorrestein
- Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Michael M Meijler
- Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel.
- National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel.
| | - Itzhak Mizrahi
- National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel.
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel.
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Donohue ME, Rowe AK, Kowalewski E, Hert ZL, Karrick CE, Randriamanandaza LJ, Zakamanana F, Nomenjanahary S, Andriamalala RY, Everson KM, Law AD, Moe L, Wright PC, Weisrock DW. Significant effects of host dietary guild and phylogeny in wild lemur gut microbiomes. ISME COMMUNICATIONS 2022; 2:33. [PMID: 37938265 PMCID: PMC9723590 DOI: 10.1038/s43705-022-00115-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2021] [Revised: 02/23/2022] [Accepted: 03/07/2022] [Indexed: 04/27/2023]
Abstract
Mammals harbor diverse gut microbiomes (GMs) that perform critical functions for host health and fitness. Identifying factors associated with GM variation can help illuminate the role of microbial symbionts in mediating host ecological interactions and evolutionary processes, including diversification and adaptation. Many mammals demonstrate phylosymbiosis-a pattern in which more closely-related species harbor more similar GMs-while others show overwhelming influences of diet and habitat. Here, we generated 16S rRNA sequence data from fecal samples of 15 species of wild lemurs across southern Madagascar to (1) test a hypothesis of phylosymbiosis, and (2) test trait correlations between dietary guild, habitat, and GM diversity. Our results provide strong evidence of phylosymbiosis, though some closely-related species with substantial ecological niche overlap exhibited greater GM similarity than expected under Brownian motion. Phylogenetic regressions also showed a significant correlation between dietary guild and UniFrac diversity, but not Bray-Curtis or Jaccard. This discrepancy between beta diversity metrics suggests that older microbial clades have stronger associations with diet than younger clades, as UniFrac weights older clades more heavily. We conclude that GM diversity is predominantly shaped by host phylogeny, and that microbes associated with diet were likely acquired before evolutionary radiations within the lemur families examined.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariah E Donohue
- Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA.
| | - Amanda K Rowe
- Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, NY, USA
| | - Eric Kowalewski
- Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
| | - Zoe L Hert
- Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
| | - Carly E Karrick
- Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
| | | | | | - Stela Nomenjanahary
- Anthropobiologie et Développement Durable, Université Antananarivo, Antananarivo, Madagascar
| | - Rostant Y Andriamalala
- Anthropobiologie et Développement Durable, Université Antananarivo, Antananarivo, Madagascar
| | | | - Audrey D Law
- Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
| | - Luke Moe
- Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
| | - Patricia C Wright
- Centre ValBio Research Station, Ranomafana, Madagascar
- Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, NY, USA
| | - David W Weisrock
- Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
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48
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Wang X, Shang Y, Wei Q, Wu X, Dou H, Zhang H, Zhou S, Sha W, Sun G, Ma S, Zhang H. Comparative Analyses of the Gut Microbiome of Two Fox Species, the Red Fox (Vulpes Vulpes) and Corsac Fox (Vulpes Corsac), that Occupy Different Ecological Niches. MICROBIAL ECOLOGY 2022; 83:753-765. [PMID: 34189610 DOI: 10.1007/s00248-021-01806-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2021] [Accepted: 06/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The gut microbiome is integral for the host's living and environmental adaptation and crucially important for understanding host adaptive mechanisms. The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) dominates a wider ecological niche and more complicated habitat than that of the corsac fox (V. corsac). However, the adaptive mechanisms (in particular, the gut microbiome responsible for this kind of difference) are still unclear. Therefore, we investigated the gut microbiome of these two species in the Hulunbuir grassland, China, and evaluated their microbiome composition, function, and adaptive mechanisms. We profiled the gut microbiome and metabolism function of red and corsac foxes via 16S rRNA gene and metagenome sequencing. The foxes harbored species-specific microbiomes and functions that were related to ecological niche and habitat. The red fox had abundant Bacteroides, which leads to significant enrichment of metabolic pathways (K12373 and K21572) and enzymes related to chitin and carbohydrate degradation that may help the red fox adapt to a wider niche. The corsac fox harbored large proportions of Blautia, Terrisporobacter, and ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters (K01990, K02003, and K06147) that can help maintain corsac fox health, allowing it to live in harsh habitats. These results indicate that the gut microbiome of the red and corsac foxes may have different abilities which may provide these species with differing capabilities to adapt to different ecological niches and habitats, thus providing important microbiome data for understanding the mechanisms of host adaptation to different niches and habitats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xibao Wang
- College of Life Science, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Yongquan Shang
- College of Life Science, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Qinguo Wei
- College of Life Science, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Xiaoyang Wu
- College of Life Science, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Huashan Dou
- Hulunbuir Academy of Inland Lakes in Northern Cold & Arid Areas, Hulunbuir, China
| | - Huanxin Zhang
- College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China
| | - Shengyang Zhou
- College of Life Science, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Weilai Sha
- College of Life Science, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Guolei Sun
- College of Life Science, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Shengchao Ma
- College of Life Science, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
| | - Honghai Zhang
- College of Life Science, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China.
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49
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Dudek NK, Switzer AD, Costello EK, Murray MJ, Tomoleoni JA, Staedler MM, Tinker MT, Relman DA. Characterizing the oral and distal gut microbiota of the threatened southern sea otter ( Enhydra lutris nereis) to enhance conservation practice. CONSERVATION SCIENCE AND PRACTICE 2022; 4:e12640. [PMID: 35382031 PMCID: PMC8979051 DOI: 10.1111/csp2.12640] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2021] [Accepted: 01/10/2022] [Indexed: 06/27/2024] Open
Abstract
The southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) is a threatened sub-species in coastal ecosystems. To understand better the role of diet, monitor health, and enhance management of this and other marine mammal species, we characterized the oral (gingival) and distal gut (rectal and fecal) microbiota of 158 wild southern sea otters living off the coast of central California, USA, and 12 captive sea otters, some of which were included in a diet shift experiment. We found that the sea otter fecal microbiota was distinct from that of three other otter species, and that captivity does not significantly alter the community structure of the sea otter gingival or distal gut microbiota. Metagenomic analysis unexpectedly revealed that the majority of sea otter fecal DNA is derived from prey, rather than from indigenous bacteria or host cells as with most other mammals. We speculate that a reduced bacterial biomass in the sea otter gut reflects rapid gut transit time and a particular strategy for foraging and energy harvest. This study establishes a reference for the healthy sea otter microbiota, highlights how a marine lifestyle may shape the mammalian microbiota, and may inform future health assessments and conservation management of sea otter populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natasha K. Dudek
- Department of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305 USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA USA
- Current: Department of Computer Science, McGill University - Mila-Québec AI Institute, Montreal, Canada, H3A 0G4
| | - Alexandra D. Switzer
- Department of Microbiology & Immunology, 299 Campus Drive, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305 USA
| | - Elizabeth K. Costello
- Department of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305 USA
| | | | - Joseph A. Tomoleoni
- U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, 2885 Mission St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060 USA
| | | | - M. Tim Tinker
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA USA
- U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, 2885 Mission St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060 USA
- Nhydra Ecological Consulting, 11 Parklea Drive, Head of St Margaret’s Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - David A. Relman
- Department of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305 USA
- Department of Microbiology & Immunology, 299 Campus Drive, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305 USA
- Infectious Diseases Section, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, 3801 Miranda Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA
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50
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Weinhold A. Bowel Movement: Integrating Host Mobility and Microbial Transmission Across Host Taxa. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:826364. [PMID: 35242121 PMCID: PMC8886138 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.826364] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2021] [Accepted: 01/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The gut microbiota of animals displays a high degree of plasticity with respect to environmental or dietary adaptations and is shaped by factors like social interactions, diet diversity or the local environment. But the contribution of these drivers varies across host taxa and our ability to explain microbiome variability within wild populations remains limited. Terrestrial animals have divergent mobility ranges and can either crawl, walk or fly, from a couple of centimeters toward thousands of kilometers. Animal movement has been little regarded in host microbiota frameworks, though it can directly influence major drivers of the host microbiota: (1) Aggregation movement can enhance social transmissions, (2) foraging movement can extend range of diet diversity, and (3) dispersal movement determines the local environment of a host. Here, I would like to outline how movement behaviors of different host taxa matter for microbial acquisition across mammals, birds as well as insects. Host movement can have contrasting effects and either reduce or enlarge spatial scale. Increased dispersal movement could dissolve local effects of sampling location, while aggregation could enhance inter-host transmissions and uniformity among social groups. Host movement can also extend the boundaries of microbial dispersal limitations and connect habitat patches across plant-pollinator networks, while the microbiota of wild populations could converge toward a uniform pattern when mobility is interrupted in captivity or laboratory settings. Hence, the implementation of host movement would be a valuable addition to the metacommunity concept, to comprehend microbial dispersal within and across trophic levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arne Weinhold
- Faculty of Biology, Cellular and Organismic Networks, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
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