Dataset Information

Captivity causes taxonomic and functional convergence of gut microbial communities in bats.

ABSTRACT: Background:Diet plays a crucial role in sculpting microbial communities. Similar diets appear to drive convergence of gut microbial communities between host species. Captivity usually provides an identical diet and environment to different animal species that normally have similar diets. Whether different species' microbial gut communities can be homogenized by a uniform diet in captivity remains unclear. Methods:In this study, we compared gut microbial communities of three insectivorous bat species (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, Vespertilio sinensis, and Hipposideros armiger) in captivity and in the wild using 16S rDNA sequencing. In captivity, R. ferrumequinum and V. sinensis were fed yellow mealworms, while H. armiger was fed giant mealworms to rule out the impact of an identical environment on the species' gut microbial communities. Results:We found that the microbial communities of the bat species we studied clustered by species in the wild, while the microbial communities of R. ferrumequinum and V. sinensis in captivity clustered together. All microbial functions found in captive V. sinensis were shared by R. ferrumequinum. Moreover, the relative abundances of all metabolism related KEGG pathways did not significantly differ between captive R. ferrumequinum and V. sinensis; however, the relative abundance of "Glycan Biosynthesis and Metabolism" differed significantly between wild R. ferrumequinum and V. sinensis. Conclusion:Our results suggest that consuming identical diets while in captivity tends to homogenize the gut microbial communities among bat species. This study further highlights the importance of diet in shaping animal gut microbiotas.

SUBMITTER: Xiao Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6499062 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Captivity causes taxonomic and functional convergence of gut microbial communities in bats.

Xiao Yanhong Y Xiao Guohong G Liu Heng H Zhao Xin X Sun Congnan C Tan Xiao X Sun Keping K Liu Sen S Feng Jiang J

PeerJ 20190430

<h4>Background</h4>Diet plays a crucial role in sculpting microbial communities. Similar diets appear to drive convergence of gut microbial communities between host species. Captivity usually provides an identical diet and environment to different animal species that normally have similar diets. Whether different species' microbial gut communities can be homogenized by a uniform diet in captivity remains unclear.<h4>Methods</h4>In this study, we compared gut microbial communities of three insect ...[more]

PMID: 31106061

Similar Datasets

Project description:Predicting the dynamics of community composition and functional attributes responding to environmental changes is an essential goal in community ecology but remains a major challenge, particularly in microbial ecology. Here, by targeting a model system with low species richness, we explore the spatial distribution of taxonomic and functional structure of 40 acid mine drainage (AMD) microbial communities across Southeast China profiled by 16S ribosomal RNA pyrosequencing and a comprehensive microarray (GeoChip). Similar environmentally dependent patterns of dominant microbial lineages and key functional genes were observed regardless of the large-scale geographical isolation. Functional and phylogenetic ?-diversities were significantly correlated, whereas functional metabolic potentials were strongly influenced by environmental conditions and community taxonomic structure. Using advanced modeling approaches based on artificial neural networks, we successfully predicted the taxonomic and functional dynamics with significantly higher prediction accuracies of metabolic potentials (average Bray-Curtis similarity 87.8) as compared with relative microbial abundances (similarity 66.8), implying that natural AMD microbial assemblages may be better predicted at the functional genes level rather than at taxonomic level. Furthermore, relative metabolic potentials of genes involved in many key ecological functions (for example, nitrogen and phosphate utilization, metals resistance and stress response) were extrapolated to increase under more acidic and metal-rich conditions, indicating a critical strategy of stress adaptation in these extraordinary communities. Collectively, our findings indicate that natural selection rather than geographic distance has a more crucial role in shaping the taxonomic and functional patterns of AMD microbial community that readily predicted by modeling methods and suggest that the model-based approach is essential to better understand natural acidophilic microbial communities.

Dataset Information

Captivity causes taxonomic and functional convergence of gut microbial communities in bats.

Publications

Captivity causes taxonomic and functional convergence of gut microbial communities in bats.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets