Dataset Information

Body-size Scaling is Related to Gut Microbial Diversity, Metabolism and Dietary Niche of Arboreal Folivorous Flying Squirrels.

ABSTRACT: Thermal homeostasis of mammals is constrained by body-size scaling. Consequently, small mammals require considerable energy to maintain a high mass-specific metabolic rate (MSMR) and sustain target body temperature. In association with gut microbiota, mammalian hosts acquire absorbable molecules and fulfill their metabolic requirements. Our objective was to characterize gut microbes in wild mammals and relate those findings to host body-size scaling. Two large (Petaurista philippensis grandis and P. alborufus lena), one medium (Trogopterus xanthipes) and one small (Pteromys volans orii) species of flying squirrels (FS) were studied. Using 16S rRNA genes, 1,104 OTUs were detected from four FS, with 1.99% of OTUs shared among all FS. Although all FS gut microbiota were dominated by Firmicutes, they were constituted by different bacterial families. Moreover, Bacteroidetes accounted for up to 19% of gut microbiota in small FS, but was absent in large FS. Finally, based on metagenome predictions, carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism genes were enriched in small body-size FS. In conclusion, gut microbiota compositions and predictive metabolic functions were characteristic of body-size in FS, consistent with their adaptations to folivorous dietary niches.

SUBMITTER: Liu PY

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7210948 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Body-size Scaling is Related to Gut Microbial Diversity, Metabolism and Dietary Niche of Arboreal Folivorous Flying Squirrels.

Liu Po-Yu PY Cheng An-Chi AC Huang Shiao-Wei SW Lu Hsiao-Pei HP Oshida Tatsuo T Liu Wenhua W Yu Hon-Tsen HT

Scientific reports 20200508 1

Thermal homeostasis of mammals is constrained by body-size scaling. Consequently, small mammals require considerable energy to maintain a high mass-specific metabolic rate (MSMR) and sustain target body temperature. In association with gut microbiota, mammalian hosts acquire absorbable molecules and fulfill their metabolic requirements. Our objective was to characterize gut microbes in wild mammals and relate those findings to host body-size scaling. Two large (Petaurista philippensis grandis an ...[more]

PMID: 32385374

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundCaptive animals, compared to their wild counterparts, generally harbor imbalanced gut microbiota owing, in part, to their altered diets. This imbalance is particularly striking for folivores that fundamentally rely on gut microbiota for digestion, yet rarely receive sufficient dietary fiber in captivity. We examine the critically endangered Coquerel's sifaka (Propithecus coquereli), an anatomically specialized, rather than facultative, folivore that consumes a seasonal frugo-folivorous diet in the wild, but is provisioned predominantly with seasonal foliage and orchard vegetables in captivity. Using amplicon and metagenomic sequencing applied to fecal samples collected from two wild and one captive population (each comprising multiple groups), we clarify how dietary variation underlies the perturbational effect of captivity on the structure and function of this species' gut microbiota.ResultsThe gut microbiota of wild sifakas varied by study population, most notably in community evenness and in the abundance of diet-associated microbes from Prevotellaeceae and Lachnospiraceae. Nevertheless, the differences among wild subjects were minor compared to those evident between wild and captive sifakas: Unusually, the consortia of captive sifakas were the most diverse, but lacked representation of endemic Bacteroidetes and metagenomic capacity for essential amino-acid biosynthesis. Instead, they were enriched for complex fiber metabolizers from the Firmicutes phylum, for archaeal methanogens, and for several metabolic pathways putatively linked to plant fiber and secondary compound metabolism.ConclusionsThe relatively minor differences in gut microbial structure and function between wild sifaka populations likely reflect regional and/or temporal environmental variability, whereas the major differences observed in captive conspecifics, including the loss of endemic microbes, but gain in low-abundance taxa, likely reflect imbalanced or unstable consortia. Indeed, community perturbation may not necessarily entail decreased community diversity. Moreover, signatures of greater fiber degradation indicate that captive sifakas consume a more fibrous diet compared to their wild counterparts. These results do not mirror those typically reported for folivores and herbivores, suggesting that the direction and strength of captivity-induced 'dysbiosis' may not be universal across species with similar feeding strategies. We propose that tailored, species-specific dietary interventions in captivity, aimed at better approximating naturally foraged diets, could functionally 'rewild' gut microbiota and facilitate successful management of diverse species.

Project description:Live trapping is a common tool used to assess demography of small mammals. However, live-trapping is often expensive and stressful to captured individuals. Thus, assessing the relative tradeoffs among study goals, project expenses, and animal well-being is necessary. Here, we evaluated how apparent bias and precision of estimates for apparent annual survival, abundance, capture probability, and recapture probability of Humboldt's flying squirrels (Glaucomys oregonensis) varied with the number of secondary trapping occasions. We used data from forested sites trapped on 12 consecutive occasions annually in the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest (9 sites, 6 years) and the Siuslaw National Forest (seven sites, three years) in Oregon. We used Huggins robust design models to estimate parameters of interest for the first 4, 8, and 12 trapping occasions. We also estimated the effect of attaching Tomahawk traps to tree boles on site- and year-specific flying squirrel capture frequencies. Our estimates with 12 occasions were similar to those from previous studies. Abundances and capture probabilities were variable among years on both sites; however, variation was much lower on the Siuslaw sites. Reducing the length of primary trapping occasions from 12 to 8 nights had very little impact on parameter estimates, but further reducing the length of primary trapping occasions to four nights caused substantial apparent bias in parameter estimates and decreased precision. We found that attaching Tomahawk traps to tree boles increased the site- and year-specific capture frequency of flying squirrels. Our results suggest that live-trapping studies targeting Humboldt's flying squirrels in the Pacific Northwest of the United States could reduce per-site costs and stress to captured individuals without biasing estimates by reducing the length of primary trapping occasions to 8 nights. We encourage similar analyses for other commonly-trapped species in these and other ecosystems.

Dataset Information

Body-size Scaling is Related to Gut Microbial Diversity, Metabolism and Dietary Niche of Arboreal Folivorous Flying Squirrels.

Publications

Body-size Scaling is Related to Gut Microbial Diversity, Metabolism and Dietary Niche of Arboreal Folivorous Flying Squirrels.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure