Host age, social group, and habitat type influence the gut microbiota of wild ring‐tailed lemurs (Lemur catta)

Abstract

The gut microbiota contributes to host health by maintaining homeostasis, increasing digestive efficiency, and facilitating the development of the immune system. The composition of the gut microbiota can change dramatically within and between individuals of a species as a result of diet, age, or habitat. Therefore, understanding the factors determining gut microbiota diversity and composition can contribute to our knowledge of host ecology as well as to conservation efforts. Here we use high-throughput sequencing to describe variation in the gut microbiota of the endangered ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) at the Bezà Mahafaly Special Reserve (BMSR) in southwestern Madagascar. Specifically, we measured the diversity and composition of the gut microbiota in relation to social group, age, sex, tooth wear and loss, and habitat disturbance. While we found no significant variation in the diversity of the ring-tailed lemur gut microbiota in response to any variable tested, the taxonomic composition of the gut microbiota was influenced by social group, age, and habitat disturbance. However, effect sizes were small and appear to be driven by the presence or absence of relatively low abundance taxa. These results suggest that habitat disturbance may not impact the lemur gut microbiota as strongly as it impacts the gut microbiota of other primate species, highlighting the importance of distinct host ecological and physiological factors on host-gut microbe relationships. Am. J. Primatol. 78:883-892, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Captivity Shapes the Gut Microbiota of Andean Bears: Insights into Health Surveillance

“…Bacterial diversity was higher in wild individuals and lower for individuals living in captivity. These findings are congruent with previous evidence, which has demonstrated that perturbed habitat as well as captivity conditions act as stressors and are correlated with decreased gut microbial diversity (Amato et al, 2013; Barelli et al, 2015; Bennett et al, 2016). The difference in similarity patterns observed for wild and captive individuals could be explained by changes in diet.…”

Patterns of seasonality and group membership characterize the gut microbiota in a longitudinal study of wild Verreaux's sifakas (Propithecus verreauxi)

“…However, studies on wild mammals investigating sex and age class differences in microbiota composition have generally reported low effect sizes (Amato et al., 2014; Bennett et al., 2016; Tung et al., 2015). Large sample sizes may be needed to detect these effects, if they exist, which may explain why we found statistically significant effects in the model combining all samples, but not in the monthly data subsets.…”

The influence of diet and environment on the gut microbial community of field crickets

“…The metazoan gut is colonized by an opportunistic and commensal microbiota that is shaped by a combination of exogenous (diet and habitat) and endogenous (gut environment and host genetics) factors (Bennett et al., ; Bolnick, Snowberg, Hirsch, Lauber, Knight, et al., ; Bolnick, Snowberg, Hirsch, Lauber, Org, et al., ; Daniel et al., ; David et al., ; Dehler, Secombes, & Martin, ; Muegge et al., ; Pérez‐Cobas et al., ; Yun et al., ). It has been suggested that different factors act on different aspects of gut microbial community composition (Zhao et al., ).…”

“…Pronounced interpopulation and interindividual variations in the gut microbial communities are observed in many species, with contributions from endogenous factors, such as age, sex and genotype, and exogenous factors, including habitat and diet (Bennett et al, 2016;Han, Lee, Jeong, Jeon, & Hyun, 2017;Kovacs et al, 2011). As gut microbes can help in the digestion of ingested food, changes in gut microbial populations could entail a shift in the genes that carry out metabolic reactions in the gastrointestinal tract, which could impact the food utilization efficiency of the host (Holm et al, 2016;Turnbaugh et al, 2006).…”