Low activities of digestive enzymes in the guts of herbivorous grouse (Aves: Tetraoninae)

Abstract

Acknowledgments -We thank three anonymous reviewers for their feedback to strengthen the comparative components of this manuscript. In addition, we thank Mark Richards and Maria Arendt (University of Wisconsin -Madison) for help in obtaining tissues from domestic chickens. We thank Henrik Andrén and staff at the Grimsö Wildlife Research Station for providing infrastructure and support during field collections. Portions of this study were also made possible in cooperation with the Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science (SITES).We also thank Geir Rune Rauset, Þorkell Lindberg Þórarinsson, Friðrik Jónasson, as well as Onni, the barking bird dog, for assistance with collecting birds in the field. This research was supported by the Fulbright Commission through a Fulbright-Hays Grant and National Science Foundation [DEB-1146194 and OIA-1826801 to JSF], and start-up funds from the University of Pittsburgh [to KDK]. This research fully complied with the current laws of the countries in which they were performed.

Sirenian genomes illuminate the evolution of fully aquatic species within the mammalian superorder Afrotheria

“…ANPEP was previously reported to be under positive selection in sirenians (West Indian manatee), cetaceans (bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus , and killer whale, Orcinus orca ), and pinnipeds (walrus, Odobenus rosmarus ) and hypothesized to play a role in reducing oxidative stress in marine mammals by adjusting cysteine and glycine availability in the glutathione metabolism pathway 18 . This gene is also under positive selection in the ancestral branch of the dietary-diverse bat family Phyllostomidae 19 and has lower enzyme activity in herbivorous bird 20 and rodent 21 species. We speculate that these observations hint at modifications of this digestive enzyme in marine mammals consistent with their dietary substrates, in addition to a role in oxidative stress resistance.…”

“…The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted September 1, 2023. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.09.01.555811 doi: bioRxiv preprint dietary-diverse bat family Phyllostomidae 19 and has lower enzyme activity in herbivorous bird 20 and rodent 21 species. We speculate that these observations hint at modifications of this digestive enzyme in marine mammals consistent with their dietary substrates, in addition to a role in oxidative stress resistance.…”

Multiomics Characterization of the Canada Goose Fecal Microbiome Reveals Selective Efficacy of Simulated Metagenomes

“…Conversely, geese have significantly shorter passage times, ranging from a few hours to as short at 30 min, and show limited microbial fermentation of plant matter in their gastrointestinal tracts ( 55 , 57 ). It has been suggested that geese rely primarily on a high-volume strategy where they extract small amounts of nutrients from copious amounts of food and use their proventriculus and gizzard to chemically digest and physically crush the plant matter ( 55 , 58 ). Our MGs and MTs identified numerous ECs that were related to cellulose and hemicellulose degradation as well as SCFA pathways commonly found in ruminants and other herbivores ( 3 , 48 , 59 ).…”