The gut microbiome of exudivorous marmosets in the wild and captivity

Abstract

Mammalian captive dietary specialists like folivores are prone to gastrointestinal distress and primate dietary specialists suffer the greatest gut microbiome diversity losses in captivity compared to the wild. Marmosets represent another group of dietary specialists, exudivores that eat plant exudates, but whose microbiome remains relatively less studied. The common occurrence of gastrointestinal distress in captive marmosets prompted us to study the Callithrix gut microbiome composition and predictive function through bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA V4 region sequencing. We sampled 59 wild and captive Callithrix across four species and their hybrids. Host environment had a stronger effect on the gut microbiome than host taxon. Wild Callithrix gut microbiomes were enriched for Bifidobacterium, which process host-indigestible carbohydrates. Captive marmoset guts were enriched for Enterobacteriaceae, a family containing pathogenic bacteria. While gut microbiome function was similar across marmosets, Enterobacteriaceae seem to carry out most functional activities in captive host guts. More diverse bacterial taxa seem to perform gut functions in wild marmosets, with Bifidobacterium being important for carbohydrate metabolism. Captive marmosets showed gut microbiome composition aspects seen in human gastrointestinal diseases. Thus, captivity may perturb the exudivore gut microbiome, which raises implications for captive exudivore welfare and calls for husbandry modifications.

Gut microbiota communities of reciprocal hybrids from koi (Cyprinus carpio) and goldfish (Carassius auratus) are more similar to koi than goldfish

“…We suspected that dominant microbiota exerts some influence on the difference in microbiota function, which was in accordance with previous studies (Lian et al, 2021;Yang et al, 2019). Hybridization exerts some influences on gut bacteria, and the changes in the hybrids' gut microbiota may affect gene expression and fitness of the host (Malukiewicz et al, 2022), and lead to favourable physiological functions in some cases (Seehausen et al, 2014). However, PICRUSt, as a functional prediction tool, should be interpreted with caution when applied to fish rather than human microbial ecology due to the lack of representation of fishassociated microorganisms in genomic databases (Zhang et al, 2021).…”

The Gut Bacterial Community of Wild and Captive Black Capuchin Monkeys (Sapajus Nigritus) in South Brazil Exhibit Environmental Influences

“…Contrary to previous studies that reported higher alpha diversity in the gut microbiota of wild primate populations, such as Japanese macaques [31], Guizhou snub-nosed monkeys [32], and spider monkeys [33], compared to those in captivity, our research revealed an unexpected pattern of low bacterial diversity in the gut microbiota of wild black capuchin monkeys. On the other hand, our results align with a study conducted on other primates from Brazil, Brazilian marmosets Callithrix spp., where rectal samples indicated lower richness in the gut microbiome of wild animals compared to translocated and captive individuals [20]. Low richness in fecal microbiomes has also been observed in other wild animals, such as rhinoceroses [34], pangolins [35], and white-lipped deer [36], compared to those in captivity.…”

“…Despite Brazil harboring one of the world's most diverse primate populations, there are still few studies investigating the gut microbiome [19,20]. The microbiota provides valuable insights into animal health and environmental conditions.…”

Pelage Variation and Morphometrics of Closely RelatedCallithrixMarmoset Species and Their Hybrids

“…Marmoset cranial shape and musculature, dentition, in addition to digestive features [48, 49, 50, 51], support Callithrix exudivory by allowing marmosets to gouge and scrape hard plant surfaces to access and digest natural exudate sources made of hard to digest oligosaccharides [48, 52, 53, 54, 51, 50, 49, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60]. However, interspecific differences in marmoset cranial shape and dentition Callithrix species are linked to intersepcific differences in exudivory specializaiton [52, 61, 62, 63], with C. jacchus and C. penicillata representing the extreme of marmoset exudivory specialization and C. aurita being the least specialized [64].…”