The gut microbiota of three avian species living in sympatry

Pereira, Hugo; Chakarov, Nayden; Caspers, Barbara A.; Gilles, Marc; Jones, William; Mijoro, Taftasoa; Zefania, Sama; Székely, Tamás; Krüger, Oliver; Hoffman, Joseph I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5895-8949. 2024 The gut microbiota of three avian species living in sympatry. BMC Ecology and Evolution, 24, 144. 15, pp. 10.1186/s12862-024-02329-9

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Text (Open Access) Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. s12862-024-02329-9.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract/Summary

Background Evolutionary divergence and genetic variation are often linked to differences in microbial community structure and diversity. While environmental factors and diet heavily influence gut microbial communities, host species contributions are harder to quantify. Closely related species living in sympatry provide a unique opportunity to investigate species differences without the confounding effects of habitat and dietary variation. We therefore compared and contrasted the gut microbiota of three sympatric plover species: the widespread Kittlitz’s and white-fronted plovers (Anarhynchus pecuarius and A. marginatus) and the endemic and vulnerable Madagascar plover (A. thoracicus). Results We found no significant differences in the beta diversity (composition) of the gut microbiota of the three species. However, A. thoracicus exhibited higher intraspecific compositional similarity (i.e. lower pairwise distances) than the other two species; this pattern was especially pronounced among juveniles. By contrast, microbial alpha diversity varied significantly among the species, being highest in A. pecuarius, intermediate in A. marginatus and lowest in A. thoracicus. This pattern was again stronger among juveniles. Geographical distance did not significantly affect the composition of the gut microbiota, but genetic relatedness did. Conclusion While patterns of microbial diversity varied across species, the lack of compositional differences suggests that habitat and diet likely exert a strong influence on the gut microbiota of plovers. This may be enhanced by their precocial, ground-dwelling nature, which could facilitate the horizontal transmission of microbes from the environment. We hypothesise that gut microbiota diversity in plovers primarily reflects the ecological pool of microbiota, which is subsequently modified by host-specific factors including genetics. The reduced microbial and genetic diversity of the endemic A. thoracicus may hinder its ability to adapt to environmental changes, highlighting the need for increased conservation efforts for this vulnerable species.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1186/s12862-024-02329-9
ISSN:	2730-7182
Additional Keywords:	Gut microbiota, Genetics, Holobiont, Endemic, Madagascar, Plovers
Date made live:	25 Nov 2024 11:08 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/538433

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