Baleen whales host a unique gut microbiome with similarities to both carnivores and herbivores.
Baleen whales host a unique gut microbiome with similarities to both carnivores and herbivores.
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DOI：
10.1038/ncomms9285
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发表时间：
2015-09-22
影响因子：
16.6
通讯作者：
Girguis PR
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Sanders JG;Beichman AC;Roman J;Scott JJ;Emerson D;McCarthy JJ;Girguis PR
哺乳动物的肠道微生物组具有巨大的生理后果，但这些社区的多样性的决定因素仍然知之甚少。饮食似乎是主导因素，但主机生育似乎也是一个重要的，如果不可预测的，相关。在这里，我们表明，须鲸，捕食动物（鱼类和甲壳类动物），具有独特的肠道微生物组与陆地食草动物的功能能力和更高层次的分类令人惊讶的相似之处。这些相似性可能反映了发酵代谢的共同作用，尽管主要碳源从植物来源的多糖转移到动物来源的多糖，如几丁质。相比之下，须鲸微生物组中的蛋白质催化剂和必需氨基酸合成途径更接近陆地食肉动物。我们的研究结果表明，即使是动物源性饮食，微生物组的功能属性也可以独立变化，说明饮食和进化历史如何结合联合收割机来塑造哺乳动物肠道中的微生物多样性。饮食是决定哺乳动物肠道微生物群组成的主要因素，而宿主进化史似乎起着不明确的作用。在这里，Sanders等人表明，捕食动物的须鲸拥有一种独特的肠道微生物组，与陆地食草动物相似。
Mammals host gut microbiomes of immense physiological consequence, but the determinants of diversity in these communities remain poorly understood. Diet appears to be the dominant factor, but host phylogeny also seems to be an important, if unpredictable, correlate. Here we show that baleen whales, which prey on animals (fish and crustaceans), harbor unique gut microbiomes with surprising parallels in functional capacity and higher level taxonomy to those of terrestrial herbivores. These similarities likely reflect a shared role for fermentative metabolisms despite a shift in primary carbon sources from plant-derived to animal-derived polysaccharides, such as chitin. In contrast, protein catabolism and essential amino acid synthesis pathways in baleen whale microbiomes more closely resemble those of terrestrial carnivores. Our results demonstrate that functional attributes of the microbiome can vary independently even given an animal-derived diet, illustrating how diet and evolutionary history combine to shape microbial diversity in the mammalian gut. Diet is a major factor determining the composition of gut microbiota in mammals, while host evolutionary history seems to play an unclear role. Here, Sanders et al. show that baleen whales, which prey on animals, harbour a unique gut microbiome with similarities to those of terrestrial herbivores.