Abstract
The gut microbiota of vertebrates are essential to host health. Most non-model vertebrates, however, lack even a basic description of natural gut microbiota biodiversity. Here, we sampled 116 intestines from 59 Neotropical bird species and used the V6 region of the 16S rRNA molecule as a microbial fingerprint (average coverage per bird ~80,000 reads). A core microbiota of Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria was identified, as well as several gut-associated genera. We tested 18 categorical variables associated with each bird for significant correlation to the gut microbiota; host taxonomic categories were most frequently significant and explained the most variation. Ecological variables (e.g., diet, foraging stratum) were also frequently significant but explained less variation. Little evidence was found for a significant influence of geographic space. Finally, we suggest that microbial sampling during field collection of organisms would propel biological understanding of evolutionary history and ecological significance of host-associated microbiota.
Highlights
Gut microbiota are an essential component of vertebrate health
A further 3,58,725 sequences that did not align to any sequence within the domain Bacteria (3.6% of reads) were removed; 75% of these discarded reads belonged to 11 individuals
Four bacterial phyla were detected in all individuals: Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria comprising an average of 46.3, 37.3, 3.3, and 1.4% of each sample, respectively (Figure 2)
Summary
Gut microbiota are an essential component of vertebrate health. The gut microbiota is one of the most densely populated natural environments known (Whitman et al, 1998), possibly composed of thousands of species (Xu and Gordon, 2003). Gut microbiota communities tend to be more similar between more similar hosts, the specific members of the microbiota can vary significantly between hosts of the same species (Eckburg et al, 2005; Hird et al, 2014) and even between identical twins (Turnbaugh et al, 2010). The microbiota may have an influence above the level of the individual, as they can affect mate choice (Sharon et al, 2010) and cause hybrid inviability (Brucker and Bordenstein, 2013). Understanding the role of the microbiota in evolution is a major outstanding question and the subject of much ongoing research
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
