Abstract
The gut microbiota is now known as a key factor in mammalian physiology and health. Our understanding of the gut microbial communities and their effects on ecology and evolution of their hosts is extremely limited in bats which represent the second largest mammalian order. In the current study, gut microbiota of three sampling sources (small intestine, large intestine, and feces) were characterized in two sympatric and insectivorous bats (Rhinolophus sinicus and Myotis altarium) by high‐throughput sequencing of the V3‐V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Combining with published studies, this work reveals that Gammaproteobacteria may be a dominant class in the whole Chiroptera and Fusobacteria is less observed in bats although it has been proven to be dominant in other mammals. Our results reveal that the sampling source influences alpha diversity of the microbial community in both studied species although no significant variations of beta diversity were observed, which support that fecal samples cannot be used as a proxy of the microbiota in other gut regions in wild animals.
Highlights
Gut microbiota is often called the “forgotten organ” in its symbiotic host (O’Hara & Shanahan, 2006) and plays essential roles in food digestion, energy harvest, metabolism, and immune training of its host (Donaldson, Lee, & Mazmanian, 2016; Hooper, Littman, & Macpherson, 2012; Hooper, Midtvedt, & Gordon, 2002; Qin et al, 2010; Turnbaugh et al, 2006; Velagapudi et al, 2010)
Because several genetic lineages have been found for R. sinicus in the mainland of China (Mao et al, 2013), we identified the specific lineage for bats used in this study by reconstructing a Maximum Likelihood (ML) tree based on cytb sequences of the focal three samples and ones from the previous study
This study has characterized the microbiota of three sampling sources in two insectivorous bat species
Summary
Gut microbiota is often called the “forgotten organ” in its symbiotic host (O’Hara & Shanahan, 2006) and plays essential roles in food digestion, energy harvest, metabolism, and immune training of its host (Donaldson, Lee, & Mazmanian, 2016; Hooper, Littman, & Macpherson, 2012; Hooper, Midtvedt, & Gordon, 2002; Qin et al, 2010; Turnbaugh et al, 2006; Velagapudi et al, 2010). We aim at comparing the composition of the bacterial microbiota of bats from different gut sections. For this aim, we sampled two bat species, Rhinolophus sinicus (Rhinolophidae, Yinpterochiroptera) and Myotis altarium (Vespertilionidae, Yangochiroptera). We sampled two bat species, Rhinolophus sinicus (Rhinolophidae, Yinpterochiroptera) and Myotis altarium (Vespertilionidae, Yangochiroptera) Both species live in the same cave. By focusing on these two bat species, we aim to (a) characterize their core microbiota and compare it to that of other bat species and mammals; (b) compare the microbiota of paired small intestine, large intestine and feces to test whether fecal samples can be used as a proxy of the microbiota in other gut regions
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