Abstract
ABSTRACTIt is commonly understood that dietary nutrition will influence the composition and function of the animal gut microbiome. However, the transmission of organisms from the diet-source microbiome to the animal gut microbiome in the natural environment remains poorly understood, and elucidating this process may help in understanding the evolution of herbivores and plant defenses. Here, we investigated diet-source microbiome transmission across a range of herbivores (insects and mammals) living in both captive and wild environments. We discovered a host bias among cohabitating herbivores (leaf-eating insects and deer), where a significant portion of the herbivorous insect gut microbiome may originate from the diet, while in deer, only a tiny fraction of the gut microbiome is of dietary origin. We speculated that the putative difference in the oxygenation level in the host digestion systems would lead to these host biases in plant-source (diet) microbiome transmission due to the oxygenation living condition of the dietary plant’s symbiotic microbiome.IMPORTANCE We discovered a host bias among cohabitating herbivores (leaf-eating insects and deer), where a significant portion of the herbivorous insect gut microbiome may originate from the diet, while in deer, only a tiny fraction of the gut microbiome is of dietary origin. We speculated that the putative difference in the oxygenation level in the host digestion systems would lead to these host biases in plant-source (diet) microbiome transmission due to the oxygenation living condition of the dietary plant's symbiotic microbiome. This study shed new light on the coevolution of herbivory and plant defense.
Highlights
It is commonly understood that dietary nutrition will influence the composition and function of the animal gut microbiome
The total number of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) in the milu gut microbiome was largest (6,033 ASVs in milu, 4,621 in insects, and 1,259 in dietary plants), we found that the gut microbiome of herbivorous insects harbored a greater number of organisms originating from their diet than that harbored by herbivorous milu (Fig. 2)
We uncovered host bias in the diet-source microbiome of cohabitating herbivores and show that a variable portion of the normal animal gut microbiome might be derived from dietary sources
Summary
It is commonly understood that dietary nutrition will influence the composition and function of the animal gut microbiome. The transmission of organisms from the diet-source microbiome to the animal gut microbiome in the natural environment remains poorly understood, and elucidating this process may help in understanding the evolution of herbivores and plant defenses. We discovered a host bias among cohabitating herbivores (leaf-eating insects and deer), where a significant portion of the herbivorous insect gut microbiome may originate from the diet, while in deer, only a tiny fraction of the gut microbiome is of dietary origin. We speculated that the putative difference in the oxygenation level in the host digestion systems would lead to these host biases in plant-source (diet) microbiome transmission due to the oxygenation living condition of the dietary plant’s symbiotic microbiome. Wild aDue to the small amount of gastrointestinal content available in a single insect, the gut contents from five individuals were pooled as one insect sample for DNA extraction, and the majority of the 81 insect samples were pooled samples
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