Abstract
BackgroundEuropean brown hares (Lepus europaeus) and European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) are invasive pest species in Australia, with rabbits having a substantially larger environmental impact than hares. As their spatial distribution in Australia partially overlaps, we conducted a comparative microbiome study to determine how the composition of gastrointestinal microbiota varies between these species, since this may indicate species differences in diet, physiology, and other internal and external factors.MethodsWe analysed the faecal microbiome of nine wild hares and twelve wild rabbits from a sympatric periurban reserve in Canberra, Australia, using a 16S rRNA amplicon-based sequencing approach. Additionally, we compared the concordance between results from Illumina and Nanopore sequencing platforms.ResultsWe identified significantly more variation in faecal microbiome composition between individual rabbits compared to hares, despite both species occupying a similar habitat. The faecal microbiome in both species was dominated by the phyla Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, typical of many vertebrates. Many phyla, including Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Patescibacteria, were shared between rabbits and hares. In contrast, bacteria from phylum Verrucomicrobia were present only in rabbits, while phyla Lentisphaerae and Synergistetes were represented only in hares. We did not identify phylum Spirochaetes in Australian hares; this phylum was previously shown to be present at high relative abundance in European hare faecal samples. These differences in the composition of faecal microbiota may be indicative of less discriminate foraging behaviour in rabbits, which in turn may enable them to adapt quicker to new environments, and may reflect the severe environmental impacts that this species has in Australia.
Highlights
In a new environment, non-native species must face several barriers to first invade and become established
Faecal samples were collected at necropsy from nine wild European brown hares (Lepus europaeus) and twelve wild European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) of both sexes (Table S1)
We evaluated statistical differences between hare and rabbit faecal samples for each observed bacterial phyla using a combination of multiple tests
Summary
Non-native species must face several barriers to first invade and become established. They must quickly adapt to new environmental conditions while competing with native species for food, shelter, and water [1, 2]. European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and European brown hares (Lepus europaeus) are lagomorphs from the family Leporidae and are both non-native species in Australia, originally introduced from. Despite foraging over wider areas, the impacts of European brown hares are less severe, they are still considered to be a pest species [6, 7]. The specific factors underlying differences in colonising potential and impacts of each species are likely multifactorial, including differences in host physiology, reproductive strategies, behaviour, diet, and interaction with commensal and pathogenic microbes
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