Unraveling the Gut Microbiome of the Invasive Small Indian Mongoose (Urva auropunctata) in the Caribbean.

Anne A M J Becker,Patrick Butaye,Kc Hill

doi:10.3390/microorganisms9030465

Anne A M J Becker, Patrick Butaye + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9030465

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Abstract

Small Indian mongooses (Urva auropunctata) are among the most pervasive predators to disrupt the native ecology on Caribbean islands and are strongly entrenched in their areas of introduction. Few studies, however, have considered the microbial ecology of such biological invasions. In this study, we investigated the gut microbiota of invasive small Indian mongooses in terms of taxonomic diversity and functional potential. To this end, we collected fecal samples from 60 free-roaming mongooses trapped in different vegetation zones on the island Saint Kitts. The core gut microbiome, assessed by 16S rRNA amplicon gene sequencing on the Ion S5TM XL platform, reflects a carnivore-like signature with a dominant abundance of Firmicutes (54.96%), followed by Proteobacteria (13.98%) and Fusobacteria (12.39%), and a relatively minor contribution of Actinobacteria (10.4%) and Bacteroidetes (6.40%). Mongooses trapped at coastal sites exhibited a higher relative abundance of Fusobacterium spp. whereas those trapped in scrubland areas were enriched in Bacteroidetes, but there was no site-specific difference in predicted metabolic properties. Between males and females, beta-diversity was not significantly different and no sex-specific strategies for energy production were observed. However, the relative abundance of Gammaproteobacteria, and more specifically, Enterobacteriaceae, was significantly higher in males. This first description of the microbial profile of small Indian mongooses provides new insights into their bioecology and can serve as a springboard to further elucidating this invasive predator’s impact throughout the Caribbean.

Highlights

Studying different aspects of the bioecology of wild mammalian species is central to integrative wildlife conservation and habitat protection
The majority of the mongooses belonged to age class 2 or 3 and were well-conditioned with body condition score (BCS) 3
We generated the first extensive sequence library highlighting the taxonomic diversity and functional potential of the bacterial gut microbiota of small Indian mongooses (Urva auropunctata), an invasive species free-roaming on Caribbean islands

Summary

Introduction

Studying different aspects of the bioecology of wild mammalian species is central to integrative wildlife conservation and habitat protection. The bioecology of a species encompasses different aspects, such as geographic range and habitat, feeding ecology, social behavior, genetics, morpho-physiology, and the host-associated gut microbiome which is more recently recognized as an integral part of a species’ bioecology [1]. This has led to increased microbiome research in rare, threatened, or valuable wildlife populations [2]. Mongoose population density ranges from 1 to +10 mongooses/ha in the Caribbean [5]

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