Gomez Andres, Rothman Jessica M, Petrzelkova Klara, Yeoman Carl J, Vlckova Klara, Umaña Juan D, Carr Monica, Modry David, Todd Angelique, Torralba Manolito, Nelson Karen E, Stumpf Rebecca M, Wilson Brenda A, Blekhman Ran, White Bryan A, Leigh Steven R
Department of Animal Sciences, Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA.
Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA.
ISME J. 2016 Feb;10(2):514-26. doi: 10.1038/ismej.2015.146. Epub 2015 Aug 28.
Although the critical role that our gastrointestinal microbes play in host physiology is now well established, we know little about the factors that influenced the evolution of primate gut microbiomes. To further understand current gut microbiome configurations and diet-microbe co-metabolic fingerprints in primates, from an evolutionary perspective, we characterized fecal bacterial communities and metabolomic profiles in 228 fecal samples of lowland and mountain gorillas (G. g. gorilla and G. b. beringei, respectively), our closest evolutionary relatives after chimpanzees. Our results demonstrate that the gut microbiomes and metabolomes of these two species exhibit significantly different patterns. This is supported by increased abundance of metabolites and bacterial taxa associated with fiber metabolism in mountain gorillas, and enrichment of markers associated with simple sugar, lipid and sterol turnover in the lowland species. However, longitudinal sampling shows that both species' microbiomes and metabolomes converge when hosts face similar dietary constraints, associated with low fruit availability in their habitats. By showing differences and convergence of diet-microbe co-metabolic fingerprints in two geographically isolated primate species, under specific dietary stimuli, we suggest that dietary constraints triggered during their adaptive radiation were potential factors behind the species-specific microbiome patterns observed in primates today.
尽管我们的胃肠道微生物在宿主生理中所起的关键作用现已得到充分证实，但我们对影响灵长类动物肠道微生物群进化的因素却知之甚少。为了从进化的角度进一步了解灵长类动物当前的肠道微生物群结构以及饮食 - 微生物共代谢指纹，我们对低地大猩猩和山地大猩猩（分别为西部大猩猩指名亚种和山地大猩猩）的228份粪便样本中的粪便细菌群落和代谢组学特征进行了表征，这两种大猩猩是我们仅次于黑猩猩的近亲。我们的研究结果表明，这两个物种的肠道微生物群和代谢组呈现出显著不同的模式。这一点得到了以下证据的支持：山地大猩猩中与纤维代谢相关的代谢物和细菌类群丰度增加，而低地大猩猩中与单糖、脂质和甾醇周转相关的标志物则更为丰富。然而，纵向采样显示，当宿主面临类似的饮食限制（与其栖息地水果供应不足相关）时，这两个物种的微生物群和代谢组会趋于一致。通过展示在特定饮食刺激下，两个地理隔离的灵长类物种饮食 - 微生物共代谢指纹的差异和趋同，我们认为在它们适应性辐射过程中引发的饮食限制是当今灵长类动物中观察到的物种特异性微生物群模式背后的潜在因素。
