Zoological Institute, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Mendelssohnstr. 4, Braunschweig 38106, Germany.
Institute for Zoology and Cell Biology, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, Düsseldorf 40225, Germany.
Nat Commun. 2016 Dec 15;7:13699. doi: 10.1038/ncomms13699.
Complex microbial communities inhabit vertebrate digestive systems but thorough understanding of the ecological dynamics and functions of host-associated microbiota within natural habitats is limited. We investigate the role of environmental conditions in shaping gut and skin microbiota under natural conditions by performing a field survey and reciprocal transfer experiments with salamander larvae inhabiting two distinct habitats (ponds and streams). We show that gut and skin microbiota are habitat-specific, demonstrating environmental factors mediate community structure. Reciprocal transfer reveals that gut microbiota, but not skin microbiota, responds differentially to environmental change. Stream-to-pond larvae shift their gut microbiota to that of pond-to-pond larvae, whereas pond-to-stream larvae change to a community structure distinct from both habitat controls. Predicted functions, however, match that of larvae from the destination habitats in both cases. Thus, microbial function can be matched without taxonomic coherence and gut microbiota appears to exhibit metagenomic plasticity.
脊椎动物的消化系统中栖息着复杂的微生物群落，但对于自然栖息地中与宿主相关的微生物群落的生态动态和功能，我们的了解还很有限。我们通过对栖息在两个不同生境（池塘和溪流）的蝾螈幼虫进行实地调查和相互转移实验，研究环境条件在塑造肠道和皮肤微生物群中的作用。结果表明，肠道和皮肤微生物群是特定于生境的，表明环境因素调节群落结构。相互转移表明，肠道微生物群而非皮肤微生物群对环境变化有不同的反应。从溪流到池塘的幼虫将其肠道微生物群转移到池塘到池塘的幼虫，而从池塘到溪流的幼虫则变成了与两个生境对照都不同的群落结构。然而，预测的功能与两种情况下的目的地幼虫的功能相匹配。因此，微生物功能可以在没有分类一致性的情况下匹配，而肠道微生物群似乎表现出宏基因组可塑性。
