College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China.
University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, USA.
Environ Microbiol. 2018 May;20(5):1711-1722. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.14096. Epub 2018 Mar 26.
Carnivorous members of the Carnivora reside at the apex of food chains and consume meat-only diets, rich in purine, fats and protein. Here, we aimed to identify potential adaptive evolutionary signatures compatible with high purine and fat metabolism based on analysis of host genomes and symbiotic gut microbial metagenomes. We found that the gut microbiomes of carnivorous Carnivora (e.g., Felidae, Canidae) clustered in the same clade, and other clades comprised omnivorous and herbivorous Carnivora (e.g., badgers, bears and pandas). The relative proportions of genes encoding enzymes involved in uric acid degradation were higher in the gut microbiomes of meat-eating carnivorans than plant-eating species. Adaptive amino acid substitutions in two enzymes, carnitine O-palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT1A) and lipase F (LIPF), which play a role in fat digestion, were identified in Felidae-Candidae species. Carnivorous carnivorans appear to endure diets high in purines and fats via gut microbiomic and genomic adaptations.
食肉目动物位于食物链的顶端，只食用富含嘌呤、脂肪和蛋白质的肉类。在这里，我们旨在基于对宿主基因组和共生肠道微生物宏基因组的分析，确定与高嘌呤和高脂肪代谢相容的潜在适应性进化特征。我们发现，食肉目（如猫科、犬科）的肠道微生物群聚在同一分支中，而其他分支则包含杂食性和草食性的食肉目（如獾、熊和熊猫）。参与尿酸降解的酶的编码基因在肉食性肉食目动物的肠道微生物群中的相对比例高于植物性食草物种。在猫科犬科物种中，鉴定出两种参与脂肪消化的酶，肉碱 O-棕榈酰转移酶 1（CPT1A）和脂肪酶 F（LIPF）的适应性氨基酸替换。食肉目肉食动物似乎通过肠道微生物组和基因组的适应性来耐受富含嘌呤和脂肪的饮食。
