Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Normal Universitygrid.27446.33, Changchun, China.
Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of Education Ministry, Institute of Grassland Science, Northeast Normal Universitygrid.27446.33, Changchun, China.
mSphere. 2021 Aug 25;6(4):e0046721. doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00467-21. Epub 2021 Aug 4.
Plasticity in the microbial community composition and function can permit the host to adapt to ecological, environmental, and physiological changes. Much of the information on the gut microbiota-host relationship to date derives from studies of laboratory model organisms, while little is known concerning wild animals and their ecological relevance to gut microbes. It is also unclear how microbial community composition and activity adapt to changes in diet and energy, nutritional requirements, and utilization induced by dietary expansion from invertebrates to vertebrates. The great evening bat (Ia io) is both an insectivore and an avivore (that is, a bird-eater), and thus provides an opportunity to investigate the diet-host-microbiota-physiology relationship. Here, we investigated this relationship by using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and functional prediction in adult males of . We found that gut microbial diversity was similar, while microbial community structures were significantly different between insectivorous and avivorous diets. Moreover, increases in the relative abundance of and the -to- ratio, changes in carbohydrate and nucleotide metabolism, and a decrease in Pseudomonas were associated with higher energy demands for hunting birds and with fat storage for entering hibernation and migration. These findings demonstrated that seasonal dietary shifts drive a significant change in the composition and function of gut microbiomes, thereby facilitating adaptation to the challenging avian dietary niche in bats. These results suggest that the gut microbial communities can constantly respond to alterations in diets, potentially facilitating the diversity of wild animal dietary niches, and enhance our understanding of the diet-host-microbiota-physiology relationship. The coevolution between the host and its gut microbes can promote an animal's adaptation to its specific ecological niche and changes in energy and nutritional requirements. This study focused on an avivorous bat, the great evening bat (), to investigate how seasonal dietary shifts affect the gut microbial composition and function, thereby facilitating adaptation to an avian diet. We found that seasonal dietary shifts driving a significant change in the composition and function of gut microbiomes in were associated with higher energy demands for hunting birds and fat storage for entering hibernation and migration. Our study provides novel insight into the role of gut bacteria in generating ecological diversity and flexibility in wild mammals. The results are valuable for clarifying the complicated host-microbiota-physiology relationship in a dietary niche expansion context.
微生物群落组成和功能的可塑性可以使宿主适应生态、环境和生理变化。迄今为止,关于肠道微生物群与宿主关系的大部分信息都来自于实验室模式生物的研究,而对于野生动物及其与肠道微生物的生态相关性知之甚少。微生物群落组成和活性如何适应饮食和能量的变化、营养需求以及从无脊椎动物到脊椎动物的饮食扩张引起的利用,也尚不清楚。大夜蝠(Ia io)既是食虫动物又是食鸟动物(即鸟类捕食者),因此为研究饮食-宿主-微生物群-生理学关系提供了机会。在这里,我们通过使用 16S rRNA 扩增子测序和功能预测来研究成年雄性大夜蝠的这种关系。我们发现,食虫和食鸟饮食之间的肠道微生物多样性相似,但微生物群落结构有显著差异。此外,增加的相对丰度和-比、碳水化合物和核苷酸代谢的变化以及假单胞菌的减少与猎鸟的高能量需求以及进入冬眠和迁徙的脂肪储存有关。这些发现表明,季节性饮食变化导致肠道微生物组的组成和功能发生显著变化,从而促进了蝙蝠适应具有挑战性的鸟类饮食生态位的能力。这些结果表明,肠道微生物群落可以不断响应饮食的改变,从而促进野生动物饮食生态位的多样性,并增强我们对饮食-宿主-微生物群-生理学关系的理解。宿主与其肠道微生物之间的共同进化可以促进动物适应其特定的生态位以及能量和营养需求的变化。本研究以食鸟蝙蝠大夜蝠()为研究对象,探讨季节性饮食变化如何影响肠道微生物的组成和功能,从而促进其对鸟类饮食的适应。我们发现,驱动大夜蝠肠道微生物组成和功能发生显著变化的季节性饮食变化与猎鸟的高能量需求和进入冬眠和迁徙的脂肪储存有关。本研究为肠道细菌在产生生态多样性和灵活性方面提供了新的见解野生哺乳动物。这些结果对于阐明饮食生态位扩张背景下复杂的宿主-微生物群-生理学关系具有重要价值。
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