Goossens Evy, Boonyarittichaikij Roschong, Dekeukeleire Daan, Hertzog Lionel, Van Praet Sarah, Pasmans Frank, Bonte Dries, Verheyen Kris, Lens Luc, Martel An, Verbrugghe Elin
Department of Pathology, Bacteriology and Avian Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium.
Department of Clinical Sciences and Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand.
Front Microbiol. 2022 Mar 9;13:790189. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.790189. eCollection 2022.
Despite the microbiome's key role in health and fitness, little is known about the environmental factors shaping the gut microbiome of wild birds. With habitat fragmentation being recognised as a major threat to biological diversity, we here determined how forest structure influences the bacterial species richness and diversity of wild great tit nestlings (). Using an Illumina metabarcoding approach which amplifies the 16S bacterial ribosomal RNA gene, we measured gut microbiota diversity and composition from 49 great tit nestlings, originating from 23 different nests that were located in 22 different study plots across a gradient of forest fragmentation and tree species diversity. Per nest, an average microbiome was determined on which the influence of tree species (composition and richness) and forest fragmentation (fragment area and edge density) was examined and whether this was linked to host characteristics (body condition and fledging success). We found an interaction effect of edge density with tree species richness or composition on both the microbial richness (alpha diversity: Chao1 and Shannon) and community structure (beta diversity: weighted and unweighted UniFrac). No significant short-term impact was observed of the overall faecal microbiome on host characteristics, but rather an adverse effect of specific bacterial genera on fledging success. These results highlight the influence of environmental factors on the microbial richness as well as the phylogenetic diversity during a life stage where the birds' microbiota is shaped, which could lead to long-term consequences for host fitness.
尽管微生物群在健康和体能方面发挥着关键作用，但对于塑造野生鸟类肠道微生物群的环境因素，我们却知之甚少。由于栖息地破碎化被认为是生物多样性面临的主要威胁，我们在此研究了森林结构如何影响野生大山雀雏鸟的细菌物种丰富度和多样性。我们采用Illumina宏条形码技术扩增16S细菌核糖体RNA基因，测量了来自49只大山雀雏鸟的肠道微生物群多样性和组成，这些雏鸟来自23个不同的巢穴，分布在22个不同的研究地块，涵盖了森林破碎化梯度和树种多样性。对于每个巢穴，我们确定了一个平均微生物群，并研究了树种（组成和丰富度）和森林破碎化（斑块面积和边缘密度）对其的影响，以及这是否与宿主特征（身体状况和出飞成功率）相关。我们发现边缘密度与树种丰富度或组成之间存在交互作用，对微生物丰富度（α多样性：Chao1和香农指数）和群落结构（β多样性：加权和未加权的UniFrac）均有影响。未观察到整体粪便微生物群对宿主特征有显著的短期影响，但特定细菌属对出飞成功率有不利影响。这些结果突出了环境因素在鸟类微生物群形成的生命阶段对微生物丰富度以及系统发育多样性的影响，这可能会对宿主的适应性产生长期影响。
