Grisnik Matthew, Walker Donald M
Department of Biology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, 37132, USA.
Department of Biology, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC, 29528, USA.
Microb Ecol. 2024 Dec 21;87(1):161. doi: 10.1007/s00248-024-02480-2.
Understanding the processes and factors that influence the structure of host-associated microbial assemblages has been a major area of research as these assemblages play a role in host defense against pathogens. Previous work has found that bacterial taxa within bat cutaneous microbial assemblages have antifungal capabilities against the emerging fungal pathogen, Pseudogymnoascus destructans. However, our understanding of natural fluctuations in these cutaneous microbial assemblages over time due to shifts in host habitat is lacking. The objective of this work was to understand how the taxonomic and functional bat cutaneous microbial assemblage responds to seasonal shifts in host habitat. We hypothesized that at the community level, there will be turnover in taxonomic structure but functional redundancy across seasons. On a finer scale, we hypothesized that there will be differences in the relative abundance of functional genes that code for select pathways across seasons. Results showed that, on a broad scale, the bat cutaneous microbial assemblage is seasonally taxonomically dynamic but functionally redundant. Additionally, although there was almost complete taxonomic turnover between winter and summer bat microbial assemblages, there was no difference in assemblage structure across winters. This functional redundancy was also observed at finer scales, with no differences in the abundance of genes within pathways of hypothesized importance across seasons or winters. Taken together, results suggest species sorting mechanisms correlated with shifts in host habitat use, drive taxonomic but not functional host-associated cutaneous microbial community assembly.
了解影响宿主相关微生物群落结构的过程和因素一直是一个主要研究领域，因为这些群落对宿主抵御病原体发挥着作用。先前的研究发现，蝙蝠皮肤微生物群落中的细菌类群对新兴真菌病原体——毁灭柱孢菌具有抗真菌能力。然而，我们尚缺乏对这些皮肤微生物群落在宿主栖息地变化导致的随时间自然波动情况的了解。这项工作的目的是了解蝙蝠皮肤微生物群落在分类学和功能上如何响应宿主栖息地的季节性变化。我们假设，在群落水平上，分类学结构会随季节更替，但功能上具有冗余性。在更精细的尺度上，我们假设编码特定途径的功能基因的相对丰度在不同季节会存在差异。结果表明，从广义上讲，蝙蝠皮肤微生物群落在分类学上具有季节性动态变化，但在功能上具有冗余性。此外，尽管冬季和夏季蝙蝠微生物群落之间几乎存在完全的分类学更替，但不同冬季的群落结构并无差异。在更精细的尺度上也观察到了这种功能冗余性，在不同季节或冬季，假设重要途径内的基因丰度没有差异。综合来看，结果表明与宿主栖息地利用变化相关的物种分选机制驱动了分类学上的，但并非功能上的宿主相关皮肤微生物群落组装。
