Culture-Independent Species-Level Taxonomic and Functional Characterisation of Bacteroides, the Core Bacterial Genus Within Reptile Guts.

ABSTRACT: The genus Bacteroides is a widespread and abundant bacterial taxon associated with gut microbiotas. Species within Bacteroides fill many niches, including as mutualists, commensals and pathogens for their hosts. Within many reptiles, Bacteroides is a dominant, 'core' gut bacterium that sometimes exhibits increased abundance in times of food scarcity, such as during hibernation. Here, we take a two-pronged approach to better characterise Bacteroides populations in reptile guts. Firstly, we leverage published 16S rRNA gene sequence datasets to determine the species-level distributions of Bacteroides members in reptile hosts. Secondly, we mine publicly available metagenomes to extract data for Bacteroides from reptiles, birds, amphibians and mammals, to compare the functional potential of Bac

SUBMITTER: Hoffbeck C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11874691 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature