Absolute abundance unveils Basidiobolus as a cross-domain bridge indirectly bolstering gut microbiome homeostasis.

ABSTRACT: The host microbiome is integral to metabolism, immune function, and pathogen resistance. Yet, reliance on relative abundance in microbiome studies introduces compositional biases that obscure ecological interpretation, while the absence of robust tools for absolute abundance quantification has limited biological discovery. Here, we apply absolute abundance profiling to uncover host-specific microbial patterns across herpetofauna orders that are masked in relative abundance data. Relative- and absolute abundance-derived bacterial and fungal microbiomes exhibit divergent profiles shaped by compositional bias and multifactorial effects. Absolute abundance identified key genera, Lactococcus, Parabacteroides, and Cetobacterium in salamanders, and Basidiobolus and Mortierella in lizards, turtles

SUBMITTER: Ghotbi M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12400927 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature