The Oral and Skin Microbiomes of Captive Komodo Dragons Are Significantly Shared with Their Habitat.

ABSTRACT: Examining the way in which animals, including those in captivity, interact with their environment is extremely important for studying ecological processes and developing sophisticated animal husbandry. Here we use the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) to quantify the degree of sharing of salivary, skin, and fecal microbiota with their environment in captivity. Both species richness and microbial community composition of most surfaces in the Komodo dragon's environment are similar to the Komodo dragon's salivary and skin microbiota but less similar to the stool-associated microbiota. We additionally compared host-environment microbiome sharing between captive Komodo dragons and their enclosures, humans and pets and their homes, and wild amphibians and their environments. We observe

SUBMITTER: Hyde ER 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5069958 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul-Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature