Seasonal shifts in the gut microbiome indicate plastic responses to diet in wild geladas.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Adaptive shifts in gut microbiome composition are one route by which animals adapt to seasonal changes in food availability and diet. However, outside of dietary shifts, other potential environmental drivers of gut microbial composition have rarely been investigated, particularly in organisms living in their natural environments.

Results

Here, we generated the largest wild nonhuman primate gut microbiome dataset to date to identify the environmental drivers of gut microbial diversity and function in 758 samples collected from wild Ethiopian geladas (Theropithecus gelada). Because geladas live in a cold, high-altitude environment and have a low-quality grass-based diet, they face extreme thermoregulatory and energetic constraints. We tested how proxies of food avai

SUBMITTER: Baniel A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7828014 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature