Flexibility and resilience of great tit (Parus major) gut microbiomes to changing diets.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Gut microbial communities play important roles in nutrient management and can change in response to host diets. The extent of this flexibility and the concomitant resilience is largely unknown in wild animals. To untangle the dynamics of avian-gut microbiome symbiosis associated with diet changes, we exposed Parus major (Great tits) fed with a standard diet (seeds and mealworms) to either a mixed (seeds, mealworms and fruits), a seed, or a mealworm diet for 4 weeks, and examined the flexibility of gut microbiomes to these compositionally different diets. To assess microbiome resilience (recovery potential), all individuals were subsequently reversed to a standard diet for another 4 weeks. Cloacal microbiomes were collected weekly and characterised through sequencing the

SUBMITTER: Bodawatta KH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7893775 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature