Social environment and genetics underlie body site-specific microbiomes of Yellowstone National Park gray wolves (Canis lupus).

ABSTRACT: The host-associated microbiome is an important player in the ecology and evolution of species. Despite growing interest in the medical, veterinary, and conservation communities, there remain numerous questions about the primary factors underlying microbiota, particularly in wildlife. We bridged this knowledge gap by leveraging microbial, genetic, and observational data collected in a wild, pedigreed population of gray wolves (Canis lupus) inhabiting Yellowstone National Park. We characterized body site-specific microbes across six haired and mucosal body sites (and two fecal samples) using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. At the phylum level, we found that the microbiome of gray wolves primarily consists of Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Fusobacteria, and Proteobacteria, co

SUBMITTER: DeCandia AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8293786 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature