Mammalian gut metabolomes mirror microbiome composition and host phylogeny.

ABSTRACT: In the past decade, studies on the mammalian gut microbiome have revealed that different animal species have distinct gut microbial compositions. The functional ramifications of this variation in microbial composition remain unclear: do these taxonomic differences indicate microbial adaptations to host-specific functionality, or are these diverse microbial communities essentially functionally redundant, as has been indicated by previous metagenomics studies? Here, we examine the metabolic content of mammalian gut microbiomes as a direct window into ecosystem function, using an untargeted metabolomics platform to analyze 101 fecal samples from a range of 25 exotic mammalian species in collaboration with a zoological center. We find that mammalian metabolomes are chemically diverse and stron

SUBMITTER: Gregor R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9038745 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature