Baleen whales host a unique gut microbiome with similarities to both carnivores and herbivores
Mammals host gut microbiomes of immense physiological consequence, but the determinants of diversity in these communities remain poorly understood. Diet appears to be the dominant factor, but host phylogeny also seems to be an important, if unpredictable, correlate. Here we show that baleen whales,...
Published in: | Nature Communications |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Nature Pub. Group
2015
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4595633/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26393325 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9285 |
id |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4595633 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4595633 2023-05-15T15:36:55+02:00 Baleen whales host a unique gut microbiome with similarities to both carnivores and herbivores Sanders, Jon G. Beichman, Annabel C. Roman, Joe Scott, Jarrod J. Emerson, David McCarthy, James J. Girguis, Peter R. 2015-09-22 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4595633/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26393325 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9285 en eng Nature Pub. Group http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4595633/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26393325 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9285 Copyright © 2015, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Article Text 2015 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9285 2015-10-25T00:14:07Z Mammals host gut microbiomes of immense physiological consequence, but the determinants of diversity in these communities remain poorly understood. Diet appears to be the dominant factor, but host phylogeny also seems to be an important, if unpredictable, correlate. Here we show that baleen whales, which prey on animals (fish and crustaceans), harbor unique gut microbiomes with surprising parallels in functional capacity and higher level taxonomy to those of terrestrial herbivores. These similarities likely reflect a shared role for fermentative metabolisms despite a shift in primary carbon sources from plant-derived to animal-derived polysaccharides, such as chitin. In contrast, protein catabolism and essential amino acid synthesis pathways in baleen whale microbiomes more closely resemble those of terrestrial carnivores. Our results demonstrate that functional attributes of the microbiome can vary independently even given an animal-derived diet, illustrating how diet and evolutionary history combine to shape microbial diversity in the mammalian gut. Text baleen whale baleen whales PubMed Central (PMC) Nature Communications 6 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Article |
spellingShingle |
Article Sanders, Jon G. Beichman, Annabel C. Roman, Joe Scott, Jarrod J. Emerson, David McCarthy, James J. Girguis, Peter R. Baleen whales host a unique gut microbiome with similarities to both carnivores and herbivores |
topic_facet |
Article |
description |
Mammals host gut microbiomes of immense physiological consequence, but the determinants of diversity in these communities remain poorly understood. Diet appears to be the dominant factor, but host phylogeny also seems to be an important, if unpredictable, correlate. Here we show that baleen whales, which prey on animals (fish and crustaceans), harbor unique gut microbiomes with surprising parallels in functional capacity and higher level taxonomy to those of terrestrial herbivores. These similarities likely reflect a shared role for fermentative metabolisms despite a shift in primary carbon sources from plant-derived to animal-derived polysaccharides, such as chitin. In contrast, protein catabolism and essential amino acid synthesis pathways in baleen whale microbiomes more closely resemble those of terrestrial carnivores. Our results demonstrate that functional attributes of the microbiome can vary independently even given an animal-derived diet, illustrating how diet and evolutionary history combine to shape microbial diversity in the mammalian gut. |
format |
Text |
author |
Sanders, Jon G. Beichman, Annabel C. Roman, Joe Scott, Jarrod J. Emerson, David McCarthy, James J. Girguis, Peter R. |
author_facet |
Sanders, Jon G. Beichman, Annabel C. Roman, Joe Scott, Jarrod J. Emerson, David McCarthy, James J. Girguis, Peter R. |
author_sort |
Sanders, Jon G. |
title |
Baleen whales host a unique gut microbiome with similarities to both carnivores and herbivores |
title_short |
Baleen whales host a unique gut microbiome with similarities to both carnivores and herbivores |
title_full |
Baleen whales host a unique gut microbiome with similarities to both carnivores and herbivores |
title_fullStr |
Baleen whales host a unique gut microbiome with similarities to both carnivores and herbivores |
title_full_unstemmed |
Baleen whales host a unique gut microbiome with similarities to both carnivores and herbivores |
title_sort |
baleen whales host a unique gut microbiome with similarities to both carnivores and herbivores |
publisher |
Nature Pub. Group |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4595633/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26393325 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9285 |
genre |
baleen whale baleen whales |
genre_facet |
baleen whale baleen whales |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4595633/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26393325 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9285 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2015, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9285 |
container_title |
Nature Communications |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766367349000110080 |