Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast
Humpback whales endure several months of fasting while undertaking one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, which depletes the whales’ energy stores and likely compromises their physiological state. Airway microbiota are linked to respiratory health in mammals. To illuminate the dynamics...
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2020
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ftunswworks:oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/unsworks_73894 2024-06-02T08:07:56+00:00 Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast Vendl, C Slavich, E Wemheuer, B Nelson, T Ferrari, B Thomas, T Rogers, T 2020-12-01 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/unsworks_73894 https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/9b48134b-dd20-43c3-bf12-88eb86cc1eaf/download https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69602-x unknown Springer Nature http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/unsworks_73894 https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/9b48134b-dd20-43c3-bf12-88eb86cc1eaf/download https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69602-x open access https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ free_to_read urn:ISSN:2045-2322 Scientific Reports, 10, 1, 12645 14 Life Below Water Animal Migration Animals Australia Bacteria Biodiversity Energy Metabolism Fasting Feeding Behavior Humpback Whale RNA Ribosomal 16S Respiratory System Seasons journal article http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 2020 ftunswworks https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69602-x 2024-05-07T23:45:23Z Humpback whales endure several months of fasting while undertaking one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, which depletes the whales’ energy stores and likely compromises their physiological state. Airway microbiota are linked to respiratory health in mammals. To illuminate the dynamics of airway microbiota in a physiologically challenged mammal, we investigated the bacterial communities in the blow of East Australian humpback whales at two stages of their migration: at the beginning (n = 20) and several months into their migration (n = 20), using barcoded tag sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. We show that early in the fasting the whale blow samples had a higher diversity and richness combined with a larger number of core taxa and a different bacterial composition than later in the fasting. This study provides some evidence that the rich blow microbiota at the beginning of their fasting might reflect the whales’ uncompromised physiology and that changes in the microbiota occur during the whales’ migration. Article in Journal/Newspaper Humpback Whale UNSW Sydney (The University of New South Wales): UNSWorks Scientific Reports 10 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
UNSW Sydney (The University of New South Wales): UNSWorks |
op_collection_id |
ftunswworks |
language |
unknown |
topic |
14 Life Below Water Animal Migration Animals Australia Bacteria Biodiversity Energy Metabolism Fasting Feeding Behavior Humpback Whale RNA Ribosomal 16S Respiratory System Seasons |
spellingShingle |
14 Life Below Water Animal Migration Animals Australia Bacteria Biodiversity Energy Metabolism Fasting Feeding Behavior Humpback Whale RNA Ribosomal 16S Respiratory System Seasons Vendl, C Slavich, E Wemheuer, B Nelson, T Ferrari, B Thomas, T Rogers, T Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast |
topic_facet |
14 Life Below Water Animal Migration Animals Australia Bacteria Biodiversity Energy Metabolism Fasting Feeding Behavior Humpback Whale RNA Ribosomal 16S Respiratory System Seasons |
description |
Humpback whales endure several months of fasting while undertaking one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, which depletes the whales’ energy stores and likely compromises their physiological state. Airway microbiota are linked to respiratory health in mammals. To illuminate the dynamics of airway microbiota in a physiologically challenged mammal, we investigated the bacterial communities in the blow of East Australian humpback whales at two stages of their migration: at the beginning (n = 20) and several months into their migration (n = 20), using barcoded tag sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. We show that early in the fasting the whale blow samples had a higher diversity and richness combined with a larger number of core taxa and a different bacterial composition than later in the fasting. This study provides some evidence that the rich blow microbiota at the beginning of their fasting might reflect the whales’ uncompromised physiology and that changes in the microbiota occur during the whales’ migration. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vendl, C Slavich, E Wemheuer, B Nelson, T Ferrari, B Thomas, T Rogers, T |
author_facet |
Vendl, C Slavich, E Wemheuer, B Nelson, T Ferrari, B Thomas, T Rogers, T |
author_sort |
Vendl, C |
title |
Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast |
title_short |
Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast |
title_full |
Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast |
title_fullStr |
Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast |
title_full_unstemmed |
Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast |
title_sort |
respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast |
publisher |
Springer Nature |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/unsworks_73894 https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/9b48134b-dd20-43c3-bf12-88eb86cc1eaf/download https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69602-x |
genre |
Humpback Whale |
genre_facet |
Humpback Whale |
op_source |
urn:ISSN:2045-2322 Scientific Reports, 10, 1, 12645 |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/unsworks_73894 https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/9b48134b-dd20-43c3-bf12-88eb86cc1eaf/download https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69602-x |
op_rights |
open access https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ free_to_read |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69602-x |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1800753081229508608 |