Host diet and evolutionary history explain different aspects of gut microbiome diversity among vertebrate clades

Multiple factors modulate microbial community assembly in the vertebrate gut, though studies disagree as to their relative contribution. One cause may be a reliance on captive animals, which can have very different gut microbiomes compared to their wild counterparts. To resolve this disagreement, we analyze a new, large, and highly diverse animal distal gut 16 S rRNA microbiome dataset, which comprises 80% wild animals and includes members of Mammalia, Aves, Reptilia, Amphibia, and Actinopterygii. We decouple the effects of host evolutionary history and diet on gut microbiome diversity and show that each factor modulates different aspects of diversity. Moreover, we resolve particular microbial taxa associated…

• UN
  Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica
• FU
  Flinders University
• AS
  Austrian Science Fund

  Awards: W1219-N22, W1219, P22032, P23900
• M
  Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
• MN
  Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
• VU
  Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien
• SA
  South African National Parks