Host diet shapes functionally differentiated gut microbiomes in sympatric speciation of blind mole rats in Upper Galilee, Israel

Abstract

The gut microbiome is important for host nutrient metabolism and ecological adaptation. However, how the gut microbiome is affected by host phylogeny, ecology and diet during sympatric speciation remain unclear. Here, we compare and contrast the gut microbiome of two sympatric blind mole rat species and correlate them with their corresponding host phylogeny, ecology soil metagenomes, and diet to determine how these factors may influence their gut microbiome. Our results indicate that within the host microbiome there is no significant difference in community composition, but the functions between the two sympatric species populations vary significantly. No significant correlations were found between the gut microbiome differentiation and their corresponding ecological soil metagenomes and host phylogeny. Functional enrichment analysis suggests that the host diets may account for the functional divergence of the gut microbiome. Our results will help us understand how the gut microbiome changes with corresponding ecological dietary factors in sympatric speciation of blind subterranean mole rats.

The microbiota of long-living and cancer-free blind mole rat $\textit{(Nannospalax xanthodon)}$ from the edge of its distribution in Northern Anatolia

“…Rather than a different evolutionary history of the hosts, different sampling seasons may also explain the differences in the relative abundance of the phyla. Another study of closely related Blind Molerat species (N. ehrenbergi) showed the exact same order of the most abundant phyla, while the relative abundances of the phyla are slightly different [45] (Table 3). The same three bacterial phyla dominate the microbiota of other rodents, such as house mice [17,46], rats [47], and naked molerats [18,48].…”

“…The bacterial phyla Oscillospiraceae (phylum Firmicutes) and Ruminococcus (phyla Firmicutes) were the third and fourth most abundant phyla with 12% and 7% abundance, respectively. While [44] reported that these bacterial families comprised >5% of their data too (Oscillospiraceae used to categorise under Ruminococcus), [45] did not mention the abundance of bacterial families in their study. Together with the second most abundant bacterial family Lachnospiraceae, Oscillospiraceae, and Ruminococcus were found to be abundant in performance-associated hosts such as human athletes and racehorses [56,57].…”

Altitude shapes gut microbiome composition accounting for diet, thyroid hormone levels, and host genetics in a subterranean blind mole rat

“…The microbiome is in uenced by various factors, such as habitat variation [22], lifestyle [23], host diet [19,24,25], host phylogeny [26], reproductive status of host [27], social interactions [28,29] and environment [18, 30,31]. Among these factors, the environment holds signi cant importance as it can impact the physiology and immune responses of the host, while also playing a pivotal role in shaping dietary preferences and the selection process of the diverse pool of microbes in the surrounding environment.…”

“…Because host species colonization history often follows the altitudinal gradient, the genome-wide population differentiation is expected to vary with altitude. The change in altitude also affects the composition of the ecological communities [48][49][50], which in turn shape the diet of animals [19,25]. The diet stands as one of the primary factors affecting the microbiome composition.…”

“…This factor alone is expected to contribute to a high diversity of GM, offering a rich material for exploring the roles of the various factors listed above. To date, only three studies addressed the microbiome composition of the representatives of the Nannospalax genus [25,62,63], and just two of them were set in a natural environment [25,63].…”