I Like the Way You Eat It: Lemur (Indri indri) Gut Mycobiome and Geophagy

Abstract

Here, we investigated the possible linkages among geophagy, soil characteristics, and gut mycobiome of indri (Indri indri), an endangered lemur species able to survive only in wild conditions. The soil eaten by indri resulted in enriched secondary oxide-hydroxides and clays, together with a high concentration of specific essential micronutrients. This could partially explain the role of the soil in detoxification and as a nutrient supply. Besides, we found that soil subject to geophagy and indris’ faeces shared about 8.9% of the fungal OTUs. Also, several genera (e.g. Fusarium, Aspergillus and Penicillium) commonly associated with soil and plant material were found in both geophagic soil and indri samples. On the contrary, some taxa with pathogenic potentials, such as Cryptococcus, were only found in indri samples. Further, many saprotrophs and plant-associated fungal taxa were detected in the indri faeces. These fungal species may be involved in the digestion processes of leaves and could have a beneficial role in their health. In conclusion, we found an intimate connection between gut mycobiome and soil, highlighting, once again, the potential consequent impacts on the wider habitat.

Assessing the Influence of Environmental Sources on the Gut Mycobiome of Tibetan Macaques

“…We found that the two dominant known abundant phyla in Tibetan macaque guts are Ascomycota and Basidiomycota with total mean relative abundances accounting for more than 90% of the mycobiome sequences. This result is consistent with the dominant phyla observed in the guts of other mammals, such as lab mice ( Wheeler et al, 2016 ; Yeung et al, 2020 ), non-human primates ( Barelli et al, 2020 ; Borruso et al, 2021 ), and humans ( Strati et al, 2016 ; Sokol et al, 2017 ). The dominant phyla in environmental samples (plant or soil) are also Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, although the two phyla showed significant variation in relative abundance across fecal, plant and soil sample types.…”

“…Remarkably, it also was found that lab mice released into a natural environment showed notable increases in gut fungi, and that the fungi isolated from rewilded mice were sufficient in increasing circulating granulocytes ( Yeung et al, 2020 ). Finally, in the indri ( Indri indri ), a Malagasy primate, a comparison of consumed soil (geophagy) and indri faces found a pattern of 8.9% shared fungal OTUs between soil and feces ( Borruso et al, 2021 ). However, specific and direct relationships between fungal communities in the gut of wild NHPs and the mycobiome present in their habitat remain to be clarified.…”

Gut microbiota of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) vary across natural and captive populations and correlate with environmental microbiota

“…This observation expands on findings that abiotic soil properties mediate primate gut microbiota 97 . Wild and captive ring-tailed lemurs perform geophagy (i.e., earth-eating), a behavior that is linked to nutrient and microbial supplementation 109,110 and is a potential vector for the incorporation of environmental microbes 39 . Similarly, dietary items may act as vessels of soil or environmental microbes 40 ; dietary variation across wild and captive lemurs may influence gut microbiomes by simultaneously offering different nutrients and different microbes.…”

Disentangling the Possible Drivers of Indri indri Microbiome: A Threatened Lemur Species of Madagascar

“…(Pebsworth et al, 2019). In addition, indris perform geophagy by consuming soil intentionally (Britt et al, 2002;Borruso et al, 2021). Some evidence suggests that geophagy is an adaptive behavior to protect from ingested toxic compounds and mineral supplementation as it facilitates consumption of plants binding toxic plant secondary compounds (PSCs) (Pebsworth et al, 2019).…”