Marked variation between winter and spring gut microbiota in free-ranging Tibetan Macaques (Macaca thibetana)

Abstract

Variation in the availability and distribution of food resources is a strong selective pressure on wild primates. We explored variation in Tibetan macaque gut microbiota composition during winter and spring seasons. Our results showed that gut microbial composition and diversity varied by season. In winter, the genus Succinivibrio, which promotes the digestion of cellulose and hemicellulose, was significantly increased. In spring, the abundance of the genus Prevotella, which is associated with digestion of carbohydrates and simple sugars, was significantly increased. PICRUSt analysis revealed that the predicted metagenomes related to the glycan biosynthesis and metabolic pathway was significantly increased in winter samples, which would aid in the digestion of glycan extracted from cellulose and hemicellulose. The predicted metagenomes related to carbohydrate and energy metabolic pathways were significantly increased in spring samples, which could facilitate a monkey’s recovery from acute energy loss experienced during winter. We propose that shifts in the composition and function of the gut microbiota provide a buffer against seasonal fluctuations in energy and nutrient intake, thus enabling these primates to adapt to variations in food supply and quality.

The avian gut microbiota: community, physiology and function in wild birds

“…Other species of birds seasonally shift diets during their annual cycle. Gut microbiota vary seasonally in humans and other mammals , Hisada et al 2015, including several species of primates (Sun et al 2016), wood mice Apodemus sylvaticus (Maurice et al 2015), American bison Bison bison (Bergmann et al 2015) and giant pandas Ailuropoda melanoleuca (Xue et al 2015). However, no studies have investigated whether seasonal variation in wild bird gut microbiota is dependent on dietary changes.…”

Shifting Climates, Foods, and Diseases: The Human Microbiome through Evolution

“…While we cannot examine host-microbe dynamics in human ancestors retrospectively, comparative data from extant nonhuman primates provide insight into potentially important mechanisms. [31,32] Additionally, many primate species exhibit diet-driven differences in gut microbiome composition across habitats. [28] In a similar way, the gut microbiome may also have helped human ancestors endure marked seasonality in some habitats.…”

Microorganism's adaptation of Crucian carp may closely relate to its living environments

“…Within microbiome research, most attention has been directed toward the bacterial communities inhabiting the fish farm environment or within the fish intestine (Indugu, Bittinger, Kumar, Vecchiarelli, & Pitta, ; Sun et al., ; Wu et al., , ; Zhuang et al., ). For example, Stephens et al.…”