Seasonal variation in the gut microbiota of rhesus macaques inhabiting limestone forests of southwest Guangxi, China
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Seasonal variation in the gut microbiota of rhesus macaques inhabiting limestone forests of southwest Guangxi, China Yuhui Li1,2 · Ting Chen1,2 · Jipeng Liang3 · Youbang Li1,2 · Zhonghao Huang1,2 Received: 14 April 2020 / Revised: 29 September 2020 / Accepted: 1 October 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Data on the gut microbiota of animals can provide new insights into dietary ecology of hosts, consequently assisting in understanding their adaptation strategy and evolutionary potential. We studied the gut microbiota composition and function of the wild rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) using 16S rRNA sequencing method. Our results revealed that the gut microbiota of the wild rhesus macaques was dominated by Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Spirochaetes. Diversity and richness of gut microbiota were higher during the dry season than the rainy season. Specifically, higher proportions of Firmicutes, Tenericutes, Cyanobacteria, and unclassified bacteria at the phylum level and more Coprococcus at the genus level were detected in the dry season. Predictive functional analysis showed that pathways associated with carbohydrate metabolism and drug resistance (antimicrobial and antineoplastic) were richer in the dry season. These seasonal differences in microbiota could be due to their heavier dependence on leaf-based diet in the dry season. Additionally, macaques in limestone forests had a higher percentage of Spirochaetes, probably suggesting that the proportion of fruits in dietary composition also play an important role in the gut microbiota. We concluded that diet was strongly linked to the diversity, composition, and function of the gut microbiota in the wild groups of rhesus macaques living in the limestone forest, highlighting the importance of diet in the gut microbiota of macaques and the need to conduct further study on the adaptation strategy in response of environmental changes in the ground of gut microbiota. Keywords Gut microbiota · Seasonal variation · Limestone forest · Rhesus macaques · Macaca mulatta
Introduction
Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-020-02069-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Youbang Li [email protected] * Zhonghao Huang [email protected] 1
Key Laboratory of Ecology of Rare and Endangered Species and Environmental Protection (Guangxi Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guilin, China
2
Guangxi Key Laboratory of Rare and Endangered Animal Ecology, Guangxi Normal University, No. 15 Yu Cai Road, Guilin, China
3
Administration Centre of Guangxi Chongzuo White-headed Langur National Nature Reserve, Chongzuo, China
Information on compositional differences of gut microbiota directly reflects the digestive and metabolic functions of the host, offering newly insights into their dietary ecology and adaptation potential of the wild animals (Amato 2013; Björk et al. 2019; Clayton
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