Covariation of the Fecal Microbiome with Diet in Nonpasserine Birds
Kangpeng Xiao, Yutan Fan, Zhipeng Zhang, Xuejuan Shen, Xiaobing Li, Xianghui Liang, Ran Bi, Yajiang Wu, Junqiong Zhai, Junwei Dai, David M. Irwin, Chen Wu, Yongyi Shen
Abstract
Our study identified food source, rather than host phylogeny, as the main factor modulating the gut microbiome diversity of nonpasserine birds, after minimizing the effects of other complex interfering factors such as weather, season, and geography. Adaptive evolution of microbes to food types formed a dietary-microbiome-host interaction reciprocal state. The covariation of diet and gut microbiome, including the response of microbiota assembly to diet in structure and function, is important for health and nutrition in animals. Our findings help resolve the major modulators of gut microbiome diversity in nonpasserine birds, which had not previously been well studied. The diet-microbe interactions and cooccurrence patterns identified in our study may be of special interest for future health assessment and conservation in birds.