16S microbiome sequences from 101 fecal samples from zoo mammals

In this study, we examine the taxonomic composition and metabolic content of mammalian gut microbiomes as a direct window into ecosystem function, using 16S amplicon sequencing and an untargeted metabolomics platform to analyze 101 fecal samples from a range of mammalian species. We find that mammalian metabolomes are chemically diverse and strongly linked to microbiome composition, and that metabolome composition is further correlated to the phylogeny of the mammalian host. Specific metabolites enriched in different animal species were related to the host-microbe interface, including modified and degraded host and dietary compounds. Our results suggest that differences in microbial taxonomic composition are indeed translated to host-specific metabolism, indicating that taxonomically-distant microbiomes are more functionally diverse than redundant.