Significant effects of host dietary guild and phylogeny in wild lemur gut microbiomes

The mammalian gut microbiome (GM) is influenced by host ecology and evolution, though their relative importance remains debated. Using comparative lemur data, we tested the phylosymbiosis hypothesis, which posits that common ancestry influences GM composition, and predicts a positive correlation between host phylogenetic and GM distance. We provide strong support for phylosymbiosis in the evolution of lemur GM diversity, and identify a significant correlation of GM diversity with diet, but not habitat. We conclude that diet and evolutionary history have both played important roles in structuring the lemur GM.