Structural and functional changes in the gut microbiome of captive Andean bears. Gut microbiome of Andean bears

The Andean bear is an endemic species of the tropical Andes with a mostly exclusive plant-based diet. Their lack of a gastrointestinal tract adapted for herbivory leads to a fragile gut microbiota heavily impacted by the diet. We aimed to describe the structural and functional changes in the gut microbiome of captive Andean bears. Fecal samples from wild, permanently captive and wild-caught/captive-raised bears were collected; amplicon libraries of the V4-16S rRNA gene and shotgun libraries were sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq platform and HiSeq platform, respectively.