Wild Chimpanzee Fecal Metagenome Targeted loci environmental

Background:Gut parasites exert an important influence on the gut microbiome. To study it, however, many studies focus on the human gut microbiome which has undergone severe depletion. Hygienic lifestyle, antimicrobial treatments and altered gut homeostasis (e.g., chronic inflammation) reduce gut microbiome richness and parasite prevalence; which may confound results. Studying species closely related to humans may help overcome this problem and provide insights into the ancestral relationship between humans, their gut microbiome and their gut parasites. Chimpanzees are particularly promising as they have similar gut microbiomes to humans and many parasites infect both species.Aims:We study the interaction between gut microbiome and parasites in chimpanzees to investigate what novel insights a closely related species can reveal when compared to studies on humans.Methods:Using eighty-seven faecal samples from wild western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus, Senegal), we conduct 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to characterize the gut microbiome and PCR to detect parasites. We test for differences in gut microbiota richness and taxa between specific parasite-bearing and non-parasite-bearing samples.Results:For Blastocystis, twelve differentially abundant taxa (e.g., Methanobrevibacter), including Prevotella and Ruminococcus-Methanobrevibacter enterotype markers, replicate findings in humans. However, several α diversity indices are lower in Blastocystis-carriers: contradicting human studies. Blastocystis, unlike Strongyloides, appears to be associated to a “poor health” gut microbiome; for instance, Faecalibacterium, a bacterium with gut protective traits, is absent in Blastocystis-positive samples. Strongyloides was associated to Alloprevotella and five other taxonomic groups. Each parasite had its unique impact on the gut microbiota indicating parasite-specific niches. Our results suggest that studying the less-disturbed gut microbiomes of wild chimpanzees, could help disentangle biological and artefactual associations between gut microbiomes and parasites