House sparrows (Passer domesticus) gut microbiota composition according to urbanisation gradient

Urbanisation represents one of the most radical forms of terrestrial land use change and has been shown to lead to alterations in ecosystem functioning and community dynamics and changes in individual phenotypic traits. While the recent surge in microbiome studies has brought about a paradigm shift by which individuals cannot truly be considered independently of the bacterial communities they host, the role of gut microbiota in organismal response to human-induced environmental change is still scarcely studied. Here, we applied a metabarcoding approach to examine the impact of urbanisation on the gut microbiota of Passer domesticus. We found urbanisation to be associated to lower microbiota species diversity, modifications in taxonomic composition and community structure, and changes in functional composition.