Song whitehead bats

Seba's short-tailed bat, Carollia perspicillata, is a frugivorous bat that feeds mainly on the fruits of plants of the genus Piper, serving as important dispersers of their seeds. However, Piper species are known to contain secondary metabolites that are often toxic or distasteful to some consumers and also function to protect the plant from attack by microbes and insects. Piperine is one such metabolite (an alkaloid) found in Piper species that has been shown to have both antibacterial and antifungal activity. One study showed that supplementation of fruit with piperine resulted in decreased consumption by C. perspicillata. These studies suggest that a tradeoff may exist between the potential benefits and disadvantages to the host of consuming such metabolites. We propose to determine whether piperine consumption affects the composition of the microbial communities that inhabit the gut of this bat species.