Determinants of microbiome composition: Insights from free-ranging hybrid zebras (Equus quagga × grevyi)

The composition of mammalian gut microbiomes is highly conserved within species, yet the mechanisms by which microbiome composition is transmitted and maintained within lineages of wild animals remain unclear. Mutually compatible hypotheses exist, including that microbiome fidelity results from inherited dietary habits, shared environmental exposure, morphophysiological filtering, and/or maternal effects. Interspecific hybrids are a promising system in which to interrogate the determinants of microbiome composition because hybrids can decouple traits and processes that are otherwise co-inherited in their parent species. We used a population of free-living hybrid zebras (Equus quagga × grevyi) in Kenya to evaluate the roles of these four mechanisms in regulating microbiome composition. We analyzed fecal DNA for both the trnL-P6 and the 16S rRNA V4 region to characterize the diets and microbiomes of the hybrid zebra and of their parent species, plains zebra (E. quagga) and Grevy’s zebra (..., Fecal samples from free-ranging zebra were collected from Laikipia County in January 2020. DNA was extracted from fecal samples and the plant and bacterial components were sequenced to characterize diet and microbiome composition respectively. Diet sequence data were curated using the OBITOOLS v2 package, while microbiome sequence data were processed using the DADA2 v1.18 big data pipeline, implemented in R v4.0.2., , This 'README_file_Hybrid_zebra_microbiomes.txt' file was generated on 2024-01-22 by JOEL O. ABRAHAM

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Dataset: Determinants of microbiome composition: insights from free-ranging hybrid zebras (Equus quagga × grevyi)

2. Author Information
A. Principal Investigator Contact Information
Name: Joel O. Abraham
Institution: Princeton University
Email:

B. Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information
Name: Daniel I. Rubenstein
Institution: Princeton University
Email:

3. Date of data collection (approximate): 2020-01-08 to 2020-01-17

4. Geographic location of data collection: Laikipia County, Kenya

5. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data:
NSF DEB-2225088 and the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University.
Joel O. Abraham is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (Fellow ID: 2019256075).

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