Kogia Gut Microbiome Project

Mammals host diverse bacterial and archaeal symbiont communities (i.e., microbiomes) that play important roles in digestive and immune system functioning, yet cetacean gut microbiomes remain largely unexplored, due in part to sample collection difficulties. Here, fecal samples collected from stranded pygmy (Kogia breviceps) and dwarf (K. sima) sperm whales were used to characterize the gut microbiomes of two closely-related, deep-diving species with similar diets. Our results provide first insights into the diversity, composition and structure of kogiid gut microbiomes and indicate that host identity plays an important role in structuring cetacean microbiomes, even at fine-scale taxonomic levels.