African Elephant 16s gut microbiome

In this study, we characterized the gut microbiome of the African Savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the African Forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis); sister taxa separated by 2.6 to 5.6 million years of independent evolution. We examined the effect of host phylogeny on microbiome composition. Additionally, we examined the influence of habitat type (forest or savanna) and diet types (crop-raiding vs. non-crop-raiding) on the microbiome within L. africana.