Microbiome structural and functional interactions across host dietary niche space

We characterized how community structure is shaped by predicted functional properties of community members through the study of gut microbiomes and diets of three insectivorous bat species. We sequenced 16S and CO1 libraries and found that while host diet and microbiome community composition do not significantly relate to each other, host diet and metagenome function do, suggesting that diet directly selects metagenomic functions rather than communities.

本研究以3种食虫蝙蝠的肠道微生物组与饮食为研究对象，解析了群落结构如何受群落成员的预测功能特性所塑造。我们对16S（16S rRNA基因）文库与CO1（细胞色素C氧化酶亚基1）文库进行测序后发现：宿主饮食与微生物组群落组成之间并无显著关联，但宿主饮食与宏基因组功能却存在显著相关性；这一结果表明，饮食并非通过作用于微生物群落本身，而是直接对宏基因组功能产生选择压力。