The fecal bacterial microbiome of the Kuhl’s pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus kuhlii) reflects landscape anthropogenic pressure
Anthropogenic disturbance has the potential to negatively afect wildlife health by altering food availability and diet composition, increasing the exposure to agrochemicals, and intensifying the contact with humans, domestic animals, and their pathogens. However, the impact of these factors on the f...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2023 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat de Lleida (UdL) |
| Repositorio: | Repositori Obert UdL |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:repositori.udl.cat:10459.1/85425 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s42523-023-00229-9 http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/85425 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Anthropogenic disturbance Chiroptera Wildlife Conservation Health indicator Nanopore sequencing MinION 16S rRNA |
| Sumario: | Anthropogenic disturbance has the potential to negatively afect wildlife health by altering food availability and diet composition, increasing the exposure to agrochemicals, and intensifying the contact with humans, domestic animals, and their pathogens. However, the impact of these factors on the fecal microbiome composition of wildlife hosts and its link to host health modulation remains barely explored. Here we investigated the composition of the fecal bacterial microbiome of the insectivorous bat Kuhl’s pipistrelle (Pipistrellus kuhlii) dwelling in four environmental contexts with diferent levels of anthropogenic pressure. We analyzed their microbiome composition, structure and diversity through full-length 16S rRNA metabarcoding using the nanopore long-read sequencer MinION™. We hypothesized that the bacterial community structure of fecal samples would vary across the diferent scenarios, showing a decreased diversity and richness in samples from disturbed ecosystems. The fecal microbiomes of 31 bats from 4 scenarios were sequenced. A total of 4,829,302 reads were obtained with a taxonomic assignment percentage of 99.9% at genus level. Most abundant genera across all scenarios were Enterococcus, Escherichia/Shigella, Bacillus and Enterobacter. Alpha diversity varied signifcantly between the four scenarios (p<0.05), showing the lowest Shannon index in bats from urban and intensive agriculture landscapes, while the highest alpha diversity value was found in near pristine landscapes. Beta diversity obtained by Bray–Curtis distance showed weak statistical diferentiation of bacterial taxonomic profles among scenarios. Furthermore, core community analysis showed that 1,293 genera were shared among localities. Diferential abundance analyses showed that the highest diferentially abundant taxa were found in near pristine landscapes, with the exception of the family Alcaligenaceae, which was also overrepresented in urban and intensive agriculture landscapes. This study suggests that near pristine and undisturbed landscapes could promote a more resilient gutmicrobiome in wild populations of P. kuhlii. These results highlight the potential of the fecal microbiome as a noninvasive bioindicator to assess insectivorous bats’ health and as a key element of landscape conservation strategies. |
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