Meeting Abstract
Mammals must extract sufficient energy and nutrients from their diets for survival and reproduction. The digestive system and its resident gut microbiota are highly dynamic and responsive to diet, likely aiding in the maintenance of optimal digestion. However, studies investigating microbial and physiological responses to diet are typically conducted on a single species. Therefore, we have poor understanding of how the flexibility of the digestive system and gut microbiome structure varies across species. We conducted feeding trials with three species of rodents with distinct dietary niches: montane voles (Microtus montanus, herbivorous), white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus, omnivorous), and southern grasshopper mice (Onychomys torridus, insectivorous). Rodents were fed four different diets varying in their concentrations of fiber and protein for a period of five weeks. Rodents were dissected for measurements of gut morphology, and gut content samples were collected to inventory microbial communities via 16S rRNA sequencing. We found that several aspects of gut anatomy exhibited species-specific responses to diet. For example, small intestinal length showed no changes in voles, while in white-footed mice it increased in length in response to high fiber diets, and in grasshopper mice it increased in length in response to low protein diets. Similarly, the gut microbiota exhibited species-specific responses to diet. These data suggest that the flexibility of the digestive system and gut microbiota may be adapted to species-specific dietary niches.
