Meeting Abstract
P1.36 Saturday, Jan. 4 15:30 Comparison of gut microbiota diversity among avian species from Papua New Guinea EL-BIBANY, A.H.*; ZYLBERBERG, M.; DUMBACHER, J.P.; Univ. of California, Davis; California Academy of Sciences; California Academy of Sciences ahelbibany@ucdavis.edu
Recent studies have highlighted the importance of the microbiome in determining the metabolism, physiology, and susceptibility to disease of a macroorganism. Despite recent advances in our understanding of the impact of microbiomes, relatively little remains known about the microbiomes of wild animals. In this study, we describe patterns of gut microbiota diversity among the bird families Alcedinidae, Apodidae, Colluricinclidae, Columbidae, Dicruridae, Hirundinidae, Laridae, Megapodiidae, Melanocharitidae, Meliphagidae, Monarchidae, Nectariniidae, Pachycephalidae, Rhipiduridae, Sturnidae, and Zosteropidae. In the fall of 2011, buccal and cloacal swabs were collected from 96 birds from the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. Samples were sequenced using Illumina next-generation technology and bacterial genomes were identified to the family level using BLASTn and BLASTx. Enterobacteriaceae, family to Escherichia coli and Salmonella, comprised the majority (>90%) of bacterial hits among all individuals. Other common bacterial families included Staphylococcaceae, Corneybacteriaceae, and Pasteurellaceae. We then used Shannon indices to quantify the gut microbiota diversity of each individual and examined variation of microbiota diversity by diet type and, within species, by sex. Our analyses show no significant difference in microbiota diversity among species with different diet types or between sexes. However, after accounting for the high proportion of Enterobacteriaceae, qualitative differences in bacterial composition appear to exist both by diet type and by sex. We discuss the possible implications of this variation to further elucidate the complex roles of diet type and sex in the structure of the gut microbiota of wild birds.
