Dietary utilization drives the differentiation of gut bacterial communities
Authors: Chau-Ti Ting 1; Jia-Syuan Chen 1; Shu Fang 2
Affiliations: 1) National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; 2) Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
Keywords: m. adaptation; u. other (gut microbial diversity )
Gut bacteria have been suggested to play vital roles in the dietary detoxification, digestion, and nutrient supplementation of hosts during dietary specialization. The roles of gut bacteria can be revealed by comparing bacterial communities between specialist and generalist hosts. However, it is often difficult to determine whether bacterial community differentiation is due to host dietary adaptation or divergence. To address this question, we investigated the bacterial communities from two Araceae-feeding Colocasiomyia species and further performed a meta-analysis by incorporating the published data from Drosophila bacterial community studies. By comparing three types of specialists (Araceae-feeding, mycophagous, and cactophilic) with generalist flies, we detected the structural and functional differentiation of the bacterial communities between specialists and generalists. The structure differentiation showed that Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes inhabited specialists, while more Proteobacteria inhabited generalists. The functional differentiation revealed that amino acid and energy metabolic pathways were overrepresented in specialists and generalists, respectively. This differentiation is associated with the higher utilization of structural complex carbohydrates, utilization of proteins, demand for vitamin B12, and demand for detoxification in specialists than in generalists. These results reveal that the interaction of bacterial communities and hosts might consequently facilitate the dietary specialization and ecological adaptation of animals.