Title
The Pacific harbor seal gut microbiota in Mexico: Its relationship with diet and functional inferences
Author
ARLETTE MARIMAR PACHECO SANDOVAL
Contributor
Yolanda Schramm Urrutia (Collaborator)
GISELA HECKEL DZIENDZIELEWSKI (Collaborator)
Elizabeth Brassea Pérez (Collaborator)
Marcel Martínez Porchas (Collaborator)
María Asunción Lago Lestón (Collaborator)
Access level
Open Access
Alternative identifier
doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221770
Subjects
RNA 16S, RNA 18S, amino acid analysis, animal food, Article, bacterium colony, Bacteroidetes, basal metabolic rate, biodegradation, controlled study, DNA barcoding, feces analysis, Firmicutes, Fusobacteria, intestine flora, metabolism, Mexico, microb - (SCOPUS) BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA - (CTI) CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA - (CTI) BIOLOGÍA ANIMAL (ZOOLOGÍA) - (CTI) BIOLOGÍA ANIMAL (ZOOLOGÍA) - (CTI)
Summary or description
Diet is a primary driver of the composition of gut microbiota and is considered one of the main routes of microbial colonization. Prey identification is fundamental for correlating the diet with the presence of particular microbial groups. The present study examined how diet influenced the composition and function of the gut microbiota of the Pacific harbor seal (Phoca vitulina richardii) in order to better understand the role of prey consumption in shaping its microbiota. This species is a good indicator of the quality of the local environment due to both its foraging and haul-out site fidelity. DNA was extracted from 20 fecal samples collected from five harbor seal colonies located in Baja California, Mexico. The V4 region of 16S rRNA gene was amplified and sequenced using the Illumina technology. Results showed that the gut microbiota of the harbor seals was dominated by the phyla Firmicutes (37%), Bacteroidetes (26%) and Fusobacteria (26%) and revealed significant differences in its composition among the colonies. Funtional analysis using the PICRUSt software suggests a high number of pathways involved in the basal metabolism, such as those for carbohydrates (22%) and amino acids (20%), and those related to the degradation of persistent environmental pollutants. In addition, a DNA metabarcoding analysis of the same samples, via the amplification and sequencing of the mtRNA 16S and rRNA 18S genes, was used to identify the prey consumed by harbor seals revealing the consumption of prey with mainly demersal habits. Functional redundancy in the seal gut microbiota was observed, irrespective of diet or location. Our results indicate that the frequency of occurrence of specific prey in the harbor seal diet plays an important role in shaping the composition of the gut microbiota of harbor seals by influencing the relative abundance of specific groups of gut microorganisms. A significant relationship was found among diet, gut microbiota composition and OTUs assigned to a particular metabolic pathway. © 2019 Pacheco-Sandoval et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Publisher
Juan J. Loor, University of Illinois, United States of America
Publish date
2019
Publication type
Article
Publication version
Published Version
Information Resource
Format
application/pdf
Source
PLoS ONE, Vol.14, No.8, Pags. 1-21
Language
English
Citation suggestion
Pacheco-Sandoval A, Schramm Y, Heckel G, Brassea-Pérez E, Martínez-Porchas M, Lago-Lestón A (2019) The Pacific harbor seal gut microbiota in Mexico: Its relationship with diet and functional inferences. PLoS ONE 14(8): e0221770. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221770
Source repository
Repositorio Institucional CICESE
Downloads
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