AUTHOR=Bo Tingbei , Song Gang , Tang Shiyu , Zhang Mengru , Ma Zhiwei , Lv Hongrui , Wu Yun , Zhang Dezhi , Yang Le , Wang Dehua , Lei Fumin 

TITLE=Incomplete Concordance Between Host Phylogeny and Gut Microbial Community in Tibetan Wetland Birds

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.848906

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.848906

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=Gut microbial communities of animals play key roles in host evolution, while the relationship between gut microbiota and host evolution in Tibetan birds remains unknown. Here we sequenced the gut microbiota of 67 wild birds of 7 species dwelling on Tibetan wetlands. We found an obvious species-specific structure of gut microbiota among these plateau birds whose habitats were overlapped. Different from plateau mammals, there was no strict synergy between the hierarchical tree of gut microbial community and species phylogeny. In brown headed gulls (Larus brunnicephalus) as an example, the structure of gut microbiota differed in habitats, and the relative abundance of bacteria in Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Paracoccus, Lachnospiraceae, and Vibrio were significantly correlated with altitude. Finally, we found various pathogenic bacteria in these plateau wetland birds, and the interspecific differences were related to their diet and living environments.