title: Effect of Dietary Oxalate on the Gut Microbiota of the Mammalian Herbivore Neotoma albigula.
abstract: Diet is one of the primary drivers that sculpts the form and function of the mammalian gut microbiota. However, the enormous taxonomic and metabolic diversity held within the gut microbiota makes it difficult to isolate specific diet-microbe interactions. The objective of the current study was to elucidate interactions between the gut microbiota of the mammalian herbivore Neotoma albigula and dietary oxalate, a plant secondary compound (PSC) degraded exclusively by the gut microbiota. We quantified oxalate degradation in N. albigula fed increasing amounts of oxalate over time and tracked the response of the fecal microbiota using high-throughput sequencing. The amount of oxalate degraded in vivo was linearly correlated with the amount of oxalate consumed. The addition of dietary oxalate was found to impact microbial species diversity by increasing the representation of certain taxa, some of which are known to be capable of degrading oxalate (e.g., Oxalobacter spp.). Furthermore, the relative abundances of 117 operational taxonomic units (OTU) exhibited a significant correlation with oxalate consumption. The results of this study indicate that dietary oxalate induces complex interactions within the gut microbiota that include an increase in the relative abundance of a community of bacteria that may contribute either directly or indirectly to oxalate degradation in mammalian herbivores.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA aaron.w.miller@utah.edu.
authors.forename: Aaron W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
authors.forename: Kelly F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Oakeson
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dale
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
authors.forename: M Denise
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Dearing
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D044822:Biodiversity; D004032:Diet; D004463:Ecology; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics; D060434:Herbivory; D056265:Microbial Interactions; D010070:Oxalates / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000378:metabolism; D020624:Oxalobacter formigenes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000008:administration & dosage; D016205:Sigmodontinae / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D010070:Oxalates; D010936:Plant Extracts