title: Diet Diversity Is Associated with Beta but not Alpha Diversity of Pika Gut Microbiota.
abstract: Wild mammals often consume different food sources as they become geographical available. This change in diet composition is likely to influence the gut microbial community, yet it remains unclear what the relationship looks like-particularly in small herbivores-under natural conditions. We used DNA sequencing approaches to characterize the diet composition and gut microbial community of wild plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae) collected from three altitudes. We tested if diet and gut microbiota composition changes across altitudes, and the relationship between diet diversity and gut microbiota diversity. Our results showed that altitude significantly influences the composition of diet and gut microbial communities. Notably, the alpha diversity (Shannon diversity and observed OTUs) of individual diet was not significantly correlated with that of gut microbiota, whereas the beta diversity (Jaccard and Bray-Curtis dissimilarity) of diet was positively correlated with that of gut microbiota. Our study is the first time to highlight the relationship between diet and gut microbiota composition in wild pikas on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It suggests that the species richness within individual gut microbiota does not linearly increase with diet diversity, whereas those individuals that are more similar in diet composition harbor more similar gut microbiota.
authors: Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of SciencesSichuan, China; University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China.
authors: Huan
authors: H
authors: Li
authors: Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Sichuan, China.
authors: Tongtong
authors: T
authors: Li
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC, USA.
authors: DeAnna E
authors: DE
authors: Beasley
authors: Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Sichuan, China.
authors: Petr
authors: P
authors: Heděnec
authors: State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents in Agriculture, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China.
authors: Zhishu
authors: Z
authors: Xiao
authors: Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Sichuan, China.
authors: Shiheng
authors: S
authors: Zhang
authors: Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Sichuan, China.
authors: Jiabao
authors: J
authors: Li
authors: Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Sichuan, China.
authors: Qiang
authors: Q
authors: Lin
authors: Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Sichuan, China.
authors: Xiangzhen
authors: X
authors: Li
keywords: alpha diversity; beta diversity; diet; gut microbiota; plateau pikas