The gut microbiome and diet composition of Papua New Guinea Rodents among different altitudes from two mountain ranges

The gut microbiome influences host physiology, and its role can be studied in wild animals under natural conditions. Papua New Guinea (PNG) harbors diverse rodents from tribes Hydromyini and Rattini across various ecosystems. We sampled 825 rodents from two tribes from 44 taxa at 10 altitudes in two mountain ranges of PNG. Using 16S and 18S rRNA metabarcoding, gut microbiomes and diets were profiled, and environmental and host factors were analyzed through advanced statistical models. 2. Results 4. References & Acknowledgements Ley, R. E., Hamady, M., Lozupone, C., Turnbaugh, P. J., Ramey, R. R., Bircher, J. S., ... & Gordon, J. I. (2008). Evolution of mammals and their gut microbes. Science, 320(5883), 1647-1651. Muegge, B. D., Kuczynski, J., Knights, D., Clemente, J. C., González, A., Fontana, L., ... & Gordon, J. I. (2011). Diet drives convergence in gut microbiome functions across mammalian phylogeny and within humans. Science, 332(6032), 970-974. Hird SM. Evolutionary biology needs wild microbiomes. Front Microbiol. 2017;8:725. Suzuki, T. A., Martins, F. M., & Nachman, M. W. (2018). Altitudinal variation of the gut microbiota in wild house mice. Molecular Ecology, 28(9), 2378–2390. Suzuki TA. Links between Natural Variation in the Microbiome and Host Fitness in Wild Mammals. Integr Comp Biol. 2017;57:756–69. Tabrett A, Horton MW. The influence of host genetics on the microbiome. [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]. F1000Res. 2020;9. Dąbrowska K, Witkiewicz W. Correlations of host genetics and gut microbiome composition. Front Microbiol. 2016;7:1357. This research has been supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic grant Talking microbes - understanding microbial interactions within One Health framework (CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004597). Halil Mert Solak1, Frantisek Vejmelka1,2,3 , Daniel Okena1,2,3, Dagmar Cizkova4, Vojtech Novotny3, Alexis Ribas5,6, Srisupaph Poonlaphdecha5,6, Jakub Kreisinger1. 1-Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, 2-Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Czech Republic, 3-Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic, 4-Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic,5-Parasitology Section, Department of Biology, Healthcare and Environment, Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Science, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 6-Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. •The most abundant bacterial phyla are: Firmicutes (48.82%), Bacteriodota (30%), Desulfobacterota (7.8%), and Proteobacteria (5%). •The relative abundance of 10 bacterial phyla found to be significantly differ between tribes. •The altitude-linked bacterial family Prevotellaceae was found to differ significantly and positively correlate with altitude (p = 0.0008 and r = 0.19). Microbiome alpha diversity significantly effected by host genera but not altitude. Microbiome beta diversity significantly effected by altitude, host tribe and genus. ddRAD phylogeny of Rattini species and their dietary composition (n represents the sample size for each species). ddRAD phylogeny of Hydromyini species and their dietary composition (n represents the sample size for each species). Random Effects: Species: 1.5% Locality: 2.1% Fixed Effects: Lifestyle: 15.6% Tribe: 32% LV1: 28% Mean Mass: 20.9% Diet variance partitioning of the best-fitting GLLVM with environmental variables shows the proportion of total community variation explained by each model component. Diet variance partitioning of the best-fitting GLLVM with host variables shows the proportion of total community variation explained by each model component. Random Effects: Species: 0.9% Locality: 0.0% Fixed Effects: Habitat: 56.6% Altitude: 17.9% LV1: 17.3% Altitude_sq: 7.3% 1Microbiome diversity affected by host variables rather than environmental variables while microbiome composition affected by both variables. 2The environmental variables has stronger effect on diet composition, suggesting opportunistic feeding behavior rather than species-specific feeding behavior. 3There is a significant correlation between microbiome and diet composition underlining the strong effect of diet on microbiome composition. Rodent dietary sampling metalocalities in Papua New Guinea. Red-marked area indicates the location of the sampling region. While Baitabag and Wanang are each represented by a single sampling location, both Finisterres and Mt. Wilhelm represent altitudinal gradients, with samples collected at approximately 500-meter intervals from 200 m asl to 3700 m asl. The gut microbiome and diet composition of Papua New Guinea Rodents among different altitudes from two mountain ranges 1. Introduction & Methods Microbiome Diet 3. Conclusion