A5013067893- Gut microbiota and health
- Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens research
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
- Probiotics and Fermented Foods
- Plant and fungal interactions
- Identification and Quantification in Food
- Genetic diversity and population structure
- Tryptophan and brain disorders
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
University of Utah
2021-2024
ARUP Laboratories (United States)
2024
Significance Understanding the factors that sculpt gut microbial communities in mammals is of great interest. Here, we studied a diverse clade herbivorous rodents (woodrats, Neotoma ) with variable but well-characterized diets and habitats to quantify relative contributions host genetics, geography, diet, alongside neutral processes, structuring microbiome under natural controlled conditions. While diet geography made significant structure, phylogeny explained greatest proportion observed...
DNA metabarcoding is widely used to determine wild animal diets, but whether this technique provides accurate, quantitative measurements still under debate. To test our ability accurately estimate the abundance of dietary items using metabarcoding, we fed wild-caught desert woodrats (Neotoma lepida) diets consisting constant amounts juniper (Juniperus osteosperma, 15%) and varying creosote (Larrea tridentata, 1%-60%), cactus (Opuntia sp., 0%-100%) commercial chow (0%-85%). Using compared...
Little is known about the tolerances of mammalian herbivores to plant specialized metabolites across landscapes.We investigated two species herbivorous woodrats, Neotoma lepida (desert woodrat) and bryanti (Bryant's creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), a widely distributed shrub with highly toxic resin. Woodrats were sampled from 13 locations both without 900 km transect in US southwest. We tested whether these woodrat populations consume using metabarcoding feces quantified their tolerance...
Abstract Fecal transplants are a powerful tool for manipulating the gut microbial community, but how these non-native communities establish in presence of an intact host microbiome is poorly understood. We explored desert woodrats (Neotoma lepida) to determine whether disrupting existing using plant secondary compounds (PSCs) or antibiotics increases establishment foreign microbes. administered two fecal between natural populations adult that harbor distinct microbiota and have different...
Gut microbiota are intrinsic to an herbivorous lifestyle, but very little is known about how plant secondary compounds (PSCs), which often toxic, influence these symbiotic partners. Here we interrogated the possibility of unique functional core microbiomes in populations two species woodrat (Neotoma lepida and bryanti) that have independently converged feed on same toxic diet (creosote bush; Larrea tridentata) compared them do not creosote bush. Leveraging this natural experiment, collected...
Abstract Introduced species are one of the leading causes declining global biodiversity and result in many billions dollars losses to bioeconomy worldwide. have become increasingly common due globalization climate change, population genetics is a useful tool for management such species. The Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger) highly successful invader that was introduced states western North America throughout 20th century. We used low-pass whole genome sequencing evaluate phylogeographic...
Abstract Gut microbiota are intrinsic to an herbivorous lifestyle, but very little is known about how plant secondary compounds (PSCs), which often toxic, influence these symbiotic partners. Using 16S rRNA gene and shotgun metagenomic sequencing, we investigated the possibility of a unique taxonomic functional core microbiome in populations two species woodrats ( Neotoma lepida bryanti ) that have independently converged feed on same toxic diet (creosote bush; Larrea tridentata ). In each...