High diversity and unique composition of gut microbiomes in pygmy (Kogia breviceps) and dwarf (K. sima) sperm whales

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Abstract

Mammals host diverse bacterial and archaeal symbiont communities (i.e. microbiomes) that play important roles in digestive and immune system functioning, yet cetacean microbiomes remain largely unexplored, in part due to sample collection difficulties. Here, fecal samples from stranded pygmy ( Kogia breviceps) and dwarf ( K. sima) sperm whales were used to characterize the gut microbiomes of two closely-related species with similar diets. 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed diverse microbial communities in kogiid whales dominated by Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. Core symbiont taxa were affiliated with phylogenetic lineages capable of fermentative metabolism and sulfate respiration, indicating potential symbiont contributions to energy acquisition during prey digestion. The diversity and phylum-level composition of kogiid microbiomes differed from those previously reported in toothed whales, which exhibited low diversity communities dominated by Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria. Community structure analyses revealed distinct gut microbiomes in K. breviceps and K. sima, driven by differential relative abundances of shared taxa, and unique microbiomes in kogiid hosts compared to other toothed and baleen whales, driven by differences in symbiont membership. These results provide insight into the diversity, composition and structure of kogiid gut microbiomes and indicate that host identity plays an important role in structuring cetacean microbiomes, even at fine-scale taxonomic levels.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Patrick M. Erwin:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9276-0020

erwinp@uncw.edu

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Sci Rep

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Sci Rep

Title: Scientific Reports

Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 2045-2322

Publication date (Electronic): 3 August 2017

Publication date PMC-release: 3 August 2017

Publication date Collection: 2017

Volume: 7

Electronic Location Identifier: 7205

Affiliations

ISNI 0000 0000 9813 0452, GRID grid.217197.b, Department of Biology and Marine Biology, Center for Marine Science, , University of North Carolina Wilmington, ; Wilmington, NC 28409 USA

Author information

Patrick M. Erwin http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9276-0020

Article

Publisher ID: 7425

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-07425-z

PMC ID: 5543158

PubMed ID: 28775301

SO-VID: 7c9049aa-98de-4a39-ba7d-8b91e98e0ee2

License:

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Date received : 14 February 2017

Date accepted : 28 June 2017

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High diversity and unique composition of gut microbiomes in pygmy ( Kogia breviceps) and dwarf ( K. sima) sperm whales

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