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Direct Evidence That Sunbirds’ Gut Microbiota Degrades Floral Nectar’s Toxic Alkaloids
Orange-tufted sunbirds (Cinnyris osea) feed on the nectar of the tobacco tree (Nicotiana glauca) which contains toxic pyridine alkaloids characterized by high concentrations of anabasine and much lower concentrations of nicotine. We aimed at determining whether the gut microbiota of sunbirds harbors...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8018289/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33815326 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.639808 |
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author | Gunasekaran, Mohanraj Trabelcy, Beny Izhaki, Ido Halpern, Malka |
author_facet | Gunasekaran, Mohanraj Trabelcy, Beny Izhaki, Ido Halpern, Malka |
author_sort | Gunasekaran, Mohanraj |
collection | PubMed |
description | Orange-tufted sunbirds (Cinnyris osea) feed on the nectar of the tobacco tree (Nicotiana glauca) which contains toxic pyridine alkaloids characterized by high concentrations of anabasine and much lower concentrations of nicotine. We aimed at determining whether the gut microbiota of sunbirds harbors bacterial species that enable the birds to cope with these toxic alkaloids. An in vivo experiment that included 12 birds showed that inducing dysbiosis in sunbirds’ guts by the addition of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim, significantly reduced the birds’ ability to degrade anabasine (n = 3) compared to control birds (n = 3) with undisturbed microbiota. Sunbirds whose gut bacterial communities were altered by the antibacterial agents and who were fed with added nicotine, also showed a lower percentage of nicotine degradation (n = 3) in their excreta compared to the sunbirds with undisturbed microbiota (n = 3), though this difference was not significant. In an in vitro experiment, we studied the ability of Lactococcus lactis, Enterobacter hormaechei, Chryseobacterium gleum, Kocuria palustris, and Methylorubrum populi that were isolated from sunbirds’ excreta, to degrade anabasine and nicotine. By using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, we successfully demonstrated, for the first time, the ability of these species to degrade the focal secondary metabolites. Our findings demonstrate the role of gut bacteria in detoxifying toxic secondary metabolites found in the N. glauca nectar. The degradation products may supply the birds with nitrogen which is scarce in nectar-rich diets. These findings support another role of bacteria in mediating the interactions between plants and their pollinators. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8018289 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-80182892021-04-03 Direct Evidence That Sunbirds’ Gut Microbiota Degrades Floral Nectar’s Toxic Alkaloids Gunasekaran, Mohanraj Trabelcy, Beny Izhaki, Ido Halpern, Malka Front Microbiol Microbiology Orange-tufted sunbirds (Cinnyris osea) feed on the nectar of the tobacco tree (Nicotiana glauca) which contains toxic pyridine alkaloids characterized by high concentrations of anabasine and much lower concentrations of nicotine. We aimed at determining whether the gut microbiota of sunbirds harbors bacterial species that enable the birds to cope with these toxic alkaloids. An in vivo experiment that included 12 birds showed that inducing dysbiosis in sunbirds’ guts by the addition of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim, significantly reduced the birds’ ability to degrade anabasine (n = 3) compared to control birds (n = 3) with undisturbed microbiota. Sunbirds whose gut bacterial communities were altered by the antibacterial agents and who were fed with added nicotine, also showed a lower percentage of nicotine degradation (n = 3) in their excreta compared to the sunbirds with undisturbed microbiota (n = 3), though this difference was not significant. In an in vitro experiment, we studied the ability of Lactococcus lactis, Enterobacter hormaechei, Chryseobacterium gleum, Kocuria palustris, and Methylorubrum populi that were isolated from sunbirds’ excreta, to degrade anabasine and nicotine. By using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, we successfully demonstrated, for the first time, the ability of these species to degrade the focal secondary metabolites. Our findings demonstrate the role of gut bacteria in detoxifying toxic secondary metabolites found in the N. glauca nectar. The degradation products may supply the birds with nitrogen which is scarce in nectar-rich diets. These findings support another role of bacteria in mediating the interactions between plants and their pollinators. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-03-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8018289/ /pubmed/33815326 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.639808 Text en Copyright © 2021 Gunasekaran, Trabelcy, Izhaki and Halpern. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Microbiology Gunasekaran, Mohanraj Trabelcy, Beny Izhaki, Ido Halpern, Malka Direct Evidence That Sunbirds’ Gut Microbiota Degrades Floral Nectar’s Toxic Alkaloids |
title | Direct Evidence That Sunbirds’ Gut Microbiota Degrades Floral Nectar’s Toxic Alkaloids |
title_full | Direct Evidence That Sunbirds’ Gut Microbiota Degrades Floral Nectar’s Toxic Alkaloids |
title_fullStr | Direct Evidence That Sunbirds’ Gut Microbiota Degrades Floral Nectar’s Toxic Alkaloids |
title_full_unstemmed | Direct Evidence That Sunbirds’ Gut Microbiota Degrades Floral Nectar’s Toxic Alkaloids |
title_short | Direct Evidence That Sunbirds’ Gut Microbiota Degrades Floral Nectar’s Toxic Alkaloids |
title_sort | direct evidence that sunbirds’ gut microbiota degrades floral nectar’s toxic alkaloids |
topic | Microbiology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8018289/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33815326 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.639808 |
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