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Diurnal oscillations in gut bacterial load and composition eclipse seasonal and lifetime dynamics in wild meerkats

Circadian rhythms in gut microbiota composition are crucial for metabolic function, yet the extent to which they govern microbial dynamics compared to seasonal and lifetime processes remains unknown. Here, we investigate gut bacterial dynamics in wild meerkats (Suricata suricatta) over a 20-year per...

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Autores principales: Risely, Alice, Wilhelm, Kerstin, Clutton-Brock, Tim, Manser, Marta B., Sommer, Simone
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8516918/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34650048
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26298-5
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author Risely, Alice
Wilhelm, Kerstin
Clutton-Brock, Tim
Manser, Marta B.
Sommer, Simone
author_facet Risely, Alice
Wilhelm, Kerstin
Clutton-Brock, Tim
Manser, Marta B.
Sommer, Simone
author_sort Risely, Alice
collection PubMed
description Circadian rhythms in gut microbiota composition are crucial for metabolic function, yet the extent to which they govern microbial dynamics compared to seasonal and lifetime processes remains unknown. Here, we investigate gut bacterial dynamics in wild meerkats (Suricata suricatta) over a 20-year period to compare diurnal, seasonal, and lifetime processes in concert, applying ratios of absolute abundance. We found that diurnal oscillations in bacterial load and composition eclipsed seasonal and lifetime dynamics. Diurnal oscillations were characterised by a peak in Clostridium abundance at dawn, were associated with temperature-constrained foraging schedules, and did not decay with age. Some genera exhibited seasonal fluctuations, whilst others developed with age, although we found little support for microbial senescence in very old meerkats. Strong microbial circadian rhythms in this species may reflect the extreme daily temperature fluctuations typical of arid-zone climates. Our findings demonstrate that accounting for circadian rhythms is essential for future gut microbiome research.
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spelling pubmed-85169182021-10-29 Diurnal oscillations in gut bacterial load and composition eclipse seasonal and lifetime dynamics in wild meerkats Risely, Alice Wilhelm, Kerstin Clutton-Brock, Tim Manser, Marta B. Sommer, Simone Nat Commun Article Circadian rhythms in gut microbiota composition are crucial for metabolic function, yet the extent to which they govern microbial dynamics compared to seasonal and lifetime processes remains unknown. Here, we investigate gut bacterial dynamics in wild meerkats (Suricata suricatta) over a 20-year period to compare diurnal, seasonal, and lifetime processes in concert, applying ratios of absolute abundance. We found that diurnal oscillations in bacterial load and composition eclipsed seasonal and lifetime dynamics. Diurnal oscillations were characterised by a peak in Clostridium abundance at dawn, were associated with temperature-constrained foraging schedules, and did not decay with age. Some genera exhibited seasonal fluctuations, whilst others developed with age, although we found little support for microbial senescence in very old meerkats. Strong microbial circadian rhythms in this species may reflect the extreme daily temperature fluctuations typical of arid-zone climates. Our findings demonstrate that accounting for circadian rhythms is essential for future gut microbiome research. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-10-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8516918/ /pubmed/34650048 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26298-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Risely, Alice
Wilhelm, Kerstin
Clutton-Brock, Tim
Manser, Marta B.
Sommer, Simone
Diurnal oscillations in gut bacterial load and composition eclipse seasonal and lifetime dynamics in wild meerkats
title Diurnal oscillations in gut bacterial load and composition eclipse seasonal and lifetime dynamics in wild meerkats
title_full Diurnal oscillations in gut bacterial load and composition eclipse seasonal and lifetime dynamics in wild meerkats
title_fullStr Diurnal oscillations in gut bacterial load and composition eclipse seasonal and lifetime dynamics in wild meerkats
title_full_unstemmed Diurnal oscillations in gut bacterial load and composition eclipse seasonal and lifetime dynamics in wild meerkats
title_short Diurnal oscillations in gut bacterial load and composition eclipse seasonal and lifetime dynamics in wild meerkats
title_sort diurnal oscillations in gut bacterial load and composition eclipse seasonal and lifetime dynamics in wild meerkats
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8516918/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34650048
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26298-5
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