Affiliations 

  • 1 Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Department of Biology, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
  • 2 Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
  • 3 Evolution and Diversité Biologique, UMR 5174 CNRS-Université Paul Sabatier-IRD, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse, France
Proc Biol Sci, 2020 02 12;287(1920):20192182.
PMID: 32019440 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.2182

Abstract

Urban sprawl increasingly affects the ecology of natural populations, including host-microbiota interactions, with observed differences in the gut microbiota between urban and rural hosts. While different mechanisms could explain this pattern, dietary uptake constitutes a likely candidate. To assess the contribution of diet in explaining urban-rural variation in gut microbiota, we performed an aviary experiment in which urban and rural house sparrows were fed with mimics of urban or rural diets. Before the experiment, rural sparrows hosted more diverse gut communities, with a higher relative abundance of Enterococcaceae and Staphylococcaceae and lower abundance of genes involved in xenobiotic degradation and lipid metabolism than their urban counterparts. The experimental diets significantly altered gut microbiota α- and β-diversity and taxonomic composition, with the strongest shifts occurring in individuals exposed to contrasting diets. Overall, diet-induced shifts resembled initial differences between free-ranging urban and rural hosts. Furthermore, rural diet had a positive impact on urban host body mass but only in hosts with the highest initial gut diversity. Overall, our results indicate that diet constitutes an important factor contributing to differences in gut microbiota along the urbanization gradient and provide new insights on possible fitness consequences of a reduced gut diversity in urban settings.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.