Structure, variation, and assembly of body-wide microbiomes in
endangered crested ibis Nipponia nippon
Abstract
Limited knowledge of bird microbiome in the all-body niche hinders our
understanding of host–microbial relationships and animal health. Here,
we characterized the microbial composition of the crested ibis from 13
body sites, representing the cloaca, oral, feather, and skin habitats,
and explored assembly mechanism structuring the bacterial community of
the four habitats, respectively. The bacterial community characteristics
were distinct among the four habitats. The skin harbored the highest
alpha diversity, most diverse functions, and more complex network,
followed by feather, oral, and cloaca. Individual-specific features were
observed when the skin and feathers were concentrated independently.
Skin and feather samples of multiple body sites from the same individual
were more similar than those from different individuals. Although a
significant proportion of the microbiota in the host (3.5% to 14.5%)
was not derived from the environmental microbiome, as body sites became
more exposed to the environment, the relative importance of neutral
processes increased. Neutral processes were the most important
contributor in shaping the feather microbiome communities (R2=0.859). A
higher percentage of taxa (29.3%) on the skin were selected by hosts
compared to taxa on other body habitats. This study demonstrated that
niche speciation and partial neutral processes, rather than
environmental sources, contribute to microbiome variation in the crested
ibis. These results enhance our knowledge of baseline microbial
diversity in birds and will aid health management in crested ibises in
the future.