Conservation translocations lead to reduced gut microbiome diversity, and compositional changes, in the Seychelles warbler

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Authors

Sarah F Worsley, Zoe Crighton, Chuen Zhang Lee , Terry Burke, Jan Komdeur, Hannah L Dugdale , David S Richardson

Abstract

Conservation translocations are an increasingly common tool used to help combat species extinction and global biodiversity loss. However, their success is dependent on a wide range of abiotic and biotic factors. To date, the potential role of host-associated microbiomes in translocation success has been overlooked despite their fundamental contribution to host health and fitness. Here, we use faecal samples collected from the last remnant (source) population on Cousin Island, and all four translocated populations (established between 1988-2011), of the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis) to evaluate whether translocations have long-term impacts on the vertebrate gut microbiome. Gut microbiome alpha diversity was lower in all translocated populations compared to the source population on Cousin Island. Gut microbiome composition also varied, with several short-chain fatty acid producing bacterial families being lost from the core microbiome in some translocated populations; such taxa have been implicated to play an important role in maintaining host metabolic health. Furthermore, the two translocated populations that were established the longest time ago, and with the fewest individuals, had reduced inter-individual gut microbiome variability compared to the source population. While it was not possible to directly assess the specific drivers of these differences, it is likely that size of the founding population, subsequent loss of host genetic variation and environmental factors play a role in shaping gut microbiome variation amongst these populations. Future work should assess whether taxonomic gut microbiome variation translates into differences in gut microbiome function and the consequences this has for individual host and population fitness, and long-term resilience to environmental change.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.32942/X2DC9J

Subjects

Life Sciences

Keywords

conservation, translocation, re-introduction, gut microbiome, founder effects, Acrocephalus sechellensis

Dates

Published: 2024-11-05 11:28

License

CC BY Attribution 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Language:
English

Conflict of interest statement:
None

Data and Code Availability Statement:
All sequencing reads have been uploaded to the European Nucleotide Archive under the following accession numbers: PRJEB47095 (Cousin samples collected in 2019); PRJEB67634 (Cousin samples collected in 2022); and PRJEB81863 (all samples from translocated populations). The scripts and metadata to reproduce all analyses and figures can be accessed via the GitHub repository, https://github.com/Seychelle-Warbler-Project.