Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 286, Issue 1901, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0431
Keywords
Papio; microbiome; species sorting; isolation by distance; genetic effects; hybrid zone
Categories
Funding
- Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant [239301]
- National Institutes of Aging [IOS 1053461, DEB 1840223, R21 AG055777, IBN 9985910, IBN 0322613, IBN 0322781, DEB 0846286, DEB 0846532, IOS 0919200, R21 AG049936]
- Duke University
- Princeton University
- University of Notre Dame
- Chicago Zoological Society
- Max Planck Institute for Demography
- L. S. B. Leakey Foundation
- National Geographic Society
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Gut microbiota in geographically isolated host populations are often distinct. These differences have been attributed to between-population differences in host behaviours, environments, genetics and geographical distance. However, which factors are most important remains unknown. Here, we fill this gap for baboons by leveraging information on 13 environmental variables from 14 baboon populations spanning a natural hybrid zone. Sampling across a hybrid zone allowed us to additionally test whether phylosymbiosis (codiversification between hosts and their microbiota) is detectable in admixed, closely related primates. We found little evidence of genetic effects: none of host genetic ancestry, host genetic relatedness nor genetic distance between host populations were strong predictors of baboon gut microbiota. Instead, gut microbiota were best explained by the baboons' environments, especially the soil's geologic history and exchangeable sodium. Indeed, soil effects were 15 times stronger than those of host-population F-ST, perhaps because soil predicts which foods are present, or because baboons are terrestrial and consume soil microbes incidentally with their food. Our results support an emerging picture in which environmental variation is the dominant predictor of host-associated microbiomes. We are the first to show that such effects overshadow host species identity among members of the same primate genus.
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