Journal
ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 17, Issue 10, Pages 1238-1246Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ele.12329
Keywords
Detoxification; herbivory; host-microbe interactions; mammalian herbivore; microbiome; plant secondary compounds; plant-herbivore interactions; symbiosis
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [DEB 1210094, DEB 1342615]
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1342615] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The foraging ecology of mammalian herbivores is strongly shaped by plant secondary compounds (PSCs) that defend plants against herbivory. Conventional wisdom holds that gut microbes facilitate the ingestion of toxic plants; however, this notion lacks empirical evidence. We investigated the gut microbiota of desert woodrats (Neotoma lepida), some populations of which specialise on highly toxic creosote bush (Larrea tridentata). Here, we demonstrate that gut microbes are crucial in allowing herbivores to consume toxic plants. Creosote toxins altered the population structure of the gut microbiome to facilitate an increase in abundance of genes that metabolise toxic compounds. In addition, woodrats were unable to consume creosote toxins after the microbiota was disrupted with antibiotics. Last, ingestion of toxins by naive hosts was increased through microbial transplants from experienced donors. These results demonstrate that microbes can enhance the ability of hosts to consume PSCs and therefore expand the dietary niche breadth of mammalian herbivores.
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