RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Humanization of wildlife gut microbiota in urban environments
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.01.05.475040
DO 10.1101/2022.01.05.475040
A1 Brian A. Dillard
A1 Albert K. Chung
A1 Alex R. Gunderson
A1 Shane C. Campbell-Staton
A1 Andrew H. Moeller
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/01/06/2022.01.05.475040.abstract
AB Urbanization is rapidly altering Earth’s environments, demanding investigations of the impacts on resident wildlife. Here, we show that urban populations of coyotes (Canis latrans) and crested anole lizards (Anolis cristatellus) acquire gut microbiota constituents found in humans, including the gut bacterial lineages most significantly associated with urbanization in humans (e.g., Bacteroides). Comparisons of urban and rural wildlife and human populations revealed significant convergence of the gut microbiota among urban host populations. Remarkably, all microbial lineages found in humans that were overrepresented in urban wildlife relative to rural wildlife were also overrepresented in urban humans relative to rural humans. These results indicate parallel effects of urbanization on human and wildlife gut microbiota and suggest spillover of bacteria from humans into wildlife in cities.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.