Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast

Abstract Humpback whales endure several months of fasting while undertaking one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, which depletes the whales’ energy stores and likely compromises their physiological state. Airway microbiota are linked to respiratory health in mammals. To illuminate the...

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Autores principales:	Catharina Vendl, Eve Slavich, Bernd Wemheuer, Tiffanie Nelson, Belinda Ferrari, Torsten Thomas, Tracey Rogers
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2020
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/79120017a60848279ed23d17e980f0d1
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:79120017a60848279ed23d17e980f0d12021-12-02T16:06:39ZRespiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast10.1038/s41598-020-69602-x2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/79120017a60848279ed23d17e980f0d12020-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69602-xhttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Humpback whales endure several months of fasting while undertaking one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, which depletes the whales’ energy stores and likely compromises their physiological state. Airway microbiota are linked to respiratory health in mammals. To illuminate the dynamics of airway microbiota in a physiologically challenged mammal, we investigated the bacterial communities in the blow of East Australian humpback whales at two stages of their migration: at the beginning (n = 20) and several months into their migration (n = 20), using barcoded tag sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. We show that early in the fasting the whale blow samples had a higher diversity and richness combined with a larger number of core taxa and a different bacterial composition than later in the fasting. This study provides some evidence that the rich blow microbiota at the beginning of their fasting might reflect the whales’ uncompromised physiology and that changes in the microbiota occur during the whales’ migration.Catharina VendlEve SlavichBernd WemheuerTiffanie NelsonBelinda FerrariTorsten ThomasTracey RogersNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-13 (2020)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Catharina Vendl Eve Slavich Bernd Wemheuer Tiffanie Nelson Belinda Ferrari Torsten Thomas Tracey Rogers Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast
description	Abstract Humpback whales endure several months of fasting while undertaking one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, which depletes the whales’ energy stores and likely compromises their physiological state. Airway microbiota are linked to respiratory health in mammals. To illuminate the dynamics of airway microbiota in a physiologically challenged mammal, we investigated the bacterial communities in the blow of East Australian humpback whales at two stages of their migration: at the beginning (n = 20) and several months into their migration (n = 20), using barcoded tag sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. We show that early in the fasting the whale blow samples had a higher diversity and richness combined with a larger number of core taxa and a different bacterial composition than later in the fasting. This study provides some evidence that the rich blow microbiota at the beginning of their fasting might reflect the whales’ uncompromised physiology and that changes in the microbiota occur during the whales’ migration.
format	article
author	Catharina Vendl Eve Slavich Bernd Wemheuer Tiffanie Nelson Belinda Ferrari Torsten Thomas Tracey Rogers
author_facet	Catharina Vendl Eve Slavich Bernd Wemheuer Tiffanie Nelson Belinda Ferrari Torsten Thomas Tracey Rogers
author_sort	Catharina Vendl
title	Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast
title_short	Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast
title_full	Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast
title_fullStr	Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast
title_full_unstemmed	Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast
title_sort	respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/79120017a60848279ed23d17e980f0d1
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Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast

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