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Convergence of gut microbiomes in myrmecophagous mammals

Open access
Delsuc, Frédéric, Metcalf, Jessica L., Wegener Parfrey, Laura, Song, Se Jin, González, Antonio, Knight, Rob·2014·Molecular Ecology

Abstract

Mammals have diversified into many dietary niches. Specialized myrmecophagous (ant‐ and termite‐eating) placental mammals represent a textbook example of evolutionary convergence driven by extreme diet specialization. Armadillos, anteaters, aardvarks, pangolins and aardwolves thus provide a model system for understanding the potential role of gut microbiota in the convergent adaptation to myrmecophagy. Here, we expand upon previous mammalian gut microbiome studies by using high‐throughput barcoded I llumina sequencing of the 16S r RNA gene to characterize the composition of gut microbiota in 15 species representing all placental myrmecophagous lineages and their close relatives from zoo‐ and field‐collected samples. We confirm that both diet and phylogeny drive the evolution of mammalian gut microbiota, with cases of convergence in global composition, but also examples of phylogenetic inertia. Our results reveal specialized placental myrmecophages as a spectacular case of large‐scale convergence in gut microbiome composition. Indeed, neighbour‐net networks and beta‐diversity plots based on U ni F rac distances show significant clustering of myrmecophagous species (anteaters, aardvarks and aardwolves), even though they belong to phylogenetically distant lineages representing different orders. The aardwolf, which diverged from carnivorous hyenas only in the last 10 million years, experienced a convergent shift in the composition of its gut microbiome to become more similar to other myrmecophages. These results confirm diet adaptation to be a major driving factor of convergence in gut microbiome composition over evolutionary timescales. This study sets the scene for future metagenomic studies aiming at evaluating potential convergence in functional gene content in the microbiomes of specialized mammalian myrmecophages.

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Metadata

Authors
Delsuc, F., Metcalf, J. L., Wegener Parfrey, L., Song, S. J., González, A., & Knight, R.
Venue
Molecular Ecology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2013-10-07
Volume
23
Issue
6
Pages
1301-1317
ISSN
  • 0962-1083 (ISSN-L)
  • 1365-294X
OpenAlex
W2127059753
Cited by
347
References
84
FWCI
6.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
bronze

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Convergence of gut microbiomes in myrmecophagous mammals. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1111/mec.12501
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Delsuc, F., Metcalf, J. L., Wegener Parfrey, L., Song, S. J., González, A., & Knight, R. (2014). Convergence of gut microbiomes in myrmecophagous mammals. Molecular Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.12501

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