TY - JOUR
T1 - Bacterial community in the crop of the hoatzin, a neotropical folivorous flying bird
AU - Godoy-Vitorino, Filipa
AU - Ley, Ruth E.
AU - Gao, Zhan
AU - Pei, Zhiheng
AU - Ortiz-Zuazaga, Humberto
AU - Pericchi, Luis R.
AU - Garcia-Amado, Maria A.
AU - Michelangeli, Fabian
AU - Blaser, Martin J.
AU - Gordon, Jeffrey I.
AU - Domínguez-Bello, Maria G.
PY - 2008/10
Y1 - 2008/10
N2 - The hoatzin is unique among known avian species because of the fermentative function of its enlarged crop. A small-bodied flying foregut fermenter is a paradox, and this bird provides an interesting model to examine how diet selection and the gut microbiota contribute to maximizing digestive efficiency. Therefore, we characterized the bacterial population in the crop of six adult hoatzins captured from the wild. A total of 1,235 16S rRNA gene sequences were grouped into 580 phylotypes (67% of the pooled species richness sampled, based on Good's coverage estimator, with CACE and Chao1 estimates of 1,709 and 1,795 species-level [99% identity] operational taxonomic units, respectively). Members of 9 of the ∼75 known phyla in Bacteria were identified in this gut habitat; the Firmicutes were dominant (67% of sequences, belonging to the classes Clostridia, Mollicutes, and Bacilli), followed by the Bacteroidetes (30%, mostly in the order Bacteroidales), Proteobacteria (1.8%), and Lentisphaerae, Verrucomicrobia, TM7, Spirochaetes, Actinobacteria, and Aminanaerobia (all <0.1%). The novelty in this ecosystem is great; 94% of the phylotypes were unclassified at the "species" level and thus likely include novel cellulolytic lineages.
AB - The hoatzin is unique among known avian species because of the fermentative function of its enlarged crop. A small-bodied flying foregut fermenter is a paradox, and this bird provides an interesting model to examine how diet selection and the gut microbiota contribute to maximizing digestive efficiency. Therefore, we characterized the bacterial population in the crop of six adult hoatzins captured from the wild. A total of 1,235 16S rRNA gene sequences were grouped into 580 phylotypes (67% of the pooled species richness sampled, based on Good's coverage estimator, with CACE and Chao1 estimates of 1,709 and 1,795 species-level [99% identity] operational taxonomic units, respectively). Members of 9 of the ∼75 known phyla in Bacteria were identified in this gut habitat; the Firmicutes were dominant (67% of sequences, belonging to the classes Clostridia, Mollicutes, and Bacilli), followed by the Bacteroidetes (30%, mostly in the order Bacteroidales), Proteobacteria (1.8%), and Lentisphaerae, Verrucomicrobia, TM7, Spirochaetes, Actinobacteria, and Aminanaerobia (all <0.1%). The novelty in this ecosystem is great; 94% of the phylotypes were unclassified at the "species" level and thus likely include novel cellulolytic lineages.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=54449098594&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1128/AEM.00574-08
DO - 10.1128/AEM.00574-08
M3 - Article
C2 - 18689523
AN - SCOPUS:54449098594
SN - 0099-2240
VL - 74
SP - 5905
EP - 5912
JO - Applied and Environmental Microbiology
JF - Applied and Environmental Microbiology
IS - 19
ER -