Journal article
Characterization of shifts of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) intestinal microbial communities associated with antibiotic treatment
PeerJ, Vol.2018(3), e4452
2018
Abstract
Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) are arboreal marsupials native to Australia that eat a specialized diet of almost exclusively eucalyptus leaves. Microbes in koala intestines are known to break down otherwise toxic compounds, such as tannins, in eucalyptus leaves. Infections by Chlamydia, obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens, are highly prevalent in koala populations. If animals with Chlamydia infections are received by wildlife hospitals, a range of antibiotics can be used to treat them. However, previous studies suggested that koalas can suffer adverse side effects during antibiotic treatment. This study aimed to use 16S rRNA gene sequences derived from koala feces to characterize the intestinal microbiome of koalas throughout antibiotic treatment and identify specific taxa associated with koala health after treatment. Although differences in the alpha diversity were observed in the intestinal flora between treated and untreated koalas and between koalas treated with different antibiotics, these differences were not statistically significant. The alpha diversity of microbial communities from koalas that lived through antibiotic treatment versus those who did not was significantly greater, however. Beta diversity analysis largely confirmed the latter observation, revealing that the overall communities were different between koalas on antibiotics that died versus those that survived or never received antibiotics. Using both machine learning and OTU (operational taxonomic unit) co-occurrence network analyses, we found that OTUs that are very closely related to Lonepinella koalarum, a known tannin degrader found by culture-based methods to be present in koala intestines, was correlated with a koala's health status. This is the first study to characterize the time course of effects of antibiotics on koala intestinal microbiomes. Our results suggest it may be useful to pursue alternative treatments for Chlamydia infections without the use of antibiotics or the development of Chlamydia-specific antimicrobial compounds that do not broadly affect microbial communities. © 2018 Dahlhausen et al.
Details
- Title
- Characterization of shifts of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) intestinal microbial communities associated with antibiotic treatment
- Authors
- K E Dahlhausen (Author) - University of California, United StatesL Doroud (Author) - University of California, United StatesA J Firl (Author) - University of California, United StatesAdam Polkinghorne (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringJ A Eisen (Author) - University of California, United States
- Publication details
- PeerJ, Vol.2018(3), e4452; 20
- Publisher
- PeerJ, Ltd.
- Date published
- 2018
- DOI
- 10.7717/peerj.4452
- ISSN
- 2167-8359
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2018 Dahlhausen et al. Licence: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99450739402621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Microbiology
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Source: InCites