Hologenomic adaptations underlying the evolution of sanguivory in the common vampire bat

M. Lisandra Zepeda Mendoza*, Zijun Xiong, Marina Escalera-Zamudio, Anne Kathrine Runge, Julien Thézé, Daniel Streicker, Hannah K. Frank, Elizabeth Loza-Rubio, Shengmao Liu, Oliver A. Ryder, Jose Alfredo Samaniego Castruita, Aris Katzourakis, George Pacheco, Blanca Taboada, Ulrike Löber, Oliver G. Pybus, Yang Li, Edith Rojas-Anaya, Kristine Bohmann, Aldo Carmona BaezCarlos F. Arias, Shiping Liu, Alex D. Greenwood, Mads F. Bertelsen, Nicole E. White, Michael Bunce, Guojie Zhang, Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén, M. P.Thomas Gilbert

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)
174 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Adaptation to specialized diets often requires modifications at both genomic and microbiome levels. We applied a hologenomic approach to the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), one of the only three obligate blood-feeding (sanguivorous) mammals, to study the evolution of its complex dietary adaptation. Specifically, we assembled its high-quality reference genome (scaffold N50 = 26.9 Mb, contig N50 = 36.6 kb) and gut metagenome, and compared them against those of insectivorous, frugivorous and carnivorous bats. Our analyses showed a particular common vampire bat genomic landscape regarding integrated viral elements, a dietary and phylogenetic influence on gut microbiome taxonomic and functional profiles, and that both genetic elements harbour key traits related to the nutritional (for example, vitamin and lipid shortage) and non-nutritional (for example, nitrogen waste and osmotic homeostasis) challenges of sanguivory. These findings highlight the value of a holistic study of both the host and its microbiota when attempting to decipher adaptations underlying radical dietary lifestyles.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)659-668
Number of pages10
JournalNature Ecology and Evolution
Volume2
Issue number4
Early online date19 Feb 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Ecology

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