The gut microbiome buffers dietary adaptation in Bronze Age domesticated dogs

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • Simone Rampelli
  • Silvia Turroni
  • Florencia Debandi
  • Alberdi Estibaritz, Antton
  • Stephanie L. Schnorr
  • Courtney A. Hofman
  • Alberto Taddia
  • Riccardo Helg
  • Elena Biagi
  • Patrizia Brigidi
  • Federica D'Amico
  • Maurizio Cattani
  • Marco Candela

In an attempt to explore the role of the gut microbiome during recent canine evolutionary history, we sequenced the metagenome of 13 canine coprolites dated ca. 3,600–3,450 years ago from the Bronze Age archaeological site of Solarolo (Italy), which housed a complex farming community. The microbiome structure of Solarolo dogs revealed continuity with that of modern dogs, but it also shared some features with the wild wolf microbiome, as a kind of transitional state between them. The dietary niche, as also inferred from the microbiome composition, was omnivorous, with evidence of consumption of starchy agricultural foods. Of interest, the Solarolo dog microbiome was particularly enriched in sequences encoding alpha-amylases and complemented a low copy number of the host amylase gene. These findings suggest that Neolithic dogs could have responded to the transition to a starch-rich diet by expanding microbial functionalities devoted to starch catabolism, thus compensating for delayed host response.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102816
JournaliScience
Volume24
Issue number8
Number of pages20
ISSN2589-0042
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors

    Research areas

  • biological sciences, evolutionary biology, evolutionary history, evolutionary processes, genomic analysis, genomics, microbiome, omics, Phylogenetics, phylogeny, sequence analysis

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