4 Animals That Don’t Have Resident Gut Microbiomes

We humans couldn’t live without our gut microbes, but not all animals rely on microscopic digestive communities like we do. And understanding why these animals ditched their microbial partners can teach us a lot about the costs and benefits of making evolutionary friends.

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Sources:
http://fiererlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Hammer_etal_2019_FEMSMicro.pdf
https://www2.rowland.harvard.edu/files/rowland/files/journal.pbio_.2000225.pdf
https://www.kavlifoundation.org/about-microbiome
Bats:
https://academic.oup.com/femsle/article/364/1/fnw284/2703130
https://msystems.asm.org/content/4/6/e00511-19
https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Bats/Little-Brown-Bat
http://rcin.org.pl/Content/12254/BI002_2613_Cz-40-2_Acta-T39-nr1-11_o.pdf
https://www.asm.org/Press-Releases/2020/The-Birds-and-the-Bats-Evolving-to-Fly-May-Have-Ha
Caterpillars:
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/08/21/1707186114.abstract
Ants:
https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/57/4/705/4049474
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20957208
https://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10169?ijkey=5485a601c2ecc609994110b7fc7eb8dab5274d52&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313130878_Hotspots_for_symbiosis_Function_evolution_and_specificity_of_ant-microbe_associations_from_trunk_to_tips_of_the_ant_phylogeny_Hymenoptera_Formicidae
Stick bugs:
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep26388/
https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2164-15-917
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022191013002278
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965174816300078
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145305X19303477
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3856447/
https://bioone.org/journals/Journal-of-Orthoptera-Research/volume-24/issue-1/034.024.0105/Review-of-the-Gross-Anatomy-and-Microbiology-of-the-Phasmatodea/10.1665/034.024.0105.full
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3068243/
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/horizontal-gene-transfer-a-hallmark-of-animal-genomes-35791
Oysters:
https://aem.asm.org/content/aem/44/5/1205.full.pdf
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00248-018-1226-9
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00248-017-1051-6
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.01548/full

Images:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Myotis_myotis_Gro%C3%9Fes_Mausohr2.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lesser_short-nosed_fruit_bat_(Cynopterus_brachyotis).jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greater_Indian_fruit_bat_@_Kanjirappally_04.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sanmartin/3911494031
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desmo-boden.tif
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Myotis_myotis_Gro%C3%9Fes_Mausohr2.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Artemia_salina_4.jpg