Biology subjects

Gurung, K.

Publications and source records attributed to Gurung, K..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Industrialization restructures the domestic dog gut microbiome while preserving host specificity

Industrialization has reshaped human gut microbiomes, but its effects on other human-associated mammals remain poorly understood. Domestic dogs provide an informative comparative system because they have shared human environments and food systems for millennia yet retain distinct host biology. However, most canine microbiome studies have focused on industrialized companion animals, limiting our understanding of the ecological range of the domestic dog gut microbiome. We analyzed fecal 16S rRNA gene profiles from 261 dogs sampled across Nepal, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, spanning forager, agrarian, pastoralist, urban, and industrialized lifestyles; 257 dogs remained after excluding recent antibiotic exposure. Lifestyle was the strongest measured correlate of canine gut microbiome composition, and this structure persisted in restricted analyses of mature, non-shelter dogs sampled from temperate climate regions. Industrialized dogs differed from non-industrialized dogs through directional genus-level turnover, restructuring of VANISH- and BloSSUM-like microbial guilds, and shifts in predicted functional potential. Non-industrialized dogs were not microbiologically uniform: pastoralist dogs carried non-industrialized microbiome profiles but diverged from a simple forager-to-industrialized continuum. Cross-species comparisons with humans sampled across matched lifestyle categories showed parallel lifestyle-associated restructuring in both hosts, but host species remained the dominant axis of variation and the genera responding to industrialization were largely host-specific. These findings expand the ecological baseline for the domestic dog gut microbiome and identify industrialization as a major axis of microbiome restructuring in a long-term human-associated mammal. More broadly, they show that shared lifestyle transitions can impose parallel ecological pressures across host species without overriding host-specific community assembly.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2025

INDITEK-2.0: A Bayesian inverse eco-evolutionary modelling framework for reconstructing Phanerozoic biodiversity

O_LIMechanistic eco-evolutionary models are powerful tools for understanding how life diversified over geological timescales, yet estimating their parameters remains a key challenge. The high computational requirements of these models make probabilistic inversion methods unfeasible. C_LIO_LIWe address this challenge with INDITEK-2.0, a new, cost-efficient eco-evolutionary model that integrates a Bayesian inverse modelling framework for probabilistic estimation of parameters. C_LIO_LITo validate this framework, we conducted a proof-of-concept study. We first generated synthetic biodiversity data for marine invertebrates using INDITEK-2.0 with known parameter values. To mimic field data, some realistic random Gaussian errors were added to the data. We then used our Bayesian inverse modelling framework to recover these original (true) parameter values from the dataset of current biodiversity distributions after 500 million years of diversification. Our solution is a probability distribution on the parameter space, and we show that the method successfully recovered the target parameter values with a relatively low degree of uncertainity. C_LIO_LIINDITEK-2.0s ability to probabilistically infer underlying eco-evolutionary processes provides a new modelling tool for reconstructing the evolutionary history of biodiversity across Earths ecosystems and taxonomic groups. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2022

Insights into the microbial strain mediated impact on pest insect development

Molecular analyses of host-associated microorganisms have demonstrated the essential role that the microbiome plays in host development. Approaches targeting the sequencing of ribosomal genes have successfully identified key species of the host-associated microbiome. However, it remains unclear to what extent the strain-specific characteristics influence the outcome of the host-microbiome interactions. This is particularly important for insect pests, where microbial species might be used as targets for biocontrol purposes. Understanding strain-level variation represents thus a crucial step in determining the microbial impact on hosts. To investigate the microbial strain-level effects on an invasive insect pest, Drosophila suzukii, we compared the impact of monocultures and cocultures of different bacterial and yeast strains. We investigated whether different strains of Gluconobacter and Pichia differentially influenced the larval development of the pest. Fly trait measurements demonstrated beneficial, although variable, impact of these microbial strains on the fitness of suzukii. Using cocultures of microbial strains, we found that in some combinations, the beneficial effects were intermediate between those of the respective monocultures. In contrast, in other cases, strong inhibitory effects were observed. Hence, our study reports that strain-level effects within species are present in D. suzukii, reinforcing the importance of assessing the impact of associated microbiota on pest insects at the strain level. HighlightsO_LIMicrobial strains make up an essential part of the diversity of an insect hosts C_LIO_LICharacterizing and accounting for strain-specific impact on a pests life-history traits and different combinations of strains constitute an important step in our understanding of the pest management strategies. C_LIO_LIWe investigated whether there was any strain-specific impact of bacteria and yeasts on the larval development of a frugivorous pest. C_LIO_LIWe observed that strains varied in their impact, both as monocultures and cocultures, indicating their importance in modifying the host ecology. C_LIO_LIOur study adds to the growing literature on the importance of strains in pest insects. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2022

More persistent bacterial than fungal associations in the microbiota of a pest

The invasive fly Drosophila suzukii is a pest that can infest a diverse range of intact, ripening fruits, using its serrated ovipositor. This constitutes a different niche compared to the rotting fruits its ancestors use, especially because these intact fruits have limited quantities of microbes and soluble nutrients for the developing larvae. To investigate the potential role of microbial associations in the niche expansion of this invasive fly, we characterized the bacterial and fungal communities of D. suzukii and various wild fruits from which they developed. To assess cross-generational microbial associations, we also lab-reared fly populations and characterized their microbial communities. Diversity metrics of microbial communities differed significantly between flies and fruits. Different fruit types varied substantially in microbial composition, while flies showed relatively uniform bacterial communities, irrespective of the fruit source they developed on. After lab-rearing, bacterial communities still showed considerable overlap with those of wild flies. Fungal communities of flies and fruits showed larger resemblance, with a substantial overlap between wild flies and the corresponding fruits on which they had developed. Our study thus reports that the fungal community structure in these pests largely reflects those on the breeding substrates, while these flies might have formed more persistent associations with bacteria and transmit these across generations rather than obtaining them from their food source.

ecology↗