Cardiometabolic disease risk in gorillas is associated with altered gut microbial metabolism
Cardiometabolic disease is the leading cause of death in zoo apes; yet its etiology remains unknown. Here, we investigated compositional and functional microbial markers in fecal samples from 57 gorillas across U.S. zoos, 20 of which are diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, in contrast with 17 individuals from European zoos and 19 wild gorillas from Central Africa. Results show that zoo-housed gorillas in the U.S. exhibit the most diverse gut microbiomes and markers of increased protein and carbohydrate fermentation, at the expense of microbial metabolic traits associated with plant cell-wall degradation. Machine learning models identified unique microbial traits in U.S. gorillas with cardiometabolic distress; including reduced metabolism of sulfur-containing amino acids and hexoses, increased abundance of potential enteric pathogens, and low fecal butyrate and propionate production. These findings show that cardiometabolic disease in gorillas is potentially associated with altered gut microbial function, influenced by zoo-specific diets and environments.
Authors
- José D.C Jaimes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1598-1855)
- Marietta Dindo Danforth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9021-0719)
- Ran Blekhman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3218-613X)
- Jaroslav Havlík (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1900-0951)
- Anna Mascellani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3831-5983)
- Samuel Davison
- Andrés Gómez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1174-0368)
- Terence Neba Fuh
- Klára J. Petrželková (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9693-7567)
- Jonathan B. Clayton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3709-3362)
- Dominic A. Travis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1542-3375)
- B. Katherine Smith
- Zoë Ward (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0268-988X)
- April Sackett
- Hayley Weston Murphy
- Frédéric Stéphane Niatou Singa
- Anna Strykova
Institutions
- University of Nebraska–Lincoln (US)
- University of Nebraska at Omaha (US)
- Marine Mammal Center (US)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Wildlife Conservation Society (US)
- Technical University of Liberec (CZ)
- Czech Academy of Sciences (CZ)
- Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZ)
- University of Massachusetts Amherst (US)
- Institute of Parasitology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK)
- Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Biology (CZ)
- Institute of Parasitology (CZ)
- Czech Academy of Sciences, Biology Centre (CZ)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
- Published
- 2025-02-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41522-025-00664-3
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Diet and metabolism studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.33
Funders
- Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy