Gut Mycobiota of Three Rhinopithecus Species Provide New Insights into the Association Between Diet and Environment

Gut mycobiota are part of the gut microbiome, typically derived from the host diet and living environment. In this study, we examined the gut mycobiota of three snub-nosed monkeys: Rhinopithecus roxellana, R. bieti, and R. strykeri using next-generation amplicon sequencing targeting the fungal internal transcribed spacer. The alpha diversity indexes of gut mycobiota in R. bieti were significantly higher than R. roxellana and R. strykeri, the beta diversity indicated that R. roxellana and R. bieti had more similar feeding habits. Core mycobiota demonstrated commonalities among the three species and potentially associated with feeding habits. Mycobiota displaying significant differences exhibited the respective characteristics of the host, likely associated with the hosts' living environment. Among them, animal and plant pathogenic fungi and lichen parasites are potential threats to the survival of snub-nosed monkeys for their pathogenicity to both monkeys and their food plants. Functionally, fungal trophic modes and functional guilds revealed a strong association between gut mycobiota and host diet. We found a higher abundance and more significant correlations with lichen parasitic fungi in R. strykeri than the other two species, indicating potential threats to their foods. Accordingly, this study revealed the basic structures of gut mycobiota of three wild Rhinopithecus species and highlighted the associations between gut mycobiota and their feeding habits and living environments. Furthermore, due to the close connection between fungi and the environment, animals could ingest fungi from their diet; thus, we speculate that gut mycobiota may serve a role in environmental monitoring for wildlife.