Scavenger Hologenomics

New world vultures comprise a small taxonomic family called Cathartidae including seven species all displaying scavenging behaviour. These species are able to consume rotten carcases of dead animals without any notable ill effects, aided by an extreme disease-resistant digestive system. A study published about 10 years ago conducted an initial preliminary exploration of the gut microbial communities associated with two of these species, namely the Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) and the Black vulture (Coragyps atratus). That study found that these two species harbour many bacterial species that are usually described as pathogenic. However, due to technical limitations at the time, further insights into the role of microbiomes could not be obtained. In this project, we build on these initial observations, and expand the study of adaptation to scavenging by not only analysing microbial communities using genome-resolved metagenomics, but also analysing gene expression of microbes and intestinal tissues of vultures.