Skin bacterial microbiome diversity predicts lower activity levels in female, but not male, guppies, Poecilia reticulata

Abstract

While the link between the gut microbiome and host behaviour is well established, how the microbiomes of other organs correlate with behaviour remains unclear. Additionally, behaviour–microbiome correlations are likely sex-specific because of sex differences in behaviour and physiology, but this is rarely tested. Here, we tested whether the skin microbiome of the Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata , predicts fish activity level and shoaling tendency in a sex-specific manner. High-throughput sequencing revealed that the bacterial community richness on the skin (Faith's phylogenetic diversity) was correlated with both behaviours differently between males and females. Females with richer skin-associated bacterial communities spent less time actively swimming. Activity level was significantly correlated with community membership (unweighted UniFrac), with the relative abundances of 16 bacterial taxa significantly negatively correlated with activity level. We found no association between skin microbiome and behaviours among male fish. This sex-specific relationship between the skin microbiome and host behaviour may indicate sex-specific physiological interactions with the skin microbiome. More broadly, sex specificity in host–microbiome interactions could give insight into the forces shaping the microbiome and its role in the evolutionary ecology of the host.