Diet change reveals asymmetric response in gene expression and microbial composition across the digestive tract of two closely related herbivores (opens in new tab)

Understanding what shapes variation in organisms’ capacity to utilize novel resources is essential to predicting how species will respond to environmental change. For herbivores, exposure to toxic phytochemicals in novel plants may limit persistence in new habitats. We investigated the behavioral, physiological, genetic, and microbial consequences of diet switching in two closely related species of rodent herbivores that each consume differentially toxic plants in their native habitat, and th...