Global Change Ecology Research Group, School of Science and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Qld, Australia.
Department of Genetics and Evolution, Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
Mol Ecol. 2019 Oct;28(20):4592-4607. doi: 10.1111/mec.15240. Epub 2019 Oct 2.
Urbanisation is one of the most significant threats to biodiversity, due to the rapid and large-scale environmental alterations it imposes on the natural landscape. It is, therefore, imperative that we understand the consequences of and mechanisms by which, species can respond to it. In recent years, research has shown that plasticity of the gut microbiome may be an important mechanism by which animals can adapt to environmental change, yet empirical evidence of this in wild non-model species remains sparse. Using an empirical replicated study system, we show that city life alters the gut microbiome and stable isotope profiling of a wild native non-model species - the eastern water dragon (Intellagama lesueurii) in Queensland, Australia. City dragons exhibit a more diverse gut microbiome than their native habitat counterparts and show gut microbial signatures of a high fat and plant rich diet. Additionally, we also show that city dragons have elevated levels of the Nitrogen-15 isotope in their blood suggesting that a city diet, which incorporates novel anthropogenic food sources, may also be richer in protein. These results highlight the role that gut microbial plasticity plays in an animals' response to human-altered landscapes.
城市化是生物多样性面临的最大威胁之一，因为它会迅速大规模地改变自然景观的环境。因此，我们必须了解物种对环境变化的反应机制和后果。近年来，研究表明，肠道微生物组的可塑性可能是动物适应环境变化的一个重要机制，但在野生非模式物种中，这方面的实证证据仍然很少。本研究使用实证重复研究系统，证明城市生活改变了澳大利亚昆士兰州东部水龙（Intellagama lesueurii）这种野生本土非模式物种的肠道微生物组和稳定同位素特征。城市水龙的肠道微生物组比其原生栖息地的同类更为多样，并且具有高脂肪和富含植物的饮食的肠道微生物特征。此外，我们还表明，城市水龙血液中的氮-15 同位素水平升高，这表明城市饮食，其中包含了新的人为食物来源，也可能含有更多的蛋白质。这些结果强调了肠道微生物组可塑性在动物对人为改变的景观的反应中的作用。
