Department of Biology, University of the Balearic Islands, Ctra., Valldemossa km 7'5, 07122, Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain.
Department of Animal Biology, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.
Microb Ecol. 2023 May;85(4):1564-1577. doi: 10.1007/s00248-022-02019-3. Epub 2022 Apr 28.
Gut microbial communities provide essential functions to their hosts and are known to influence both their ecology and evolution. However, our knowledge of these complex associations is still very limited in reptiles. Here we report the 16S rRNA gene faecal microbiota profiles of two lizard species endemic to the Balearic archipelago (Podarcis lilfordi and P. pityusensis), encompassing their allopatric range of distribution through a noninvasive sampling, as an alternative to previous studies that implied killing specimens of these IUCN endangered and near-threatened species, respectively. Both lizard species showed a faecal microbiome composition consistent with their omnivorous trophic ecology, with a high representation of cellulolytic bacteria taxa. We also identified species-specific core microbiota signatures and retrieved lizard species, islet ascription, and seasonality as the main factors in explaining bacterial community composition. The different Balearic Podarcis populations are characterised by harbouring a high proportion of unique bacterial taxa, thus reinforcing their view as unique and divergent evolutionary entities.
肠道微生物群落为其宿主提供重要功能，已知会影响它们的生态和进化。然而，我们对爬行动物这些复杂关联的了解仍然非常有限。在这里，我们报告了两种特有于巴利阿里群岛的蜥蜴物种（Podarcis lilfordi 和 P. pityusensis）的 16S rRNA 基因粪便微生物群谱，通过非侵入性采样涵盖了它们的地理分布范围，这是对以前研究的替代，以前的研究分别暗示要杀死这些 IUCN 濒危和近危物种的标本。这两种蜥蜴物种的粪便微生物组组成与其杂食性营养生态一致，具有高比例的纤维素分解细菌类群。我们还确定了特定于物种的核心微生物组特征，并检索到蜥蜴物种、胰岛归属和季节性是解释细菌群落组成的主要因素。不同的巴利阿里群岛 Podarcis 种群的特点是含有大量独特的细菌类群，从而强化了它们作为独特和分化进化实体的观点。
