Teng Wei, Maqsood Iram, Wang Huan, Ma Jianzhang, Rong Ke
College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China.
Department of Zoology, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University, Peshawar 25000, Pakistan.
Animals (Basel). 2022 Sep 27;12(19):2586. doi: 10.3390/ani12192586.
Tamias Sibiricus is the only member of the genus Tamias, a significant and vigorous seed distributor and vital food for their predators. No information is known about the strict diet, gut microbiota structure, and metabolism profile of chipmunks and how they diversify seasonally. The above factors, as well as flexibility toward seasonal shifts, are critical in defining its growth rates, health, survivorship, and population stability. This study explored the diet, gut microbiota composition, and chipmunk metabolism. Additionally, the influence of different seasons was also investigated by using next-generation sequencing. Results revealed that seasons strongly affected a diet: streptophyte accounted for 37% in spring, which was lower than in summer (34.3%) and autumn (31.4%). Further, Ascomycota was observed at 43.8% in spring, which reduced to 36.6% in summer and the lowest (31.3%) in autumn. Whereas, nematodes showed maximum abundance from spring (15.8%) to summer (20.6%) and autumn (24.1%). These results signify the insectivorous nature of the chipmunk in summer and autumn. While herbivorous and fungivorous nature in spring. The DNA analysis revealed that chipmunk mainly feeds on fungi, including Aspergillus and Penicillium genus. Similar to diet composition, the microbiome also exhibited highly significant dissimilarity (p < 0.001, R = 0.235) between spring/autumn and spring/summer seasons. Proteobacteria (35.45%), Firmicutes (26.7%), and Bacteroidetes (23.59%) were shown to be the better discriminators as they contributed the most to causing differences between seasons. Moreover, PICRUSt showed that the assimilation of nutrients were also varied seasonally. The abundance of carbohydrates, lipids, nucleotides, xenobiotics, energy, terpenoids, and polyketides metabolism was higher in spring than in other seasons. Our study illustrates that seasonal reconstruction in the chipmunk diet has a significant role in shaping temporal variations in gut microbial community structure and metabolism profile.
花鼠是花鼠属的唯一成员，是重要且活跃的种子传播者，也是其捕食者的重要食物来源。目前对于花鼠的严格饮食、肠道微生物群结构和代谢特征以及它们如何随季节变化并不清楚。上述因素，以及对季节变化的适应性，对于确定其生长速度、健康状况、存活率和种群稳定性至关重要。本研究探讨了花鼠的饮食、肠道微生物群组成和代谢情况。此外，还通过下一代测序研究了不同季节的影响。结果显示，季节对饮食有强烈影响：链形植物在春季占37%，低于夏季（34.3%）和秋季（31.4%）。此外，子囊菌门在春季占43.8%，夏季降至36.6%，秋季最低（31.3%）。而线虫在春季（15.8%）到夏季（20.6%）和秋季（24.1%）的丰度最高。这些结果表明花鼠在夏季和秋季以昆虫为食，而在春季以草食和真菌为食。DNA分析表明，花鼠主要以真菌为食，包括曲霉属和青霉属。与饮食组成相似，微生物群在春季/秋季和春季/夏季之间也表现出高度显著的差异（p < 0.001，R = 0.235）。变形菌门（35.45%）、厚壁菌门（26.7%）和拟杆菌门（23.59%）被证明是更好的区分因素，因为它们对季节差异的贡献最大。此外，PICRUSt表明营养物质的同化也随季节变化。春季碳水化合物、脂质、核苷酸、外源性物质、能量、萜类化合物和聚酮化合物代谢的丰度高于其他季节。我们的研究表明，花鼠饮食的季节性重构在塑造肠道微生物群落结构和代谢特征的时间变化方面具有重要作用。
