Department of Biology, University of Puget Sound, 1500 N. Warner Street, Tacoma, WA 98416, United States.
FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2024 Feb 14;100(3). doi: 10.1093/femsec/fiae011.
Maternal transmission of microbes occurs across the animal kingdom and is vital for offspring development and long-term health. The mechanisms of this transfer are most well-studied in humans and other mammals but are less well-understood in egg-laying animals, especially those with no parental care. Here, we investigate the transfer of maternal microbes in the oviparous phrynosomatid lizard, Sceloporus virgatus. We compared the microbiota of three maternal tissues-oviduct, cloaca, and intestine-to three offspring sample types: egg contents and eggshells on the day of oviposition, and hatchling intestinal tissue on the day of hatching. We found that maternal identity is an important factor in hatchling microbiome composition, indicating that maternal transmission is occurring. The maternal cloacal and oviductal communities contribute to offspring microbiota in all three sample types, with minimal microbes sourced from maternal intestines. This indicates that the maternal reproductive microbiome is more important for microbial inheritance than the gut microbiome, and the tissue-level variation of the adult S. virgatus microbiota must develop as the hatchling matures. Despite differences between adult and hatchling communities, offspring microbiota were primarily members of the Enterobacteriaceae and Yersiniaceae families (Phylum Proteobacteria), consistent with this and past studies of adult S. virgatus microbiomes.
动物界普遍存在微生物的母体传递现象，这对于后代的发育和长期健康至关重要。这种转移的机制在人类和其他哺乳动物中研究得最为透彻，但在卵生动物中，特别是在没有亲代照顾的动物中，了解得较少。在这里，我们研究了卵生的鳞脚蜥科蜥蜴（Sceloporus virgatus）中的母体微生物传递。我们比较了三种母体组织-输卵管、泄殖腔和肠道-与三种后代样本类型的微生物群：产卵当天的卵内容物和蛋壳，以及孵化当天的幼体肠道组织。我们发现，母体身份是幼体微生物组组成的重要因素，表明存在母体传递。母体泄殖腔和输卵管群落为所有三种样本类型的后代微生物群提供了贡献，来自母体肠道的微生物很少。这表明，母体生殖微生物群比肠道微生物群更重要，而成年 S. virgatus 微生物组的组织水平变化必须随着幼体的成熟而发展。尽管成体和幼体群落之间存在差异，但后代微生物群主要是肠杆菌科和耶尔森氏菌科（变形菌门）的成员，这与过去对成年 S. virgatus 微生物组的研究一致。
