Faecal Microbiota Divergence in Allopatric Populations of Podarcis lilfordi and P. pityusensis, Two Lizard Species Endemic to the Balearic Islands

Alemany, Iris; Pérez‐Cembranos, Ana; Pérez-Mellado, Valentı́n; Castro, José A.; Picornell, A.; Ramón, Cori; Jurado‐Rivera, José A.

doi:10.1007/s00248-022-02019-3

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Comparatively, host sex had a negligible effect on gut microbiota of the studied lizards, albeit it significantly affected the abundance of Corynebacterium in lizards from Moledo. These results agree with those from a previous study on two Podarcis species from the Balearic islands, in which sex had no influence on the gut microbial structure (Alemany et al 2022). However, an interesting result was that size of males of P. siculus was positively related with bacterial diversity.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Bicho et al 2013;Luís et al 2019); however, microbiome studies are still largely lacking, with only three studies available to data. Two studies investigated two species endemic to the Balearic Islands (Spain), Podarcis lilfordi (Günther, 1874) andPodarcis pityusensis (Bosca, 1883), with results indicating that islet, time since separation from mainland and seasonality are significant factors contributing to their gut microbiome (Baldo et al 2018, Alemany et al 2022. Another recent study compared the gut microbiota of two Italian populations of P. siculus (mainland vs island) demonstrating that there were considerable differences between the two (Buglione et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Factors shaping the gut microbiome of five species of lizards from different habitats

Vasconcelos¹,

Harris

Moreira³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Host-gut microbiota interactions are complex and can have a profound impact on the ecology and evolution of both counterparts. Several host traits such as systematics, diet and social behavior, and external factors such as prey availability and local environment are known to influence the composition and diversity of the gut microbiota. In this study, we investigate the influence of systematics, sex, host size, and locality/habitat on gut microbiota diversity in five lizard species from two different sites in Portugal: Podarcis bocagei and Podarcis lusitanicus, living in syntopy in a rural area in northern Portugal (Moledo); the invasive Podarcis siculus and the native Podarcis virescens, living in sympatry in urbanized environment (Lisbon); and the invasive Teira dugesii also living in an urban area (Lisbon). We also infer the potential microbial transmission occurring between species living in sympatry and syntopy. To accomplish these goals, we use a metabarcoding approach to characterize the bacterial communities from the cloaca of lizards, sequencing the V4 region of the 16S rRNA. Habitat/locality was an important factor explaining differences in gut bacterial composition and structure, with species from urbanized environments having higher bacterial diversity. Host systematics (i.e. species) influenced gut bacterial community structure only in lizards from the urbanized environment. We also detected a significant positive correlation between lizard size and gut bacterial alpha-diversity in the invasive species P. siculus, which could be due to its higher exploratory behavior. Moreover, estimates of bacterial transmission indicate that P. siculus may have acquired a high proportion of local microbiota after its introduction. These findings confirm that a diverse array of host and environmental factors can influence lizards gut microbiota.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors shaping the gut microbiome of five species of lizards from different habitats

Vasconcelos¹,

Harris

Moreira³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Even though abundance does not necessarily reflect functional significance, the resistance of core microbes to fluctuations, despite multiple overlapping influences, suggests the possibility of important function. Particularly at the family level, an extremely small number of taxa were consistent enough to be counted in a common core, as in other wild populations 46 , 47 . These prevalent taxa also tended to be the most abundant taxa in the community (most notably Enterobacteriaceae ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Wild microbiomes of striped plateau lizards vary with reproductive season, sex, and body size

Bunker

Arnold

Weiss

2022

Sci Rep

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Long-term studies of animal microbiomes under natural conditions are valuable for understanding the effects of host demographics and environmental factors on host-associated microbial communities, and how those effects interact and shift over time. We examined how the cloacal microbiome of wild Sceloporus virgatus (the striped plateau lizard) varies under natural conditions in a multi-year study. Cloacal swabs were collected from wild-caught lizards across their entire active season and over three years in southeastern Arizona, USA. Analyses of 16S rRNA data generated on the Illumina platform revealed that cloacal microbiomes of S. virgatus vary as a function of season, sex, body size, and reproductive state, and do so independently of one another. Briefly, microbial diversity was lowest in both sexes during the reproductive season, was higher in females than in males, and was lowest in females when they were vitellogenic, and microbiome composition varied across seasons, sexes, and sizes. The pattern of decreased diversity during reproductive periods with increased sociality is surprising, as studies in other systems often suggest that microbial diversity generally increases with sociality. The cloacal microbiome was not affected significantly by hibernation and was relatively stable from year to year. This study highlights the importance of long term, wide-scale microbiome studies for capturing accurate perspectives on microbiome diversity and composition in animals. It also serves as a warning for comparisons of microbiomes across species, as each may be under a different suite of selective pressures or exhibit short-term variation from external or innate factors, which may differ in a species-specific manner.

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“…We used faecal samples as a proxy for gut microbiota considering that they provide a complete view of hindgut bacterial communities in lizards useful for microbial inventories 2 , 72 , 73 . In particular, during the experimental period, we monitored the animals at least every 5 h so that we sampled only fresh faecal material (< 5 h).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gut microbiota plasticity in insular lizards under reversed island syndrome

Buglione

Ricca

Petrelli

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Animals living on small islands are more drastically exposed to environmental changes, such as food or water starvation, and rapid temperature shifts. Facing such conditions, and probably thank to adaptive plasticity mechanisms, some animals display a Reversed Island Syndrome (RIS), a suite of traits, including skin pigmentation, voracity, sexual dimorphism, showed differently from mainland relatives. Here, we analyse a so far poorly explored aspect of RIS: the effect of this on the microbiota composition of host Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus), strongly influenced by the animal’s lifestyle, and conditioning the same. We compare mainland and island populations, assessing the difference between their microbial communities and their response under unexpected food, experimentally provided. Our observations showed a significant difference in microbiota communities between island and mainland groups, depended mainly from changes in relative abundance of the shared genera (difference due to decrease/increase). Exposure to experimental diet regimes resulted into significative reshaping of bacterial composition of microbiota and a greater variation in body mass only in the island population. Our results could be an evidence that gut microbial community contributes to adaptive plasticity mechanisms of island lizards under RIS to efficiently respond to unexpected changes.

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Faecal Microbiota Divergence in Allopatric Populations of Podarcis lilfordi and P. pityusensis, Two Lizard Species Endemic to the Balearic Islands

Cited by 11 publications

References 68 publications

Factors shaping the gut microbiome of five species of lizards from different habitats

Factors shaping the gut microbiome of five species of lizards from different habitats

Wild microbiomes of striped plateau lizards vary with reproductive season, sex, and body size

Gut microbiota plasticity in insular lizards under reversed island syndrome

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