Phylogenetic, Microbiome, and Diet Characterisation of Wall Lizards in the Columbretes Archipelago (Spain): Clues for Their Conservation

Abstract

The Columbretes archipelago consists of a group of small volcanic islets located in the western Mediterranean near the east of the Iberian Peninsula. Four of its islands are inhabited by the wall lizard Podarcis liolepis, whose populations have been considered vulnerable. The purpose of this study was to assess the level of genetic diversity across the archipelago and the possible evolutionary origin of the Columbretes lizard populations. Additionally, we investigated the evolutionary ecology of these populations using a DNA-based metabarcoding approach to characterise both their microbiota and trophic interactions. The genetic results reported very low genetic diversity and corroborated the conspecificity between insular populations and P. liolepis from the mainland (Peñagolosa region). The results of the metabarcoding analyses based on faecal samples were in accordance with an omnivorous ecology, suggesting that specific microbiota communities in the insular populations might be correlated with differences in host ecology and phylogeny. These results are a valuable contribution to the current understanding of the evolution of Columbretes’ lizards and provide important information for conservation management.

16S rRNA Gene Sequencing-Based Identification and Comparative Analysis of the Fecal Microbiota of Five Syntopic Lizard Species from a Low-Mountain Area in Western Bulgaria

“…To date, investigations on the gut microbiota of some lizard species from different parts of the world have been reported [39][40][41][42][43]. In Europe, although lizards are important components of ecosystems and are among the dominant reptile species in terms of numbers [44], studies are generally scarce [45,46], except for more intensive studies on some Podarcis species [47][48][49][50]. Five lizard species belonging to three families: the European green lizard (Lacerta viridis Laurenti, 1768), the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis Laurenti, 1768), the meadow lizard (Darevskia praticola Eversmann, 1834) (Lacertidae), the European snake-eyed skink (Ablepharus kitaibelii Bibron and Bory de Saint-Vincent, 1833) (Scincidae), and the European slow worm (Anguis fragilis Linnaeus, 1758) (Anguidae).…”