Seasonal dietary shifts alter the gut microbiota of a frugivorous lizard Teratoscincus roborowskii (Squamata, Sphaerodactylidae)

Abstract

Seasonal dietary shifts in animals are important strategies for ecological adaptation. An increasing number of studies have shown that seasonal dietary shifts can influence or even determine the composition of gut microbiota. The Turpan wonder gecko, Teratoscincus roborowskii, lives in extreme desert environments and has a flexible dietary shift to fruit‐eating in warm seasons. However, the effect of such shifts on the gut microbiota is poorly understood. In this study, 16S rRNA sequencing and LC–MS metabolomics were used to examine changes in the gut microbiota composition and metabolic patterns of T. roborowskii. The results demonstrated that the gut microbes of T. roborowskii underwent significant seasonal changes, and the abundance of phylum level in autumn was significantly higher than spring, but meanwhile, the diversity was lower. At the family level, the abundance and diversity of the gut microbiota were both higher in autumn. Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria were the dominant gut microbes of T. roborowskii. Verrucomicrobia and Proteobacteria exhibited dynamic ebb and flow patterns between spring and autumn. Metabolomic profiling also revealed differences mainly related to the formation of secondary bile acids. The pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis, and lysine degradation pathways identified by KEGG enrichment symbolize the exuberant metabolic capacity of T. roborowskii. Furthermore, strong correlations were detected between metabolite types and bacteria, and this correlation may be an important adaptation of T. roborowskii to cope with dietary shifts and improve energy acquisition. Our study provides a theoretical basis for exploring the adaptive evolution of the special frugivorous behavior of T. roborowskii, which is an important progress in the study of gut microbes in desert lizards.

Seasonal dietary changes relate to gut microbiota composition depending on the host species but do not correlate with gut microbiota diversity in arthropod‐eating lizards

“…Similarly, in wild wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus), brown frogs (Rana dybowskii) and gelada baboons (Theropithecus gelada), gut microbiota composition varied with seasonal variation in prey consumption (Baniel et al, 2021;Maurice et al, 2015;Tong et al, 2019). While several studies attribute variation in gut microbiota composition to dietary shifts, most of them do not integrate dietary data in their analysis (see Bodawatta et al, 2022;Fan et al, 2022;Gao et al, 2023;Guo et al, 2021 for a few exceptions), limiting their conclusion about the influence of diet on gut microbiota variation. Importantly, seasonal variation in gut microbiota composition and its relationship with dietary changes may differ among lizard species (Gao et al, 2023), since life history features such as body size, reproductive season and modes , feeding habits (Lankau et al, 2012;Vasconcelos et al, 2023) and geographical distribution (Härer et al, 2023) may affect both dietary and gut microbiota dynamics.…”

“…While several studies attribute variation in gut microbiota composition to dietary shifts, most of them do not integrate dietary data in their analysis (see Bodawatta et al, 2022;Fan et al, 2022;Gao et al, 2023;Guo et al, 2021 for a few exceptions), limiting their conclusion about the influence of diet on gut microbiota variation. Importantly, seasonal variation in gut microbiota composition and its relationship with dietary changes may differ among lizard species (Gao et al, 2023), since life history features such as body size, reproductive season and modes , feeding habits (Lankau et al, 2012;Vasconcelos et al, 2023) and geographical distribution (Härer et al, 2023) may affect both dietary and gut microbiota dynamics. Moreover, gut microbiota composition may be greatly affected by phylogenetic relatedness between vertebrate hosts (i.e.…”