Comparative analysis of two nonlethal methods for the study of the gut bacterial communities in wild lizards


Por: Hernández M., Ancona S., Hereira-Pacheco S., Díaz De La Vega-Pérez A.H., Navarro-Noya Y.E.

Publicada: 1 ene 2023 Ahead of Print: 1 abr 2023
Categoría: Animal science and zoology

Resumen:
Fecal samples or cloacal swabs are preferred over lethal dissections to study vertebrate gut microbiota for ethical reasons, but it remains unclear which nonlethal methods provide more accurate information about gut microbiota. We compared the bacterial communities of three gastrointestinal tract (GIT) segments, that is, stomach, small intestine (midgut), and rectum (hindgut) with the bacterial communities of the cloaca and feces in the mesquite lizard Sceloporus grammicus. The hindgut had the highest taxonomic and functional alpha diversity, followed by midgut and feces, whereas the stomach and cloaca showed the lowest diversities. The taxonomic assemblages of the GIT segments at the phylum level were strongly correlated with those retrieved from feces and cloacal swabs (rs > 0.84 in all cases). The turnover ratio of Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) between midgut and hindgut and the feces was lower than the ratio between these segments and the cloaca. More than half of the core-ASVs in the midgut (24 of 32) and hindgut (58 of 97) were also found in feces, while less than 5 were found in the cloaca. At the ASVs level, however, the structure of the bacterial communities of the midgut and hindgut were similar to those detected in feces and cloaca. Our findings suggest that fecal samples and cloacal swabs of spiny lizards provide a good approximation of the taxonomic assemblages and beta diversity of midgut and hindgut microbiota, while feces better represent the bacterial communities of the intestinal segments at a single nucleotide variation level than cloacal swabs. © 2023 International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Filiaciones:
Hernández M.:
 Doctorado en Ciencias Biológicas, Centro de Tlaxcala de Biología de la Conducta, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico

Ancona S.:
 Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

Hereira-Pacheco S.:
 Estación Científica la Malinche, Centro de Tlaxcala de Biología de la Conducta, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico

Díaz De La Vega-Pérez A.H.:
 Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología—Centro Tlaxcala de Biología de la Conducta, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico

Navarro-Noya Y.E.:
 Laboratorio de Interacciones Bióticas, Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico
ISSN: 17494877
Editorial
WILEY-BLACKWELL, 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA, Estados Unidos America
Tipo de documento: Article
Volumen: 18 Número: 6
Páginas: 1056-1071
WOS Id: 000966302200001
ID de PubMed: 36881373

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