Proximate Drivers of Population-Level Lizard Gut Microbial Diversity: Impacts of Diet, Insularity, and Local Environment.

ABSTRACT: Diet has been suggested to be an important driver of variation in microbiota composition in mammals. However, whether this is a more general phenomenon and how fast changes in gut microbiota occur with changes in diet remains poorly understood. Forty-nine years ago, ten lizards of the species Podarcis siculus were taken from the island of Pod Kopište and introduced onto the island of Pod Mrčaru (Croatia). The introduced population underwent a significant dietary shift, and their descendants became omnivorous (consuming up to 80% plant material during summer). Variation in their gut microbiota has never been investigated. To elucidate the possible impact on the gut microbiota of this rapid change in diet, we compared the microbiota (V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene) of P. siculus

SUBMITTER: Lemieux-Labonte V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9413874 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature