Metabarcoding analysis provides insight into the link between prey and plant intake in a large alpine cat carnivore, the snow leopard

Species of the family Felidae (a group represented by cats) are thought to be obligate carnivores, specialized for hunting and consuming other animals. However, the detection of plants in the feces of felids raises questions about the role of plants in their diet. This is particularly true for the snow leopard (Panthera uncia), a big cat native to central and South Asia's high mountains. Our study aimed to comprehensively identify the prey and plants consumed by snow leopards as well as six other sympatric mammals. We applied DNA metabarcoding methods on 126 fecal samples collected from the Sarychat-Ertash Nature Reserve in Kyrgyzstan. We found that among the three most common plant families in snow leopard feces, Tamaricaceae (genus Myricaraia) was consumed often by snow leopards. The genus Myricaria frequently appeared in samples lacking any animal prey DNA, indicating that snow leopards might have consumed this plant especially when their digestive tracts were empty. We also observed..., , , # Metabarcoding analysis insights into the link between prey and plant intake in the alpine large cat carnivore, snow leopard

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j9kd51cjp](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j9kd51cjp)

These files are datasets and scripts to generate data in \"Metabarcoding analysis insights into the link between prey and plant intake in snow leopard.\"

Illumina sequencing data was demultiplexed using bcl2fastq and Claident. After trimming primer sequences using Skewer, error collection, and OTU collation were conducted using scripts in miseq_*.Rmd files.*

*Taxon assignment was conducted using Claident and results are in QCidentified* files.

Metadata, OTU table, and taxonomy table were integrated into phyloseq (McMurdie & Holmes., 2013, PLOS ONE.) object by scripts in afterClaident*.Rmd files.

Data from different barcode regions were merged using mergeMarkers.Rmd file and a python3 script by da Silva et al. (2019). Subsequent statistical analysis was conducted using other...

猫科（Felidae）物种，即以家猫为代表的类群，被普遍认为是专性肉食动物，特化于捕猎并取食其他动物。然而在猫科动物粪便中检测到植物成分的现象，引发了关于植物在其食谱中所扮演角色的疑问。这一情况在雪豹（Panthera uncia）——一种原产于中亚与南亚高山地带的大型猫科动物——身上尤为突出。

本研究旨在全面鉴定雪豹以及另外6种同域分布哺乳动物所摄食的猎物与植物类群。我们对采集自吉尔吉斯斯坦萨雷查特-埃尔塔什自然保护区的126份粪便样本开展了DNA宏条形码（DNA metabarcoding）分析。

研究结果显示，在雪豹粪便中检出的三大常见植物类群中，柽柳科（Tamaricaceae，水柏枝属*Myricaraia*）常被雪豹取食。当样本中未检出任何动物猎物DNA时，水柏枝属常被检出，这表明雪豹或许会在消化道空虚时特意取食该植物。我们还观察到……

# 《阿尔卑斯大型猫科食肉动物雪豹的猎物与植物摄入关联的宏条形码分析洞察》（"Metabarcoding analysis insights into the link between prey and plant intake in the alpine large cat carnivore, snow leopard"）
对应DOI：https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j9kd51cjp

本数据集包含用于生成该研究相关数据的文件与脚本。
Illumina测序数据通过bcl2fastq与Claident进行了双端拆分。经Skewer修剪引物序列后，通过miseq_*.Rmd文件中的脚本完成了错误校正与操作分类单元（OTU）聚类。
分类单元注释通过Claident完成，结果存放于QCidentified系列文件中。
元数据、OTU表与分类学表通过afterClaident*.Rmd文件中的脚本整合为phyloseq（McMurdie & Holmes, 2013, PLOS ONE）对象。
不同条形码区域的数据通过mergeMarkers.Rmd文件以及da Silva等人（2019）开发的Python3脚本完成合并。后续的统计分析则通过其他脚本完成。