Raw reads and metadata for 16S and 12S sequencing for microbiome and dietary analysis of Tasmanian devils

The gut microbiome is an important component of host health and function and is influenced by internal and external factors such as host phylogeny, age, diet, and environment. Monitoring the gut microbiome has become an increasingly important management tool for wild populations of threatened species. The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is the largest extant carnivorous marsupial from the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Devils are currently endangered due to devil facial tumour disease. Previous assessments have shown differences between captive and wild devil gut microbiomes and changes during translocations. However, wild gut microbiome variability across Tasmania and the drivers of these differences are not well understood. We conducted a range-wide assessment of gut microbiomes at ten locations across Tasmania, via 16S rRNA sequencing, and tested the influence of diet (12S sequencing), location, sex, and cohort. We show that the five most abundant phylum and genera were ..., DNA from faecal material was extracted in a dedicated clean laboratory within a biosafety cabinet following the QIAmp PowerFecal Pro Kit (Qiagen) using 250 mg of fecal material from the center of each scat. A core subsample was taken from each fecal sample to ensure an even view of the bacterial community. Contamination was reduced by decontaminating the workspace and tools using 70% ethanol and bleach between each sample. Negative controls were used during each extraction batch to detect contaminants. DNA quantity and quality were checked using a Nanodrop (Thermo Fisher Scientific). The DNA extractions from the faecal samples had a 260/280nm ratio of approximately ~1.8, indicating “pure DNA”. To confirm the successful isolation of bacterial DNA, PCR amplification to target the V3-V4 region using 341F and 806R primers was performed on a random subset of samples from each batch, with banding confirmed through gel electrophoresis following Chong et al. 2019. PCR steps included (1) initial..., , # Raw reads and metadata for 16S and 12S sequencing for microbiome and dietary analysis of Tasmanian devils

This dataset was generated to assess the gut microbiome and diet of Tasmanian devils (*Sarcophilus harrisii*) across 10 locations in Tasmania, Australia. We used high-throughput sequencing to target two amplicon regions:

* The **bacterial 16S rRNA gene (V3–V4 region)** to characterize gut microbiota.
* The **vertebrate mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene** to detect vertebrate dietary DNA.

The dataset includes raw sequencing reads (FASTQ files) and associated sample metadata.

## Descriptions

The dataset includes paired-end FASTQ files from amplicon sequencing of Tasmanian devil fecal samples, generated to characterize both gut microbiota (16S rRNA gene) and dietary composition (12S mitochondrial gene). Files are demultiplexed and anonymised due to threatened species status. There are a total of 856 FASTQ files:

* **428 files for 16S sequencing** (214 samples × forward and reverse re...,