Recovered microbiome of an oviparous lizard differs across gut and reproductive tissues, cloacal swabs, and feces

Microbial diversity and community function are related, and both can be highly specialized in different regions of the gut. The cloacal microbiome of Sceloporus virgatus lizards has low diversity, suggesting a specialized function, and is known to transfer antifungal microbes to eggshells during oviposition. We hypothesize that the cloacal microbiome is distinct from other parts of the digestive and reproductive systems. Here, we compare the microbiome of tissue samples from the cloaca, lower intestine, upper intestine, and oviduct. We further assessed whether common methods of microbial sampling – cloacal swabs and feces – provide accurate representations of these tissues, and whether feces might “seed” the cloacal microbiome. We found that the upper intestine and oviduct had unique microbial communities, while the lower intestine and cloaca had similar communities with lower diversity indicative of regional specialization. The cloacal community, in particular, showed extreme specializ...微生物多样性与群落功能密切相关，二者在肠道不同区域均可呈现高度特化的特征。环纹鬃蜥（Sceloporus virgatus）的泄殖腔微生物组多样性较低，提示其功能具有特化性，且已知该微生物组可在产卵期将抗真菌微生物转移至卵壳表面。我们提出假说：泄殖腔微生物组与消化系统及生殖系统的其他部位存在显著差异。本研究对泄殖腔、小肠下段、小肠上段以及输卵管的组织样本微生物组进行了比较分析。我们进一步评估了两种常用的微生物采样方法——泄殖腔拭子与粪便采样——能否准确反映上述组织的微生物组特征，同时探究了粪便是否可能‘定植’泄殖腔微生物组。研究结果显示：小肠上段与输卵管拥有独特的微生物群落，而小肠下段与泄殖腔的群落结构相似，且二者多样性较低，提示存在区域特化现象。而泄殖腔群落尤其表现出极强的特化性……