Comparison of Gut Microbiota Diversity Between Captive and Wild Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko)

Abstract

Captive animals and wild animals may exhibit different characteristics due to the heterogeneity of their living environments. The gut microbiota play an important role in the digestion and absorption, energy metabolism, immune regulation, and physiological health of the host. However, information about the gut microbiota of captive and wild Gekko gecko is currently limited. To determine the difference in gut microbiota community composition, diversity, and structure between captive and wild geckos, we used the Illumina miseq platform to conduct high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analysis of the v3–v4 hypervariable region of 16S rRNA in 54 gecko samples. Our results showed that Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria were the dominant gut microbiota phyla of the gecko. The dominant genera comprised mainly Pseudomonas, Burkholderia-caballeronia-paraburkholderia, Ralstonia, Romboutsia, and Bacteroides. Captive geckos had significantly higher alpha diversity and potential pathogenic bacteria than wild populations. Moreover, significant differences in beta diversity of gut microbiota were observed between two populations. Functional prediction analysis showed that the relative abundance of functional pathways of wild geckos was more higher in metabolism, genetic information processing and organismal system function than those in captive geckos. Total length significantly affected gut microbial community (R2 = 0.4527, p = 0.001) and explained 10.45% of the total variation for gut microbial community variance between two groups. These results may be related to differences in diet and living environment between two populations, suggesting that the management of captive populations should mimic wild environments to the greatest extent possible to reduce the impact on their gut microbiota.

Dietary and Sexual Correlates of Gut Microbiota in the Japanese Gecko, Gekko japonicus (Schlegel, 1836)

“…At the phylum level, the dominant gut microbes in G. japonicus were Verrucomicrobiota, Bacteroidota, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria ( Figure 1 A). This is consistent with what has been observed in the leopard gecko ( Eublepharis macularius ) [ 32 ] but differs from the results reported for other reptilian taxa, such as the Tokay gecko ( Gekko gecko ) [ 46 ]. For example, the dominant gut microbial phyla are Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes in lizards [ 16 , 31 , 47 ] and snakes [ 48 , 49 ], Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes in turtles [ 25 , 50 ], and Fusobacteria, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes in crocodiles [ 51 , 52 ].…”

Consumption of centipedes promotes growth and gut microbiome homeostasis in a lizard

“…The two dominant bacterial phyla in crocodile lizards were Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. This is consistent with previous studies on crocodile lizards 27 and other lizards, 45,46 but is different from the two dominant bacteria phyla (Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes) in humans. 23,47 However, we failed to find a significant difference in the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria between the two groups of lizards, which is inconsistent with the findings in humans that a higher abundance of Firmicutes and a higher Firmicutes:Bacteroidetes ratio are closely associated with enhanced energy harvest.…”

Paraburkholderia sabiae administration alters zebrafish anxiety-like behavior via gut microbial taurine metabolism

“…Paraburkholderia is often isolated from the rhizosphere and plant organs, such as root nodules, and it functions in nitrogen fixation and plant growth promotion ( Esmaeel et al, 2018 ). Furthermore, Paraburkholderia has been detected in guts, ranging from those of insects to humans ( Takeshita and Kikuchi, 2020 ; Chen et al, 2022 ; Tang et al, 2022 ). The presence of Burkholderia - Caballeronia - Paraburkholderia in human gut microbiomes remarkably correlated with body mass index, osteoarthritis, and cholangiocarcinoma ( Zhang et al, 2021 ; Ning et al, 2022 ).…”