All roads lead to Rome: the plasticity of gut microbiome drives the extensive adaptation of the Yarkand toad-headed agama (Phrynocephalus axillaris) to different altitudes

• Published in: Frontiers in microbiology Vol. 15; p. 1501684
• Main Authors: Du, Jianghao, Zheng, Peng, Gao, Weizhen, Liang, Qianru, Leng, Lin, Shi, Lei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 08.01.2025
• Subjects: 16S rRNA; altitude gradients; gut microbiome; LC-MS metabolomics; Microbiology; Phrynocephalus axillaris; plasticity; LC-MS metabolomics; 16S rRNA; Phrynocephalus axillaris; altitude gradients; plasticity; gut microbiome
• ISSN: 1664-302X; 1664-302X
• DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1501684

The gut microbiome was involved in a variety of physiological processes and played a key role in host environmental adaptation. However, the mechanisms of their response to altitudinal environmental changes remain unclear. In this study, we used 16S rRNA sequencing and LC-MS metabolomics to investigate the changes in the gut microbiome and metabolism of the Yarkand toad-headed agama ( Phrynocephalus axillaris ) at different altitudes (−80 m to 2000 m). The results demonstrated that Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria were the dominant phylum, Lachnospiraceae and Oscillospiraceae were the most abundant family, and the low-altitude populations had higher richness than high-altitude populations; Akkermansiaceae appeared to be enriched in high-altitude populations and the relative abundance tended to increase with altitude. The gut microbiome of three populations of P. axillaris at different altitudes was clustered into two different enterotypes, low-altitude populations and high-altitude populations shared an enterotype dominated by Akkermansia , Kineothrix , Phocaeicola ; intermediate-altitude populations had an enterotype dominated by Mesorhizobium , Bradyrhizobium . Metabolites involved in amino acid and lipid metabolism differed significantly at different altitudes. The above results suggest that gut microbiome plasticity drives the extensive adaptation of P. axillaris to multi-stress caused by different altitudes. With global warming, recognizing the adaptive capacity of wide-ranging species to altitude can help plan future conservation strategies.