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Incubation determines favorable microbial communities in Chinese alligator nests

Nest materials are a major heat source due to rotting promoted by microbial activity. Additionally, they are a potential microbial source given their direct contact with eggshells. Microbial dynamics during incubation have been studied in wild birds; however, similar studies in reptiles remain elusi...

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Autores principales: Yu, Qin-Zhang, Hu, Meng-Yuan, Wang, Li, Lin, Jian-Qing, Fang, Sheng-Guo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9606745/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36312961
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.983808
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author Yu, Qin-Zhang
Hu, Meng-Yuan
Wang, Li
Lin, Jian-Qing
Fang, Sheng-Guo
author_facet Yu, Qin-Zhang
Hu, Meng-Yuan
Wang, Li
Lin, Jian-Qing
Fang, Sheng-Guo
author_sort Yu, Qin-Zhang
collection PubMed
description Nest materials are a major heat source due to rotting promoted by microbial activity. Additionally, they are a potential microbial source given their direct contact with eggshells. Microbial dynamics during incubation have been studied in wild birds; however, similar studies in reptiles remain elusive. Here, the study characterized microbial communities in the nest materials of Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) using high-throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes and fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region sequences. The results showed that significant changes in the diversity and structure of microbial communities according to different incubation periods. The diversity and richness of bacterial species increased significantly over time, but the relative abundance of the most dominant bacteria in pre-incubation period, including some pathogenic bacteria, declined after incubation. In contrast, fungal species diversity and richness decreased significantly with time. Additionally, nest material composition significantly influenced microbial community structure rather than species diversity and richness. Notably, the fungal community structure showed a stronger response than bacteria to nest material composition, which varied due to differences in plant litter composition. Our results demonstrate the significant response of microbial community diversity and structure to differences in incubation periods and nest material composition in reptiles. It is further emphasized that the importance of incubation period in the conservation of the Chinese alligator and could inform similar studies in other reptiles and birds.
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spelling pubmed-96067452022-10-28 Incubation determines favorable microbial communities in Chinese alligator nests Yu, Qin-Zhang Hu, Meng-Yuan Wang, Li Lin, Jian-Qing Fang, Sheng-Guo Front Microbiol Microbiology Nest materials are a major heat source due to rotting promoted by microbial activity. Additionally, they are a potential microbial source given their direct contact with eggshells. Microbial dynamics during incubation have been studied in wild birds; however, similar studies in reptiles remain elusive. Here, the study characterized microbial communities in the nest materials of Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) using high-throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes and fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region sequences. The results showed that significant changes in the diversity and structure of microbial communities according to different incubation periods. The diversity and richness of bacterial species increased significantly over time, but the relative abundance of the most dominant bacteria in pre-incubation period, including some pathogenic bacteria, declined after incubation. In contrast, fungal species diversity and richness decreased significantly with time. Additionally, nest material composition significantly influenced microbial community structure rather than species diversity and richness. Notably, the fungal community structure showed a stronger response than bacteria to nest material composition, which varied due to differences in plant litter composition. Our results demonstrate the significant response of microbial community diversity and structure to differences in incubation periods and nest material composition in reptiles. It is further emphasized that the importance of incubation period in the conservation of the Chinese alligator and could inform similar studies in other reptiles and birds. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-10-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9606745/ /pubmed/36312961 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.983808 Text en Copyright © 2022 Yu, Hu, Wang, Lin and Fang. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Yu, Qin-Zhang
Hu, Meng-Yuan
Wang, Li
Lin, Jian-Qing
Fang, Sheng-Guo
Incubation determines favorable microbial communities in Chinese alligator nests
title Incubation determines favorable microbial communities in Chinese alligator nests
title_full Incubation determines favorable microbial communities in Chinese alligator nests
title_fullStr Incubation determines favorable microbial communities in Chinese alligator nests
title_full_unstemmed Incubation determines favorable microbial communities in Chinese alligator nests
title_short Incubation determines favorable microbial communities in Chinese alligator nests
title_sort incubation determines favorable microbial communities in chinese alligator nests
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9606745/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36312961
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.983808
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