Crocodile Lizard Gut Microbiome Analysis

All samples were collected from Guangdong Luokeng S. crocodilurus National Nature Reserve (referred to as “Luokeng Nature Reserve” in the following sections) and Guangxi Daguishan Crocodile Lizard National Nature Reserve (referred to as “Daguishan Nature Reserve” in the following sections). Thirty crocodile lizards were separated into six groups, namely, the wild group from Luokeng Nature Reserve (WLK, n = 7), the healthy earthworm-fed group (NLK, n = 4), the sick earthworm-fed group with disease A (SLK, n = 5), the wild group from Daguishan Nature Reserve (WDG, n = 8), the healthy loach-fed group (NDG, n = 3), and the sick loach-fed group with disease B (SDG, n = 3). In addition, because of the highly similarity, the sick and healthy groups that fed the same diet were merged and recalculated. The sick and healthy individuals that fed earthworm were merged as earthworm-fed group (CLK), and the sick and healthy individuals that fed loach were merged as loach-fed group (CDG). Detailed sample information is shown in Table 1. Cloacal swabs were used for nondestructive sampling of the gut microbiota (Colston et al., 2015 (link)). The cloacal swabs were collected and stored in absolute ethyl alcohol or liquid nitrogen and then transported to the lab for DNA extraction within 24 h.
All experimental animal procedures were approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of the Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources following basic principles.