Climate change such as global warming is considered a major threat to amphibians. The guts of amphibians are home to trillions of microbes, which are key regulators of gastrointestinal digestion and play a crucial role in lipid metabolites. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of temperature change on intestinal microbiota and lipid metabolism in Rana chensinensis tadpoles. Morphological and intestinal microbiota data of R. chensinensis larvae exposed to different temperatures (15 °C, 21 °C, and 26 °C) were measured. The results show that the warm temperature causes histological damage to the intestinal epithelium. In addition, temperature treatments alter the diversity and composition of gut microbes in R. chensinensis tadpoles. At the phylum level of intestinal microbial community, Campilobacterota was detected only in the warm group. At the genera level, unclassified_f__Enterobacteriaceae was markedly declined in the warm group but was notably enriched in the cold group. For lipid metabolism-related genes, the expression levels of GPR109A, HDAC1, and APOA-I decreased significantly in both warm and cold treatment groups, while the expression levels of CLPS and LIPASE increased significantly. Collectively, these observations demonstrated that warm and cold temperatures may reduce the immune capacity of tadpoles by changing the composition of intestinal microorganisms and the expression of genes related to lipid metabolism, affecting the survival of tadpoles.
Keywords: Gut microbiota; Intestinal damage; Lipid metabolism; Morphological parameters; Rana chensinensis; Temperature.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.