DNA metabarcoding uncovers the diet of subterranean rodents in China.

Objective: A type of rodent called a zokor causes great harm to agriculture and forestry production due to its large and sophisticated diet. As this rodent lives subterrane for most of its life, researchers know little about its dietary habits. Further understanding of its diet is important for developing green and sustainable control strategies for the zokor.

The associations between intestinal bacteria of Eospalax cansus and soil bacteria of its habitat.

Background: Intestinal bacteria of mammal can be influenced by many factors, environmental bacteria is an important factor. However, there are few studies on the interactions between environmental bacteria and intestinal bacteria in wild mammals. To explore the associations between the intestinal bacteriome and the related environmental bacteriome, the intestinal bacterial communities of Eospalax cansus at three different sites and the bacterial communities of the surrounding soil (outside and inside the cave) at each site were investigated by 16S rRNA sequencing.

Functional differentiation related to decomposing complex carbohydrates of intestinal microbes between two wild zokor species based on 16SrRNA sequences.

Background: The intestinal microbes in mammals play a key role in host metabolism and adaptation. As a subterranean rodent, zokor digs tunnels for foraging and mating. These digging activities of zokors increase the energy expenditure relative to their aboveground counterparts.

[Interaction between intestinal microorganisms and carbohydrates of mammals and its influence].

The intestinal microorganisms have physiological functions, including regulation of nutrition, immunity, and energy metabolism of host. Diet is one of important factors affecting the intestinal microorganism of mammals. It is important to investigate the interaction between intestinal microorganism and carbohydrates metabolism and its influence, because carbohydrates were the main food source for mammals.

Taxonomy and phylogenetic relationship of zokors.

Zokor (Myospalacinae) is one of the subterranean rodents, endemic to east Asia. Due to the convergent and parallel evolution induced by its special lifestyles, the controversies in morphological classification of zokor appeared at the level of family and genus. To resolve these controversies about taxonomy and phylogeny, the phylogenetic relationships of 20 species of Muroidea and six species of zokors were studied based on complete mitochondrial genome and mitochondrial gene, respectively.