Gut Microbiome Diversity, Functional Potential, and Ecological Relevance of Hottentotta tamulus

Scorpions are ancient arachnids of medical and ecological importance; they prey on insects and other arthropods while serving as prey to birds and reptiles. In this study, we reported for the first time on the characterization of the gut intestinal microbiome of Hottentotta tamulus native to northeastern Pakistan. The scorpions were identified on a morphological basis and the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene sequence, while the gut microbiome was characterized through full-length 16S rRNA (V1-V9) Nanopore sequencing. The gut microbiota exhibited low to moderate alpha diversity with Chao1 and Shannon indices of 126 ± 90.54 and 0.85 ± 0.21, respectively. The intestinal microbial community was dominated by the phyla Firmicutes (79.48%-90.43%), followed by Proteobacteria (9.46%-20.48%), whereas Actinobacteriota (0.03%-0.11%) and Bacteroidota (0.00%-0.01%) were present at very low relative abundance. The functional profiling identified 23 notable pathways involved in energy metabolism, biomolecule synthesis, the biodegradation of various xenobiotics, and nucleotide metabolism, highlighting the role of the gut microbiome in metabolic homeostasis. The dominance of Bacillus and Mycoplasma in gut microbial communities may enhance host adaptation to low-resource environments.