Abstract
ABSTRACT
Seasonal variation in food resources represents a major ecological challenge for wild herbivores, yet how naturally selected dietary resources become associated with host and microbial responses remains poorly understood. During winter, Brandt's voles (
Lasiopodomys brandtii
) cache large amounts of
Artemisia frigida
, suggesting that this plant may have ecological significance beyond its nutritional value. However, the biological basis underlying this seasonal food preference remains unclear. Here, using Brandt's voles as a model system, we investigated whether the naturally selected winter food
A. frigida
was associated with coordinated variation in host physiology and gut microbial organization under cold conditions. By integrating physiological phenotyping, hypothalamic neuroendocrine analyses, adipose tissue transcriptomics, shotgun metagenomics and metagenomic binning, we characterized host and microbial responses across multiple biological levels. Dietary
A. frigida
was associated with altered hypothalamic
AgRP
expression, increased
UCP1
expression in BAT and transcriptional changes related to lipid metabolism and thermogenic pathways during cold exposure. Supplement of
A. frigida
was associated with changes in gut microbial community structure, enrichment of specific bacterial taxa and shifts in predicted microbial functional potential. Genome‐resolved analyses further reconstructed 277 non‐redundant metagenome‐assembled genomes, enabling assessment of microbial ecological variation associated with seasonal food conditions. Together, our findings provide molecular ecological evidence linking winter caching of
A. frigida
with coordinated variation in host physiology and gut microbial organization, highlighting seasonal dietary resources as an overlooked component of ecological variation in wildlife.