Tissue regeneration is a fundamental evolutionary adaptation, which is well known in lizards that can regenerate their entire tail. However, numerous parameters of this process remain poorly understood. Lizard tail serves many functions. Thus, tail autotomy comes with many disadvantages and the need for quick regeneration is imperative. To provide the required energy and materials for caudal tissue building, lizards are expected to undergo a number of physiological and biochemical adjustments. Previous research showed that tail regeneration induces changes in the digestive process. Here, we investigated if and how tail regeneration affects the digestive performance in five wall lizard species deriving from mainland and island sites and questioned whether the association of tail regeneration and digestion is affected by species relationships or environmental features, including predation pressure. We expected that lizards from high predation environments would regenerate their tail faster and modify accordingly their digestive efficiency, prioritizing the digestion of proteins; the main building blocks for tissue repair. Second, we anticipated that the general food shortage on islands would inhibit the process. Our findings showed that all species shifted their digestive efficiency, as predicted. Elongation rate was higher in sites with stronger predation regime and this was also applied to the rate with which protein digestion raised. Gut passage time increases during regeneration so as to improve the nutrient absorbance, but among the islanders, the pace was more intense. The deviations between species should be attributed to the different ecological conditions prevailing on islands rather than to their phylogenetic relationships.

中文翻译：

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尾巴再生改变了蜥蜴的消化性能。

组织再生是一种基本的进化适应，这在可以再生整个尾巴的蜥蜴中是众所周知的。然而，这个过程的许多参数仍然知之甚少。蜥蜴尾巴有许多功能。因此，尾部自切术有许多缺点，需要快速再生。为了提供尾部组织构建所需的能量和材料，蜥蜴预计会进行一些生理和生化调整。先前的研究表明，尾部再生会引起消化过程的变化。这里，我们调查了尾部再生是否以及如何影响来自大陆和岛屿的五种壁蜥物种的消化性能，并质疑尾部再生和消化的关联是否受物种关系或环境特征（包括捕食压力）的影响。我们预计来自高捕食环境的蜥蜴会更快地再生它们的尾巴并相应地改变它们的消化效率，优先消化蛋白质；组织修复的主要组成部分。其次，我们预计岛上普遍的食物短缺会抑制这一进程。我们的研究结果表明，正如预测的那样，所有物种都改变了它们的消化效率。在具有更强捕食方式的位点，伸长率更高，这也适用于蛋白质消化率提高的情况。再生期间肠道通过时间增加，以提高营养吸收，但在岛民中，步伐更为激烈。物种之间的差异应归因于岛屿上普遍存在的不同生态条件，而不是它们的系统发育关系。