Gut microbiota composition and metabolomic profiles of wild and captive Chinese monals ( Lophophorus lhuysii )
- PDF / 1,539,542 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 39 Downloads / 211 Views
RESEARCH
Open Access
Gut microbiota composition and metabolomic profiles of wild and captive Chinese monals (Lophophorus lhuysii) Dandan Jiang1,2,3†, Xin He1,2,3†, Marc Valitutto1,2,3,4, Li Chen5, Qin Xu1,2,3, Ying Yao1,2,3, Rong Hou1,2,3 and Hairui Wang1,2,3*
Abstract Background: The Chinese monal (Lophophorus lhuysii) is an endangered bird species, with a wild population restricted to the mountains in southwest China, and only one known captive population in the world. We investigated the fecal microbiota and metabolome of wild and captive Chinese monals to explore differences and similarities in nutritional status and digestive characteristics. An integrated approach combining 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) gene sequencing and ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) based metabolomics were used to examine the fecal microbiota composition and the metabolomic profile of Chinese monals. Results: The results showed that the alpha diversity of gut microbes in the wild group were significantly higher than that in the captive group and the core bacterial taxa in the two groups showed remarkable differences at phylum, class, order, and family levels. Metabolomic profiling also revealed differences, mainly related to galactose, starch and sucrose metabolism, fatty acid, bile acid biosynthesis and bile secretion. Furthermore, strong correlations between metabolite types and bacterial genus were detected. Conclusions: There were remarkable differences in the gut microbiota composition and metabolomic profile between wild and captive Chinese monals. This study has established a baseline for a normal gut microbiota and metabolomic profile for wild Chinese monals, thus allowing us to evaluate if differences seen in captive organisms have an impact on their overall health and reproduction. Keywords: Chinese monal, Metabolite, Gut microbiota, Feces
Background The Chinese monal (Lophophorus lhuysii) belongs to the order Galliformes, family Phasianidae, distributed in the mountains of southwest China at an elevation of 3000 to 4900 m [1]. It is an endemic bird species of China, which has been listed as endangered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and * Correspondence: [email protected] † Dandan Jiang and Xin He contributed equally to this work. 1 Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu 610081, China 2 Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu 610081, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Flora (CITES) [2], classified as a vulnerable species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list [3]. There has been limited success with establishing captive breeding groups of Chinese monals throughout the world, the reason for which is not entirely clear [4]. At present, the world’s only captive collection exists in the Fengtongzhai National Nature Reserve in Sichuan, China, with only 23 individuals as of early 2020. The IUCN states the wild population of Chinese
Data Loading...
