Gastrointestinal Laboratory, Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, 4474 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4474, United States.
Vet Microbiol. 2010 Jul 29;144(1-2):140-6. doi: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2009.12.045. Epub 2010 Jan 11.
The diversity of the feline intestinal microbiota has not been well elucidated. The aim of this study was to characterize fecal microbiota of cats by comparative sequence analysis with universal bacterial 16S rRNA gene and group-specific primers for Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus spp. Using universal bacterial primers, a total of 133 non-redundant 16S rRNA gene sequences were identified in fecal samples obtained from 15 healthy pet cats. The majority of these sequences were assigned to the phylum Firmicutes, followed by Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Further classification showed that Firmicutes were predominantly affiliated with Clostridium clusters XI, XIVa, and I. Using group-specific primers for Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus spp., 364 clones were analyzed in fecal samples obtained from 12 additional cats and these bacterial genera were observed in 100% and 92% of cats, respectively. These detection rates differed from those obtained using universal bacterial primers, where Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus spp. were each detected in 2 cats (13.3%). Overall, 23 different Lactobacillus-like and 11 Bifidobacterium-like sequences were identified. We observed marked differences in the prevalence of the various lactic acid bacteria in individual cats. In conclusion, the use of a combination of universal and group-specific primers allows a more detailed characterization of lactic acid bacteria in the feline intestine. While Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus spp. are prevalent in feline fecal samples, individual animals show a unique species distribution.
猫肠道微生物群的多样性尚未得到很好的阐明。本研究旨在通过与双歧杆菌和乳杆菌属特异性引物的通用细菌 16S rRNA 基因比较序列分析来描述猫粪便微生物群。使用通用细菌引物，从 15 只健康宠物猫的粪便样本中鉴定出了总共 133 个非冗余 16S rRNA 基因序列。这些序列大多数被分配到厚壁菌门，其次是变形菌门和拟杆菌门。进一步分类表明，厚壁菌门主要与梭菌属群 XI、XIVa 和 I 相关。使用双歧杆菌和乳杆菌属特异性引物，对另外 12 只猫的粪便样本中的 364 个克隆进行了分析，分别在 100%和 92%的猫中观察到这两个细菌属。这些检测率与使用通用细菌引物的结果不同，其中双歧杆菌和乳杆菌属分别在 2 只猫（13.3%）中检测到。总的来说，鉴定出了 23 种不同的乳杆菌样和 11 种双歧杆菌样序列。我们观察到个体猫中各种乳酸菌的流行率存在显著差异。总之，使用通用引物和属特异性引物的组合可以更详细地描述猫肠道中的乳酸菌。虽然双歧杆菌和乳杆菌属在猫粪便样本中普遍存在，但个体动物表现出独特的物种分布。
