Laboratory Animal Centre, Second Military Medical University, No.8 Rd. Panshan, Yangpu District, Shanghai, China.
National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, Institute for Laboratory Animal Resources, No.31 Rd. Huatuo, Daxing District, Beijing, China.
BMC Microbiol. 2018 Aug 22;18(1):89. doi: 10.1186/s12866-018-1226-4.
The naked mole-rat (NMR, Heterocephalus glaber) is being bred as a novel laboratory animal due to its unique biological characteristics, including longevity, cancer resistance, hypoxia tolerance, and pain insensitivity. It is expected that differences exist between the microbiota of wild NMRs and that of NMRs in an artificial environment. Overall, the effect of environment on changes in the NMR microbiota remains unknown. In an attempt to understand the microbiota composition of NMRs in captivity, variability in the microbiota of the intestinal and respiratory tracts of two groups of NMRs was assessed under two conditions.
The results obtained by high-throughput sequencing revealed significant differences at the phylum, class, order, family and genus levels in the microbiota between the two groups of NMRs examined (first group in conventional environment, second group in barrier environment). For the trachea, 24 phyla and 533 genera and 26 phyla and 733 genera were identified for the first and second groups of animals. Regarding the cecum, 23 phyla and 385 genera and 25 phyla and 110 genera were identified in the microbiota of first and second groups of animals. There were no obvious differences between females and males or young and adult animals.
Our results suggest that the intestinal and respiratory tract NMR microbiota changed during captivity, which may be related to the transition to the breeding environment. Such changes in the microbiota of NMRs may have an effect on the original characteristics, which may be the direction of further research studies.
裸鼹鼠（NMR，Heterocephalus glaber）因其独特的生物学特性，包括长寿、抗癌症、耐缺氧和对疼痛不敏感，正被培育成为一种新型的实验室动物。预计野生裸鼹鼠和人工环境中的裸鼹鼠的微生物群之间存在差异。总的来说，环境对裸鼹鼠微生物群变化的影响尚不清楚。为了了解圈养裸鼹鼠的微生物群组成，在两种条件下评估了两组裸鼹鼠肠道和呼吸道微生物群的可变性。
高通量测序的结果显示，在两组裸鼹鼠（第一组在常规环境中，第二组在屏障环境中）的微生物群中，在门、纲、目、科和属水平上存在显著差异。对于气管，第一组动物和第二组动物分别鉴定出 24 个门和 533 个属，以及 26 个门和 733 个属。对于盲肠，第一组动物和第二组动物的微生物群分别鉴定出 23 个门和 385 个属，以及 25 个门和 110 个属。雌性和雄性或幼体和成年动物之间没有明显差异。
我们的结果表明，圈养期间裸鼹鼠的肠道和呼吸道微生物群发生了变化，这可能与过渡到饲养环境有关。裸鼹鼠微生物群的这种变化可能对其原始特征有影响，这可能是进一步研究的方向。
