Department of Animal Science, North Carolina State University, 120 W Broughton Dr, Raleigh, 27607, NC, USA.
Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry, University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine 18, 50144, Firenze, Italy.
BMC Microbiol. 2022 Jan 3;22(1):1. doi: 10.1186/s12866-021-02409-6.
The interplay between the gut microbiota and feeding behavior has consequences for host metabolism and health. The present study aimed to explore gut microbiota overall influence on feeding behavior traits and to identify specific microbes associated with the traits in three commercial swine breeds at three growth stages. Feeding behavior measures were obtained from 651 pigs of three breeds (Duroc, Landrace, and Large White) from an average 73 to 163 days of age. Seven feeding behavior traits covered the information of feed intake, feeder occupation time, feeding rate, and the number of visits to the feeder. Rectal swabs were collected from each pig at 73 ± 3, 123 ± 4, and 158 ± 4 days of age. DNA was extracted and subjected to 16 S rRNA gene sequencing.
Differences in feeding behavior traits among breeds during each period were found. The proportion of phenotypic variances of feeding behavior explained by the gut microbial composition was small to moderate (ranged from 0.09 to 0.31). A total of 21, 10, and 35 amplicon sequence variants were found to be significantly (q-value < 0.05) associated with feeding behavior traits for Duroc, Landrace, and Large White across the three sampling time points. The identified amplicon sequence variants were annotated to five phyla, with Firmicutes being the most abundant. Those amplicon sequence variants were assigned to 28 genera, mainly including Christensenellaceae_R-7_group, Ruminococcaceae_UCG-004, Dorea, Ruminococcaceae_UCG-014, and Marvinbryantia.
This study demonstrated the importance of the gut microbial composition in interacting with the host feeding behavior and identified multiple archaea and bacteria associated with feeding behavior measures in pigs from either Duroc, Landrace, or Large White breeds at three growth stages. Our study provides insight into the interaction between gut microbiota and feeding behavior and highlights the genetic background and age effects in swine microbial studies.
肠道微生物群与摄食行为之间的相互作用对宿主代谢和健康有影响。本研究旨在探讨肠道微生物群对摄食行为特征的整体影响，并在三个商业猪品种的三个生长阶段识别与特征相关的特定微生物。在 73 至 163 天龄的三个品种（杜洛克、长白和大白）的 651 头猪中获得摄食行为测量值。七个摄食行为特征涵盖了采食量、采食器占用时间、采食率和采食器访问次数的信息。在 73±3、123±4 和 158±4 日龄时，从每头猪的直肠拭子中采集 DNA，并进行 16S rRNA 基因测序。
在每个时期，品种间的摄食行为特征存在差异。肠道微生物组成对摄食行为的表型方差的解释比例较小到中等（范围为 0.09 至 0.31）。在三个采样时间点，共发现 21、10 和 35 个扩增子序列变体与杜洛克、长白和大白猪的摄食行为特征显著相关（q 值<0.05）。鉴定出的扩增子序列变体被注释为五个门，其中厚壁菌门是最丰富的。这些扩增子序列变体被分配到 28 个属，主要包括 Christensenellaceae_R-7_group、Ruminococcaceae_UCG-004、Dorea、Ruminococcaceae_UCG-014 和 Marvinbryantia。
本研究证明了肠道微生物组成在与宿主摄食行为相互作用中的重要性，并鉴定了三个生长阶段来自杜洛克、长白或大白猪品种的与摄食行为测量值相关的多种古细菌和细菌。我们的研究提供了对肠道微生物群与摄食行为之间相互作用的深入了解，并强调了猪微生物研究中遗传背景和年龄的影响。
