Petrelli Simona, Buglione Maria, Rivieccio Eleonora, Ricca Ezio, Baccigalupi Loredana, Scala Giovanni, Fulgione Domenico
Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Via Cinthia 26, 80126, Naples, NA, Italy.
Department of Humanities, University of Naples Federico II, Via Porta Di Massa 1, 80133, Naples, Italy.
Anim Microbiome. 2023 Feb 24;5(1):14. doi: 10.1186/s42523-023-00235-x.
Wild boar has experienced several evolutionary trajectories from which domestic (under artificial selection) and the feral pig (under natural selection) originated. Strong adaptation deeply affects feral population's morphology and physiology, including the microbiota community. The gut microbiota is generally recognized to play a crucial role in maintaining host health and metabolism. To date, it is unclear whether feral populations' phylogeny, development stages or lifestyle have the greatest impact in shaping the gut microbiota, as well as how this can confer adaptability to new environments. Here, in order to deepen this point, we characterized the gut microbiota of feral population discriminating between juvenile and adult samples, and we compared it to the microbiota structure of wild boar and domestic pig as the references. Gut microbiota composition was estimated through the sequencing of the partial 16S rRNA gene by DNA metabarcoding and High Throughput Sequencing on DNA extracted from fecal samples.
The comparison of microbiota communities among the three forms showed significant differences. The feral form seems to carry some bacteria of both domestic pigs, derived from its ancestral condition, and wild boars, probably as a sign of a recent re-adaptation strategy to the natural environment. In addition, interestingly, feral pigs show some exclusive bacterial taxa, also suggesting an innovative nature of the evolutionary trajectories and an ecological segregation in feral populations, as already observed for other traits.
The feral pig showed a significant change between juvenile and adult microbiota suggesting an influence of the wild environment in which these populations segregate. However, it is important to underline that we certainly cannot overlook that these variations in the structure of the microbiota also depended on the different development stages of the animal, which in fact influence the composition of the intestinal microbiota. Concluding, the feral pigs represent a new actor living in the same geographical space as the wild boars, in which its gut microbial structure suggests that it is mainly the result of environmental segregation, most different from its closest relative. This gives rise to interesting fields of exploration regarding the changed ecological complexity and the consequent evolutionary destiny of the animal communities involved in this phenomenon.
野猪经历了几条进化轨迹，家猪（在人工选择下）和野猪（在自然选择下）由此起源。强烈的适应性深刻影响野猪种群的形态和生理，包括微生物群落。肠道微生物群通常被认为在维持宿主健康和新陈代谢中起关键作用。迄今为止，尚不清楚野猪种群的系统发育、发育阶段或生活方式对塑造肠道微生物群的影响最大，以及这如何赋予其对新环境的适应性。在此，为了深入探讨这一点，我们对野猪种群的肠道微生物群进行了特征分析，区分了幼年和成年样本，并将其与野猪和家猪的微生物群结构进行比较作为参考。通过对从粪便样本中提取的DNA进行DNA宏条形码分析和高通量测序，对部分16S rRNA基因进行测序，估计肠道微生物群的组成。
三种形态的微生物群落比较显示出显著差异。野猪形态似乎携带了一些来自其祖先状态的家猪细菌，以及野猪的一些细菌，这可能是其最近对自然环境重新适应策略的一个标志。此外，有趣的是，野猪显示出一些独特的细菌分类群，这也表明进化轨迹具有创新性，并且野猪种群中存在生态隔离，这与其他特征已观察到的情况相同。
野猪在幼年和成年微生物群之间表现出显著变化，表明这些种群所处的野生环境具有影响。然而，重要的是要强调，我们当然不能忽视微生物群结构的这些变化也取决于动物的不同发育阶段，而这实际上会影响肠道微生物群的组成。总之，野猪是与野猪生活在同一地理空间的新成员，其肠道微生物结构表明，这主要是环境隔离的结果，与其最亲近的亲属有很大不同。这引发了关于生态复杂性变化以及参与这一现象的动物群落随之而来的进化命运的有趣探索领域。
