Sun Yue, Yu Yanze, Guo Jinhao, Zhong Linqiang, Zhang Minghai
School of Biological Sciences, Guizhou Education University, Guiyang 550018, China.
Wildlife Institute of Heilongjiang Province, Harbin 150081, China.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Mar 4;13(5):929. doi: 10.3390/ani13050929.
Gut microbiota play an important role in impacting the host's metabolism, immunity, speciation, and many other functions. How sex and environment affect the structure and function of fecal microbiota in red deer () is still unclear, particularly with regard to the intake of different diets. In this study, non-invasive molecular sexing techniques were used to determine the sex of fecal samples from both wild and captive red deer during the overwintering period. Fecal microbiota composition and diversity analyses were performed using amplicons from the V4-V5 region of the 16S rRNA gene sequenced on the Illumina HiSeq platform. Based on Picrust2 prediction software, potential function distribution information was evaluated by comparing the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome (KEGG). The results showed that the fecal microbiota of the wild deer (WF, = 10; WM, = 12) was significantly enriched in Firmicutes and decreased in Bacteroidetes, while the captive deer (CF, = 8; CM, = 3) had a significantly higher number of Bacteroidetes. The dominant species of fecal microbiota in the wild and captive red deer were similar at the genus level. The alpha diversity index shows significant difference in fecal microbiota diversity between the males and females in wild deer ( < 0.05). Beta diversity shows significant inter-group differences between wild and captive deer ( < 0.05) but no significant differences between female and male in wild or captive deer. The metabolism was the most important pathway at the first level of KEGG pathway analysis. In the secondary pathway of metabolism, glycan biosynthesis and metabolism, energy metabolism, and the metabolism of other amino acids were significantly different. In summary, these compositional and functional variations in the fecal microbiota of red deer may be helpful for guiding conservation management and policy decision-making, providing important information for future applications of population management and conservation.
肠道微生物群在影响宿主的新陈代谢、免疫、物种形成及许多其他功能方面发挥着重要作用。性别和环境如何影响马鹿（）粪便微生物群的结构和功能仍不清楚，尤其是在不同饮食摄入方面。在本研究中，采用非侵入性分子性别鉴定技术来确定越冬期间野生和圈养马鹿粪便样本的性别。使用在Illumina HiSeq平台上测序的16S rRNA基因V4-V5区域的扩增子进行粪便微生物群组成和多样性分析。基于Picrust2预测软件，通过比较京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）来评估潜在功能分布信息。结果表明，野生鹿（WF，=10；WM，=12）的粪便微生物群中厚壁菌门显著富集，拟杆菌门减少，而圈养鹿（CF，=8；CM，=3）的拟杆菌门数量显著更高。野生和圈养马鹿粪便微生物群的优势物种在属水平上相似。α多样性指数显示野生鹿中雄性和雌性的粪便微生物群多样性存在显著差异（<0.05）。β多样性显示野生和圈养鹿之间存在显著的组间差异（<0.05），但野生或圈养鹿的雌性和雄性之间无显著差异。在KEGG通路分析的一级通路中，代谢是最重要的通路。在代谢的二级通路中，聚糖生物合成与代谢、能量代谢和其他氨基酸的代谢存在显著差异。总之，马鹿粪便微生物群的这些组成和功能变化可能有助于指导保护管理和政策决策，为种群管理和保护的未来应用提供重要信息。
