DRDO-Defence Institute of High-Altitude Research (DIHAR), Ministry of Defence, Leh, 194101, UT Ladakh, India.
Department of Microbiology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India.
Sci Rep. 2023 Nov 27;13(1):20856. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-48147-9.
Recently, there has been considerable interest in the functions of gut microbiota in broiler chickens in relation to their use as feed additives. However, the gut-microbiota of chickens reared at different altitudes are not well documented for their potential role in adapting to prevailing conditions and functional changes. In this context, the present study investigates the functional diversity of gut-microbes in high-altitude (HACh) and low-altitude adapted chickens (LACh), assessing their substrate utilization profile through Biolog Ecoplates technology. This will help in the identification of potential microbes or their synthesized metabolites, which could be beneficial for the host or industrial applications. Results revealed that among the 31 different types of studied substrates, only polymers, carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, and amine-based substrates utilization varied significantly (p < 0.05) among the chickens reared at two different altitudes where gut-microbes of LACh utilized a broad range of substrates than the HACh. Further, diversity indices (Shannon and MacIntosh) analysis in LACh samples showed significant (p < 0.05) higher richness and evenness of microbes as compared to the HACh samples. However, no significant difference was observed in the Simpson diversity index in gut microbes of lowversus high-altitude chickens. In addition, the Principal Component Analysis elucidated variation in substrate preferences of gut-microbes, where 13 and 8 carbon substrates were found to constitute PC1 and PC2, respectively, where γ-aminobutyric acid, D-glucosaminic acid, i-erythritol and tween 40 were the most relevant substrates that had a major effect on PC1, however, alpha-ketobutyric acid and glycyl-L-glutamic acid affected PC2. Hence, this study concludes that the gut-microbes of high and low-altitudes adapted chickens use different carbon substrates so that they could play a vital role in the health and immunity of an animal host based on their geographical location. Consequently, this study substantiates the difference in the substrate utilization and functional diversity of the microbial flora in chickens reared at high and low altitudes due to altitudinal changes.
最近，人们对肠道微生物群在肉鸡中的作用产生了浓厚的兴趣，因为它们可以作为饲料添加剂使用。然而，对于不同海拔地区饲养的鸡的肠道微生物群在适应环境和功能变化方面的潜在作用，相关研究还不够充分。在这种情况下，本研究通过 Biolog Ecoplates 技术调查了高海拔（HACh）和低海拔适应鸡（LACh）的肠道微生物群的功能多样性，评估了它们对底物的利用情况。这有助于确定对宿主或工业应用有益的潜在微生物或其合成代谢物。结果表明，在所研究的 31 种不同类型的底物中，只有聚合物、碳水化合物、羧酸和胺基底物的利用在两种不同海拔地区饲养的鸡之间存在显著差异（p<0.05），低海拔鸡的肠道微生物群利用的底物范围更广。此外，LACh 样本的多样性指数（Shannon 和 MacIntosh）分析显示，与 HACh 样本相比，微生物的丰富度和均匀度显著更高（p<0.05）。然而，在低海拔和高海拔鸡的肠道微生物中，辛普森多样性指数没有观察到显著差异。此外，主成分分析阐明了肠道微生物对底物偏好的变化，其中 13 和 8 个碳底物分别构成了 PC1 和 PC2，γ-氨基丁酸、D-葡糖胺、i-赤藓糖醇和吐温 40 是对 PC1 影响最大的最相关底物，然而，α-酮丁酸和甘氨酰-L-谷氨酸影响了 PC2。因此，本研究得出结论，高海拔和低海拔适应鸡的肠道微生物使用不同的碳底物，因此它们可能根据地理位置在动物宿主的健康和免疫中发挥重要作用。因此，本研究证实了由于海拔变化，高海拔和低海拔饲养的鸡的微生物区系在底物利用和功能多样性方面存在差异。
