Niu Xin, Lin Liu, Zhang Ting, An Xiaoyu, Li Yupei, Yu Yangfei, Hong Meiling, Shi Haitao, Ding Li
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, China.
Hainan Sansha Provincial Observation and Research Station of Sea Turtle Ecology, Sansha, China.
Front Microbiol. 2024 May 30;15:1412015. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1412015. eCollection 2024.
Gut microbes are pivotal reference indicators for assessing the health status of animals. Before introducing artificially bred species into the wild, examining their gut microbe composition is crucial to help mitigate potential threats posed to wild populations. However, gut microbiological trait similarities between wild and artificially bred green turtles remain unexplored. Therefore, this study compared the gut microbiological characteristics of wild and artificially bred green turtles () through high-throughput Illumina sequencing technology. The α-diversity of intestinal bacteria in wild green turtles, as determined by Shannon and Chao indices, significantly surpasses that of artificial breeding green turtles ( < 0.01). However, no significant differences were detected in the fungal α-diversity between wild and artificially bred green turtles. Meanwhile, the β-diversity analysis revealed significant differences between wild and artificially bred green turtles in bacterial and fungal compositions. The community of gut bacteria in artificially bred green turtles had a significantly higher abundance of Fusobacteriota including those belonging to the , , and genera than that of the wild green turtle. In contrast, the abundance of bacteria belonging to the phylum Actinobacteriota and genus significantly decreased. Regarding the fungal community, artificially bred green turtles had a significantly higher abundance of , , and and a lower abundance of and than the wild green turtle. The PICRUSt2 analyses demonstrated significant differences in the functions of the gut bacterial flora between groups, particularly in carbohydrate and energy metabolism. Fungal functional guild analysis further revealed that the functions of the intestinal fungal flora of wild and artificially bred green turtles differed significantly in terms of animal pathogens-endophytes-lichen parasites-plant pathogens-soil saprotrophs-wood saprotrophs. BugBase analysis revealed significant potential pathogenicity and stress tolerance variations between wild and artificially bred green turtles. Collectively, this study elucidates the distinctive characteristics of gut microbiota in wild and artificially bred green turtles while evaluating their health status. These findings offer valuable scientific insights for releasing artificially bred green turtles and other artificially bred wildlife into natural habitats.
肠道微生物是评估动物健康状况的关键参考指标。在将人工繁育物种放归野外之前，检查它们的肠道微生物组成对于帮助减轻对野生种群构成的潜在威胁至关重要。然而，野生绿海龟和人工繁育绿海龟之间肠道微生物特征的相似性仍未得到探索。因此，本研究通过高通量Illumina测序技术比较了野生绿海龟和人工繁育绿海龟（）的肠道微生物特征。通过香农指数和 Chao 指数测定，野生绿海龟肠道细菌的α多样性显著高于人工繁育绿海龟（<0.01）。然而，在野生绿海龟和人工繁育绿海龟之间未检测到真菌α多样性的显著差异。同时，β多样性分析显示，野生绿海龟和人工繁育绿海龟在细菌和真菌组成上存在显著差异。人工繁育绿海龟肠道细菌群落中包括 、 和 属在内的梭杆菌门的丰度显著高于野生绿海龟。相比之下，放线菌门和 属细菌的丰度显著降低。关于真菌群落，人工繁育绿海龟的 、 和 丰度显著高于野生绿海龟，而 和 的丰度则较低。PICRUSt2分析表明，两组之间肠道细菌菌群的功能存在显著差异，特别是在碳水化合物和能量代谢方面。真菌功能类群分析进一步表明，野生绿海龟和人工繁育绿海龟肠道真菌菌群的功能在动物病原体-内生菌-地衣寄生虫-植物病原体-土壤腐生菌-木材腐生菌方面存在显著差异。BugBase分析显示，野生绿海龟和人工繁育绿海龟之间在潜在致病性和应激耐受性方面存在显著差异。总的来说，本研究阐明了野生绿海龟和人工繁育绿海龟肠道微生物群的独特特征，同时评估了它们的健康状况。这些发现为将人工繁育的绿海龟和其他人工繁育的野生动物放归自然栖息地提供了有价值的科学见解。
