Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, National Forestry and Grassland Administration Key Laboratory for Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park Conservation Ecology, Northeast Tiger and Leopard Biodiversity National Observation and Research Station, National Forestry and Grassland Administration Amur Tiger and Amur Leopard Monitoring and Research Center, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents in Agriculture, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
Sci Rep. 2024 Aug 6;14(1):18199. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-69277-8.
The gut microbiota plays an important role in the immunology, physiology and growth and development of animals. However, currently, there is a lack of available sequencing data on the gut microbiota of Asian badgers. Studying the gut microbiota of Asian badgers could provide fundamental data for enhancing productivity and immunity of badgers' breeding, as well as for the protection of wild animals. In this study, we first characterized the composition and structure of the gut microbiota in the large intestines of wild and captive Asian badgers during summer and winter by sequencing the V3-V4 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. A total of 9 dominant phyla and 12 genera among the bacterial communities of the large intestines exhibited significant differences. Our results showed that Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were the most predominant in both wild and captive badgers, regardless of the season. Romboutsia, Streptococcus and Enterococcus may represent potential sources of zoonoses, warranting further attention and study. Our findings indicated that the diversity and availability of food resources were the most important influencing factors on the gut microbiota of Asian badgers, providing fundamental data for the protection and conservation of wild animals. Variation in the gut microbiota due to season, age and sex in both wild and captive Asian badgers should be considered in future research directions. Furthermore, combined multi-omics studies could provide more information for wild animal conservation, and enhancing our understanding of the molecular mechanism between the microbiota and host.
肠道微生物群在动物的免疫学、生理学、生长和发育中发挥着重要作用。然而，目前亚洲獾的肠道微生物群缺乏可用的测序数据。研究亚洲獾的肠道微生物群可以为提高獾的繁殖生产力和免疫力以及保护野生动物提供基础数据。在这项研究中，我们首先通过对 16S 核糖体 RNA 基因的 V3-V4 区进行测序，描述了夏季和冬季野生和圈养亚洲獾大肠中肠道微生物群的组成和结构。肠道细菌群落中共有 9 个主要门和 12 个属表现出显著差异。结果表明，无论季节如何，厚壁菌门和变形菌门都是野生和圈养獾中最主要的细菌门。Romboutsia、链球菌属和肠球菌属可能是人类传染病的潜在来源，值得进一步关注和研究。我们的研究结果表明，食物资源的多样性和可利用性是影响亚洲獾肠道微生物群的最重要因素，为野生动物的保护和保育提供了基础数据。在未来的研究方向中，应该考虑野生和圈养亚洲獾中季节、年龄和性别对肠道微生物群的影响。此外，结合多组学研究可以为野生动物保护提供更多信息，增进我们对微生物群与宿主之间的分子机制的理解。
