Bhagat Neha R, Bharti Vijay K, Shukla Geeta, Rishi Praveen, Chaurasia O P
DRDO-Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), Leh, UT Ladakh, 194101, India.
Department of Microbiology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India.
Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 7;15(1):11910. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-96178-1.
High-altitude-adapted chickens harbor a unique gut bacteriome essential for their survival under extremely cold and hypoxic environment, however, little is known about their population and functional dynamics, limiting their application in poultry production. Hence, this study employed amplicon-based metagenomics to examine the gut bacterial diversity and their functional profile in two high-altitude-adapted chicken lines, e.g. LEHBRO-1 and LEHBRO-3. The results revealed significant variations in taxonomic abundance at the phylum level, with Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria predominating in LEHBRO-1, whereas Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Planctomycetes, and Actinobacteria predominated in LEHBRO-3. Genus-level diversity and Linear Discriminant Analysis Effect Size (LEfSe) biomarker analysis also substantiated the differences in the gut bacterial communities between the two chicken lines. Furthermore, functional profiling revealed enrichment of carbohydrate, nucleotide, lipid, amino acid, fatty acid, energy, and glycan metabolic pathways in the gut bacteriomes of these high-altitude chicken lines. The Statistical Analysis of Metagenomic Profiles (STAMP) for metabolic profiling identified a significant difference in purine and protein metabolism between these two chicken lines. These findings indicate the unique gut bacteriome and their functional diversity in high-altitude-adapted chickens, which would provide a foundation for future research on gut therapeutics to improve chicken health and productivity in high-altitude areas.
适应高海拔环境的鸡拥有独特的肠道微生物群，这对它们在极端寒冷和缺氧环境下的生存至关重要，然而，人们对它们的种群和功能动态知之甚少，这限制了它们在养禽业中的应用。因此，本研究采用基于扩增子的宏基因组学方法，研究了两个适应高海拔环境的鸡品系（即LEHBRO-1和LEHBRO-3）的肠道细菌多样性及其功能特征。结果显示，在门水平上，分类丰度存在显著差异，厚壁菌门、变形菌门、拟杆菌门和放线菌门在LEHBRO-1中占主导地位，而厚壁菌门、变形菌门、拟杆菌门、浮霉菌门和放线菌门在LEHBRO-3中占主导地位。属水平的多样性和线性判别分析效应大小（LEfSe）生物标志物分析也证实了这两个鸡品系肠道细菌群落的差异。此外，功能分析显示，这些适应高海拔环境的鸡品系的肠道微生物群中，碳水化合物、核苷酸、脂质、氨基酸、脂肪酸、能量和聚糖代谢途径得到了富集。代谢谱的宏基因组谱统计分析（STAMP）确定了这两个鸡品系在嘌呤和蛋白质代谢方面存在显著差异。这些发现表明了适应高海拔环境的鸡具有独特的肠道微生物群及其功能多样性，这将为未来改善高海拔地区鸡的健康和生产力的肠道治疗研究提供基础。
