Ma Rui, Yu Xiang, Huang Chong, Xue Fei, Hou Rong, Wu Wei, Feng Feifei, Bi Wenlei, Zhang Long, Liu Jiabin, Li Zusheng, Gu Jiang, Zhou Yanshan, Lan Guanwei, Chen Chao, Yao Ying, Lan Jingchao, Luo Li, Li Ping, He Hui, Zhang Mei, Yang Xi, Yang Hong, Gu Haijun, Gu Xiaodong, Chen Limin, Qi Dunwu
Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu, 610000, China.
Daxiangling Nature Reserve, Yaan, 625000, China.
BMC Microbiol. 2025 Jul 2;25(1):391. doi: 10.1186/s12866-025-04084-3.
Reintroduction programs aim to restore wild populations, yet success is challenged by host microbiome adaptation to natural environments. Here, we characterized the oral microbiota of giant pandas undergoing pre-release training, comparing them to captive and wild conspecifics, to assess training-induced microbial shifts. We found that after one year of reintroduction training, multi-generational captive giant pandas exhibited increased oral microbiome diversity, with community structure, composition, and predicted functions converging toward wild-type profiles. Adaptive changes included reduced relative abundances of Actinobacillus and Bergeyella, and enrichment of Myroides and Psychrobacter. Functionally, these shifts correlated with decreased starch and sucrose, fructose and mannose, and various lipid metabolism pathways, alongside enhanced methane and galactose metabolism which align with the dietary constraints of a singular food source in the wild environment. Our study demonstrates that pre-release training drives oral microbiota convergence toward wild phenotypes, underscoring microbial adaptation as critical for successful captive-to-wild transitions in endangered species.
放归计划旨在恢复野生种群，但宿主微生物群对自然环境的适应给计划的成功带来了挑战。在这里，我们对接受放归前训练的大熊猫的口腔微生物群进行了特征分析，并将它们与圈养和野生的同种个体进行比较，以评估训练引起的微生物变化。我们发现，经过一年的放归训练后，多代圈养的大熊猫口腔微生物群的多样性增加，群落结构、组成和预测功能趋向于野生型特征。适应性变化包括放线杆菌属和伯格菌属的相对丰度降低，以及食酸菌属和嗜冷杆菌属的富集。在功能上，这些变化与淀粉和蔗糖、果糖和甘露糖以及各种脂质代谢途径的减少相关，同时甲烷和半乳糖代谢增强，这与野生环境中单一食物来源的饮食限制相一致。我们的研究表明，放归前训练促使口腔微生物群趋向于野生表型，强调微生物适应对于濒危物种从圈养成功过渡到野生环境至关重要。
