Abstract
Microorganisms in vertebrate guts have been recognized as important symbionts influencing host life. However, it remains unclear about the gut microbiota in long-distance migratory Anseriformes herbivores, which could be functionally important for these wetland-dependent animals. We collected faeces of the greater white-fronted goose (GWFG), bean goose (BG) and swan goose (SG) from Shengjin Lake (SJL) and Poyang Lake (PYL) in the Yangtze River Floodplain, China. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA V4 region was employed to depict the composition and structure of geese gut microbiota during wintering period. The dominant bacterial phyla across all samples were Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria, but significant variations were detected among different goose species and sampling sites, in terms of α diversity, community structures and microbial interactions. We found a significant correlation between diet and the microbial community structure in GWFG-SJL samples. These results demonstrated that host species and diet are potential drivers of goose gut microbiota assemblies. Despite these variations, functions of geese gut microbiota were similar, with great abundances of potential genes involved in nutrient metabolism. This preliminary study would be valuable for future, exhaustive investigations of geese gut microbiota and their interactions with host.
Highlights
The last decade has witnessed rapid development in the investigation of the community composition and structure of vertebrate gut microbiota and their interactions with host[1,2]
After basic processes and a series of quality filtering, 2,766,804 high-quality sequences were assigned to 15,511 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at a level of 97% similarity using the UPARSE pipeline
Sequences classified as Archaea, Chloroplast, and Mitochondria were excluded from subsequent analysis, retaining 14,499 OTUs
Summary
The last decade has witnessed rapid development in the investigation of the community composition and structure of vertebrate gut microbiota and their interactions with host[1,2] These advances are due to the development of new technique, the 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing. Understand the potential functions of gut microbes in these geese, we undertook a comparative investigation of the patterns of diversity and community composition amongst the gut microbiota in different goose species. In contrast to the increasing trend in South Korea or Japan, the abundance of these geese is shrinking in China, especially the swan goose which has been listed as Vulnerable by IUCN19 This situation may relate to diet selection which is considered to be one of the most important factors influencing the abundance and distributions of waterbirds[20]. This study may be an early attempt to examine the gut microbiota of wintering, wild geese under natural dietary conditions in the Yangtze River floodplain that provides the basis for future comparative studies with the same species which are confined to agricultural habitats in other parts of the northern hemisphere
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