Abstract
The gut microbiota of mammals is a complex ecosystem, which is essential for maintaining gut homeostasis and the host’s health. The high throughput sequencing allowed us to gain a deeper insight into the bacterial structure and diversity. In order to improve the health status of the endangered golden takins, we first characterized the fecal microbiota of healthy golden takins using high throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA genes V3–V4 hypervariable regions. Our results showed that, Firstly, the gut microbiota community comprised 21 phyla, 40 classes, 62 orders, 96 families, and 216 genera. Firmicutes (67.59%) was the most abundant phylum, followed by Bacteroidetes (23.57%) and Proteobacteria (2.37%). Secondly, the golden takin maintained higher richness in spring than in the winter while community diversity and evenness was not significantly different. Thirdly, four female golden takins demonstrated highly similar microbiota and the five golden takin males had relatively highly similar microbiota. All of our results might indicate that the fecal microbiota of golden takins were influenced by the season and the animal’s sex. The findings provided theoretical basis regarding the gut microbiota of golden takins and may offer new insights to protect this endangered species.
Highlights
The takin (Budorcas taxicolor) is a large Himalayan ungulate in the family Bovidae, which is classified into four subspecies based on distinct differences in physical characteristics and geographic location, including the golden takin (B. t.bedfordi), the Mishmi takin (B. t.taxicolor), the Sichuan takin
Our result indicated that season was a factor that might impact the composition of the gut microbiota
During quality control, a total of 670,356 high-quality sequences with an average length of 410 bp per sample were obtained from the nine fecal samples
Summary
The takin (Budorcas taxicolor) is a large Himalayan ungulate in the family Bovidae, which is classified into four subspecies based on distinct differences in physical characteristics and geographic location, including the golden takin (B. t.bedfordi), the Mishmi takin (B. t.taxicolor), the Sichuan takin The golden takin and the Sichuan takin are endemic subspecies of China. Relative to the other subspecies, the golden takin is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN 2008) and is under state protection (category I) in China. The golden takin is a type of social bovid herbivore. As a ruminant, this animal primarily forages on the browse of trees and shrubs (Schaller et al 1986). In the spring and summer, golden takins undertake seasonal
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