Diversity of intestinal microbiota of Caracal cat ( Caracal caracal ) by high-throughput sequence of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene

Abstract

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to study the intestinal microbial diversity of the caracal cats (Caracal caracal). MethodsFecal samples from 7 wild adult caracal cats (2 males and 5 females) were collected, 2 of them were raised in Ji'nan Wildlife Park and 5 of them were raised in Weihai Wildlife Park. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene V3-V4 region of caracal cats was carried out. ResultsA total of 1458741 valid sequences of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was obtained, with an average of 208392 valid sequences and an average sequence length of 433 bp. By classifying with 97% sequence similarity, an average of 233 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained. These OTUs were all classified into the bacterial domain, including 13 phyla, 26 classes, 43 orders, 75 families, and 119 genera. Among them, the most abundant bacteria are Firmicutes (accounting for 61.7% of all OTUs), Actinobacteria (12.42%), Bacteroidetes (7.79%), Fusobacteroidetes (7.79%) and Proteobacteria (7.53%). The most abundant families were Peptostreptococcaceae (accounting for about 16.15% of all OTUs), Clostridiaceae_I (14.78%), Lachnospiraceae (13.13%) and Coriobacteriaceae (12.31%), etc. The most abundant genera were Collinsella (11.44%), Peptoclostridium (10.91%), Clostridium sensu stricto 1 (10.3%), Bacteroides (7.41%) and Peptostreptococcus (5.21%), etc. An average of 15.35% of the OTUs in the gut microbiota of the 7 caracal cats was unclassified at the genus level. Cluster analysis showed that the samples from the same park were clustered into one branch. ConclusionCharacteristics of the intestinal microbiota of the caracal cats were described and the results would provide scientific information for the rescue feeding and digestive physiology research of the caracal cats.