Abstract
BackgroundGut microbes significantly contribute to nutrient digestion and absorption, intestinal health and immunity, and are essential for the survival and environmental adaptation of wild animals. However, there are few studies on the gut microbiota of captive and wild North China leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis).ResultsA total of 10 mainly bacterial phyla were identified in the fecal microbiota of North China leopard, Lachnoclostridium (p = 0.003), Peptoclostridium (p = 0.005), Bacteroides (p = 0.008), Fusobacterium (p = 0.017) and Collinsella (p = 0.019) were significantly higher than those of wild North China leopard. Distinct differences in the fecal metabolic phenotypes of captive and wild North China leopard were found, such as content of l-methionine, n-acetyl-l-tyrosine, pentadecanoic acid and oleic acid. Differentially abundant gut microbes were associated with fecal metabolites, especially the bacteria in Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, involved in the metabolism of N-acetyl-L-alanine and D-quinovose.ConclusionThis study reports for the first time the differences in gut microbiota abundance between captive and wild North China leopard, as well as significant differences in fecal metabolic phenotypes between two groups.
Highlights
Gut microbes significantly contribute to nutrient digestion and absorption, intestinal health and immunity, and are essential for the survival and environmental adaptation of wild animals
Many studies have shown that the gastrointestinal tracts of human beings and animals contains large and complex microbial communities [6], and changes in the gut microbiota have been shown to affect host metabolism and energy homeostasis [7]. 16S Ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) sequencing technology is widely used in the study of the composition and abundance of the human and animal gut microbiota [8, 9]
Gut microbiota of the North China leopard Based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the fecal microbiota composition of captive and wild North China leopard was analyzed, and 39.01G of high-quality leopard base sequences without adaptor and Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) contamination was obtained
Summary
Gut microbes significantly contribute to nutrient digestion and absorption, intestinal health and immunity, and are essential for the survival and environmental adaptation of wild animals. There are few studies on the gut microbiota of captive and wild North China leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis). Many studies have shown that the gastrointestinal tracts of human beings and animals contains large and complex microbial communities [6], and changes in the gut microbiota have been shown to affect host metabolism and energy homeostasis [7]. Researchers have revealed differences in the composition and structure of the gut microbiota between captive and wild animals, and the stability of the gut microbiota is closely related to the health of the population [10, 11]. The study on the gut microbiota diversity of carnivores with different diets and living environments can better reveal the differences in the functional contribution of the gut microbiota
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