Abstract
BackgroundThe Chinese monal (Lophophorus lhuysii) is an endangered bird species, with a wild population restricted to the mountains in southwest China, and only one known captive population in the world. We investigated the fecal microbiota and metabolome of wild and captive Chinese monals to explore differences and similarities in nutritional status and digestive characteristics. An integrated approach combining 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) gene sequencing and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) based metabolomics were used to examine the fecal microbiota composition and the metabolomic profile of Chinese monals.ResultsThe results showed that the alpha diversity of gut microbes in the wild group were significantly higher than that in the captive group and the core bacterial taxa in the two groups showed remarkable differences at phylum, class, order, and family levels. Metabolomic profiling also revealed differences, mainly related to galactose, starch and sucrose metabolism, fatty acid, bile acid biosynthesis and bile secretion. Furthermore, strong correlations between metabolite types and bacterial genus were detected.ConclusionsThere were remarkable differences in the gut microbiota composition and metabolomic profile between wild and captive Chinese monals. This study has established a baseline for a normal gut microbiota and metabolomic profile for wild Chinese monals, thus allowing us to evaluate if differences seen in captive organisms have an impact on their overall health and reproduction.
Highlights
The Chinese monal (Lophophorus lhuysii) is an endangered bird species, with a wild population restricted to the mountains in southwest China, and only one known captive population in the world
Microbial community composition A total of 1,466,455 high-quality reads with an average sequencing depth of 35,767 ± 1265 reads per wild Chinese monal (WCM) fecal sample was conducted and classified into 2132 operational taxonomic units (OTUs)
580,736 highquality reads with an average sequencing depth of 36, 296 ± 1062 reads per captive Chinese monal (CCM) fecal sample was conducted and classified into 4899 OTUs
Summary
The Chinese monal (Lophophorus lhuysii) is an endangered bird species, with a wild population restricted to the mountains in southwest China, and only one known captive population in the world. We investigated the fecal microbiota and metabolome of wild and captive Chinese monals to explore differences and similarities in nutritional status and digestive characteristics. The Chinese monal (Lophophorus lhuysii) belongs to the order Galliformes, family Phasianidae, distributed in the mountains of southwest China at an elevation of 3000 to 4900 m [1]. It is an endemic bird species of China, which has been listed as endangered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and. The IUCN states the wild population of Chinese monal continues to decrease with research needed to understand their ecology and threats to their livelihood (Available at https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22679192/30181918).
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