Abstract
The red panda (Ailurus fulgens) is a herbivorous carnivore that is protected worldwide. The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) microbial community has widely acknowledged its vital role in host health, especially in diet digestion; However, no study to date has revealed the GIT microbiota in the red panda. Here, we characterized the microbial biogeographical characteristics in the GIT of a red panda using high-throughput sequencing technology. Significant differences were observed among GIT segments by beta diversity of microbiota, which were divided into four distinct groups: the stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and feces. The stomach and duodenum showed less bacterial diversity, but contained higher bacterial abundance and the most unclassified tags. The number of species in the stomach and small intestine samples was higher than that of the large intestine and fecal samples. A total of 133 core operational taxonomic units were obtained from the GIT samples with 97% sequence identity. Proteobacteria (52.16%), Firmicutes (10.09%), and Bacteroidetes (7.90%) were the predominant phyla in the GIT of the red panda. Interestingly, Escherichia–Shigella were largely abundant in the stomach, small intestine, and feces whereas the abundance of Bacteroides in the large intestine was high. Overall, our study provides a deeper understanding of the gut biogeography of the red panda microbial population. Future research will be important to investigate the microbial culture, metagenomics and metabolism of red panda GIT, especially in Escherichia–Shigella.
Highlights
The red panda (Ailurus fulgens) is a vulnerable wildlife species that belongs to the family Ailuridae, which is endemic to Carnivora (Yu et al, 2011)
Consistent with our hypothesis, the high-throughput sequencing data from the current study showed that the microbiota in the red panda gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is distinct, with the Proteobacteria predominating (Figure 3)
Our results revealed that the microbiota in the stomach and the small intestine of red panda showed a large number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs): 1643 OTUs in the stomach and 1638 OTUs in the small intestine, mostly Proteobacteria (Supplementary Figure S1A and Supplementary Table S1)
Summary
The red panda (Ailurus fulgens) is a vulnerable wildlife species that belongs to the family Ailuridae, which is endemic to Carnivora (Yu et al, 2011). The species lives mainly in temperate forests in China, Bhutan, India, Burma, and Nepal. Their population is threatened by the climate, diet, and human activity (Deryabina et al, 2015; Princée and Glatston, 2016). The probability of the survival of red panda has increased with successful captive breeding (Kumar et al, 2016). Improved captive measures, such as nutrition diets, regular veterinary care, and species breeding strategies, can promote the protection and conservation of red panda
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