Abstract
Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus) is a non-migratory subspecies of reindeer inhabiting the high-arctic archipelago of Svalbard. In contrast to other Rangifer tarandus subspecies, Svalbard reindeer graze exclusively on natural sources of food and have no chance of ingestion of any crops. We report the use of a non-invasive method for analysis of fecal microbiome by means of sequencing the 16S rDNA extracted from the fecal microbiota of R. tarandus platyrhynchus from a small, isolated population in Hornsund, South Spitsbergen National Park. Analyses of all samples showed that 99% of the total reads were represented by Bacteria. Taxonomy-based analysis showed that fecal bacterial communities consisted of 14 phyla. The most abundant phyla across the population were Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, and those phyla jointly accounted for more than 95% of total bacterial sequences (ranging between 90.14 and 98.19%). Specifically, Firmicutes comprised 56.53% (42.98–63.64%) and Bacteroidetes comprised 39.17% (34.56–47.16%) of the total reads. The remaining 5% of the population reads comprised of Tenericutes, Cyanobacteria, TM7, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, Elusimicrobia, Planctomycetes, Fibrobacteres, Spirochaetes, Chloroflexi, and Deferribacteres. Differences in the fecal bacteria composition between particular reindeer were not statistically significant which may reflect the restricted location and similar diet of all members of the local population.
Highlights
Microbial community inhabiting reindeer gut was mainly studied by traditional cultivation methods or classical molecular techniques (Mathiesen et al, 1987; Sørmo et al, 1994; Aagnes et al, 1995; Sundset et al, 2007, 2009; Glad et al, 2014) resulting in insufficient characterization
This study allows for recognition of bacterial population structure in fecal samples, but does not allow a comparison of rumen and fecal bacterial community structure
It has been shown with the use of traditional cultivation methods that most of the dominant bacterial species present in the cecum of Svalbard reindeer were found at the same ratio in the rumen of the same animal over seasons (Mathiesen et al, 1987)
Summary
Microbial community inhabiting reindeer gut was mainly studied by traditional cultivation methods or classical molecular techniques (Mathiesen et al, 1987; Sørmo et al, 1994; Aagnes et al, 1995; Sundset et al, 2007, 2009; Glad et al, 2014) resulting in insufficient characterization. Data obtained with traditional approaches are a valuable source, but cannot be directly compared with the NGS data, which provides a possibility to detect the vast majority of bacteria and can show the real contribution of a given species to the whole bacterial community. Fecal Microbiota of Svalbard Reindeer obtained in a traditional way may underestimate the number of certain bacteria, especially since the majority of 16S rRNA genes sequenced from reindeer gut represent novel and uncultured bacterial species (Sundset et al, 2007). It has been estimated that using culture based techniques (isolation, enumeration, and nutritional characterization) can only account for 10– 20% of the total rumen microbial community (Makkar and McSweeney, 2005). According to Ramsak et al (2000) ruminal Bacteroides are seriously under-represented in cultivation based methods and among cultured isolates, which could be due to their stricter requirement for anaerobic cultivation
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