Abstract
The subgingival microbial communities of domestic cats remain incompletely characterized and it is unknown whether their functional profiles are associated with disease. In this study, we used a shotgun metagenomic approach to explore the functional potential of subgingival microbial communities in client-owned cats, comparing findings between periodontally healthy cats and cats with naturally occurring chronic periodontitis, aggressive periodontitis, and feline chronic gingivostomatitis. Subgingival samples were subjected to shotgun sequencing and the metagenomic datasets were analyzed using the MG-RAST metagenomic analysis server and STAMP v2.1.3 (Statistical Analysis of Metagenomic Profiles) software. The microbial composition was also described to better understand the predicted features of the communities. The Respiration category in the level 1 Subsystems database varied significantly among groups. In this category, the abundance of V-Type ATP-synthase and Biogenesis of cytochrome c oxidases were significantly enriched in the diseased and in the healthy groups, respectively. Both features have been previously described in periodontal studies in people and are in consonance with the microbial composition of feline subgingival sites. In addition, the narH (nitrate reductase) gene frequency, identified using the KEGG Orthology database, was significantly increased in the healthy group. The results of this study provide preliminary functional insights of the microbial communities associated with periodontitis in domestic cats and suggest that the ATP-synthase and nitrate-nitrite-NO pathways may represent appropriate targets for the treatment of this common disease.
Highlights
The subgingival microbial communities of domestic cats remain incompletely characterized and it is unknown whether their functional profiles are associated with disease
The other 39 metagenomic samples were distributed as follows based on periodontal status as determined by standard-of-care clinical and radiographic findings: 10 independent samples from cats diagnosed with aggressive periodontitis (AP), 14 independent samples from cats diagnosed with chronic periodontitis (CP), 9 independent samples from cats diagnosed with in the feline chronic gingivostomatitis (FCGS), and 6 independent samples from periodontally healthy cats
The pathway that includes the narH gene is part of the NarL family from the Two-Component System (Pathway map: eco02020 Two-component system; class: Environmental Information Processing; Signal transduction). This was identified using the KEGG Mapper plugin for KEGG pathway mapping. This is the first study that uses shotgun metagenomics to investigate the compositional and functional profile of subgingival microbial communities associated with periodontal health and spontaneous periodontal disease in domestic cats
Summary
The subgingival microbial communities of domestic cats remain incompletely characterized and it is unknown whether their functional profiles are associated with disease. The Respiration category in the level 1 Subsystems database varied significantly among groups In this category, the abundance of V-Type ATP-synthase and Biogenesis of cytochrome c oxidases were significantly enriched in the diseased and in the healthy groups, respectively. The abundance of V-Type ATP-synthase and Biogenesis of cytochrome c oxidases were significantly enriched in the diseased and in the healthy groups, respectively Both features have been previously described in periodontal studies in people and are in consonance with the microbial composition of feline subgingival sites. The results of this study provide preliminary functional insights of the microbial communities associated with periodontitis in domestic cats and suggest that the ATP-synthase and nitrate-nitrite-NO pathways may represent appropriate targets for the treatment of this common disease.
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