Abstract
Nutrition and health of northern white-cheeked gibbons (Nomascus leucogenys) are considered to be primarily influenced by the diversity of their gastrointestinal tract (GIT) microbiota. However, the precise composition, structure, and role of the gibbon GIT microbiota remain unclear. Microbial communities from the GITs of gibbons from Nanning (NN, n = 36) and Beijing (BJ, n = 20) Zoos were examined through 16S rRNA sequencing. Gibbon’s GITs microbiomes contained bacteria from 30 phyla, dominated by human-associated microbial signatures: Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria. Microbial species richness was markedly different between adult gibbons (>8 years) under distinct captive conditions. The relative abundance of 14 phyla varied significantly in samples of adults in BJ versus NN. Among the age groups examined in NN, microbiota of adult gibbons had greater species variation and richer community diversity than microbiota of nursing young (<6 months) and juveniles (2–5 years). Age-dependent increases in the relative abundances of Firmicutes and Fibrobacteres were detected, along with simultaneous increases in dietary fiber intake. A few differences were detected between sex cohorts in NN, suggesting a very weak correlation between sex and GIT microbiota. This study is the first to taxonomically identify gibbon’s GITs microbiota confirming that microbiota composition varies with age and captive condition.
Highlights
The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) microbiome in animals and humans includes a complex consortia of microbes[1,2,3,4], and has even been considered an endocrine organ[5,6], The GIT microbiome significantly contributes to host nutrition, health, growth, development, reproduction and immunity through relationships that range from commensal and mutualistic to pathogenic[7,8,9]
The GIT microbiome differed among individuals in distant populations, the bacterial composition was similar among closely related individuals and primates of the same species[17,18,19]
GIT microbiotas by sequencing the bacterial 16S V3–V4 hypervariable region in fecal samples collected from 56 northern white-cheeked gibbons held in two Chinese captive facilities (NN and Beijing Zoo (BJ))
Summary
The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) microbiome in animals and humans includes a complex consortia of microbes[1,2,3,4], and has even been considered an endocrine organ[5,6], The GIT microbiome significantly contributes to host nutrition, health, growth, development, reproduction and immunity through relationships that range from commensal and mutualistic to pathogenic[7,8,9]. The GIT microbiome of many NHPs has been taxonomically identified, including red-shanked doucs, mantled howler monkeys, black howler monkeys, gorillas, African apes, chimpanzees and eastern chimpanzees[1,8,9,10] These studies have reported that the microflora in the GIT varied by species and was modified by habitat, diet, age, sex, and disease[1,11,12,13,14,15,16]. As the critical host–microbe interactions are responsive to environmental and dietary changes[9], characterizing the composition, structure, and role of the GIT microbiota of northern white-cheeked gibbons in captivity will improve our understanding of their nutritional adaptations, and will support the health of captive populations when animals are reintroduced into the wild[9]. We investigated community diversity (Shannon’s diversity index), richness (observed species and ACE and Chao indices), composition, and abundances of the microbiota in fecal samples collected from nursing young, juvenile, and adult captive gibbons from the NN group, adult captive gibbons from the BJ group, as well as female and male captive gibbons from the NN group
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