Abstract
The host gut colonized enormous microbial community, which can be influenced by diet, diseases, behavior, age, gender, hereditary effects, and environmental factors. However, the relationship between gut microbiota and host genetic variation has not yet been elucidated. In this study, we chose five pheasant lineages—Ring-necked pheasant (RN), Manchurian pheasant (MX), Phasianus versicolor (PV), Shenhong pheasant (SP), and Melanistic mutant pheasant (MM)—to investigate the gut microbial composition of pheasants and its relationship with host genetic variation. Microbial classifications revealed 29 phyla and 241 genera presented in pheasants, with the dominant phylum of Firmicutes and the genus of Lactobacillus. Statistical analyses suggest that the relative abundance of 75 genera was significantly different among the five lineages. The most abundant genus carried by the RN and MM was Streptococcus, which was significantly lower in PV (p = 0.024). Conversely, Lactobacillus was the major genera in PV and MX. Moreover, the RN had the greatest microbial abundance, with a remarkably different microbial community than PV. The gut microbial diversity of PV was the lowest and diverged significantly from the RN and MX. Interestingly, the clustering of the MM and SP in the microbial dendrogram corresponded to their cluster in the host phylogeny. The host phylogenetic split of the RN, MX, and PV echoed their microbial distance. In conclusion, the congruence of host phylogeny and their gut microbial dendrograms implies that gut microbiota of pheasant lineages could reflect their host genetic variation.
Highlights
Animals are colonized by complex gut microbiota that play a crucial role in the physiological metabolism, growth, development, and evolution of the host (Turnbaugh and Gordon, 2009; Turnbaugh et al, 2009), and the structure of microbial community can be shaped by environmental factors and host genetic variations (Ley et al, 2006)
The Ring-necked pheasant (RN), MX, and Phasianus versicolor (PV) were imported from the same farm at the same time, and Shenhong pheasant (SP) and Melanistic mutant pheasant (MM) were long-term domestic pheasant lines, but all of these lines had been maintained in the same husbandry conditions for several years
The lines of MX, PV, and RN clustered together in the gut microbial dendrogram may suggest that the composition of gut microbiota can be influenced by the environment
Summary
Animals are colonized by complex gut microbiota that play a crucial role in the physiological metabolism, growth, development, and evolution of the host (Turnbaugh and Gordon, 2009; Turnbaugh et al, 2009), and the structure of microbial community can be shaped by environmental factors and host genetic variations (Ley et al, 2006). A study of hydra indicated that the microbiota of polyps raised in the laboratory for more than 30 years maintained similar characteristics with wild polyps, even over the long time (Fraune and Bosch, 2007). These significant congruence indicate phylosymbiosis, which is when the phylogeny of host species parallels the ecological relatedness of corresponding microbial communities (Brooks et al, 2016; Ross et al, 2018). We aimed to investigate this unclear mechanism by analyzing the gut microbiota composition and function in different pheasant lineages
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