Comparative Analysis of Fecal Microbiota of Grazing Mongolian Cattle from Different Regions in Inner Mongolia, China

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Recently, there has been increasing attention focused on the intestinal microflorae of animals due to their critical role in maintaining health and preventing disease. With the improvement of the Chinese national economy and the people’s material standard of living, the beef cattle industry is growing rapidly to meet the growing market demand for beef. Mongolian cattle is a precious genetic resource in China and an excellent cattle breed in Inner Mongolia. However, updated research on topics concerning the gut microbiota of Mongolian cattle are absent. Therefore, this study focused on the differences in the gut microbiota composition of Mongolian cattle in different geographical environments. The gut microbiota composition of the Mongolian cattle from the grasslands was relatively similar, while that from the desert areas was different. The results of this study contribute to our understanding of the influence of geographical factors on the composition of gut microbiota in Mongolian cattle. ABSTRACT: Mongolian cattle from China have strong adaptability and disease resistance. We aimed to compare the gut microbiota community structure and diversity in grazing Mongolian cattle from different regions in Inner Mongolia and to elucidate the influence of geographical factors on the intestinal microbial community structure. We used high throughput 16S rRNA sequencing to analyze the fecal microbial community and diversity in samples from 60 grazing Mongolian cattle from Hulunbuir Grassland, Xilingol Grassland, and Alxa Desert. A total of 2,720,545 high-quality reads and sequences that were 1,117,505,301 bp long were obtained. Alpha diversity among the three groups showed that the gut microbial diversity in Mongolian cattle in the grasslands was significantly higher than that in the desert. The dominant phyla were Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, whereas Verrucomicrobia presented the highest abundance in the gut of cattle in the Alxa Desert. The gut bacterial communities in cattle from the grasslands versus the Alxa Desert were distinctive, and those from the grasslands were closely clustered. Community composition analysis revealed significant differences in species diversity and richness. Overall, the composition of the gut microbiota in Mongolian cattle is affected by geographical factors. Gut microbiota may play important roles in the geographical adaptations of Mongolian cattle.