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Developmental stage variation in the gut microbiome of South China tigers
South China tigers (Panthera tigris amoyensis, SC) are the most threatened tiger subspecies in the world. All the living SCs are captive in zoos or reserves and depend on artificial feeding. The composition of the gut microbiome plays an important role in sustaining the health of the host. A compreh...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9682017/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36439793 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.962614 |
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author | Zhang, Xianfu Liao, Yanxin Qin, Tao Ma, Jinghua Liu, Jianxun Zou, Jianqiang Huang, Haijun Zhong, Xiaojun Yang, Menghua |
author_facet | Zhang, Xianfu Liao, Yanxin Qin, Tao Ma, Jinghua Liu, Jianxun Zou, Jianqiang Huang, Haijun Zhong, Xiaojun Yang, Menghua |
author_sort | Zhang, Xianfu |
collection | PubMed |
description | South China tigers (Panthera tigris amoyensis, SC) are the most threatened tiger subspecies in the world. All the living SCs are captive in zoos or reserves and depend on artificial feeding. The composition of the gut microbiome plays an important role in sustaining the health of the host. A comprehensive understanding of the composition and development of the microbial community of SC is helpful to improve the feeding of captive SC. In this study, we collected 47 fecal samples, 37 of which were from SC of three developmental stages, 5 from adult Amur tigers (Am), and 5 from adult Bengal tigers (Bg), which were all housed in the same zoo. We investigated the diversity, richness, and composition of the bacterial microbiomes and we found that the gut microbiome of SC is strongly affected by host aging. The composition of the gut microbiome of juvenile SC experienced dramatic changes from 5 months old to 1 year old, and it showed much less difference when compared to the samples of 1 year old and the subadult. No significant differences were observed between the samples of subadult and the adult groups. The predominant phylum of 5-month-old SC is Fusobacteriota (33.99%) when the juvenile tigers were older than 5 months, and Firmicutes, but not Fusobacteriota, became the predominant phylum of bacteria in their gut. The gut microbiome of SC, Am, and Bg is possibly affected by their genetic variation; however, the core microbiome of these three subspecies is the same. Our data suggest that the gut microbiome of SC undergoes a developmental progression: a developmental phase (cub), a transitional phase (subadult), and a stable phase (adult). These results expand our understanding of the role of age in the development of the gut microbiome of SC. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9682017 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-96820172022-11-24 Developmental stage variation in the gut microbiome of South China tigers Zhang, Xianfu Liao, Yanxin Qin, Tao Ma, Jinghua Liu, Jianxun Zou, Jianqiang Huang, Haijun Zhong, Xiaojun Yang, Menghua Front Microbiol Microbiology South China tigers (Panthera tigris amoyensis, SC) are the most threatened tiger subspecies in the world. All the living SCs are captive in zoos or reserves and depend on artificial feeding. The composition of the gut microbiome plays an important role in sustaining the health of the host. A comprehensive understanding of the composition and development of the microbial community of SC is helpful to improve the feeding of captive SC. In this study, we collected 47 fecal samples, 37 of which were from SC of three developmental stages, 5 from adult Amur tigers (Am), and 5 from adult Bengal tigers (Bg), which were all housed in the same zoo. We investigated the diversity, richness, and composition of the bacterial microbiomes and we found that the gut microbiome of SC is strongly affected by host aging. The composition of the gut microbiome of juvenile SC experienced dramatic changes from 5 months old to 1 year old, and it showed much less difference when compared to the samples of 1 year old and the subadult. No significant differences were observed between the samples of subadult and the adult groups. The predominant phylum of 5-month-old SC is Fusobacteriota (33.99%) when the juvenile tigers were older than 5 months, and Firmicutes, but not Fusobacteriota, became the predominant phylum of bacteria in their gut. The gut microbiome of SC, Am, and Bg is possibly affected by their genetic variation; however, the core microbiome of these three subspecies is the same. Our data suggest that the gut microbiome of SC undergoes a developmental progression: a developmental phase (cub), a transitional phase (subadult), and a stable phase (adult). These results expand our understanding of the role of age in the development of the gut microbiome of SC. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-11-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9682017/ /pubmed/36439793 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.962614 Text en Copyright © 2022 Zhang, Liao, Qin, Ma, Liu, Zou, Huang, Zhong and Yang. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Microbiology Zhang, Xianfu Liao, Yanxin Qin, Tao Ma, Jinghua Liu, Jianxun Zou, Jianqiang Huang, Haijun Zhong, Xiaojun Yang, Menghua Developmental stage variation in the gut microbiome of South China tigers |
title | Developmental stage variation in the gut microbiome of South China tigers |
title_full | Developmental stage variation in the gut microbiome of South China tigers |
title_fullStr | Developmental stage variation in the gut microbiome of South China tigers |
title_full_unstemmed | Developmental stage variation in the gut microbiome of South China tigers |
title_short | Developmental stage variation in the gut microbiome of South China tigers |
title_sort | developmental stage variation in the gut microbiome of south china tigers |
topic | Microbiology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9682017/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36439793 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.962614 |
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