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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1415230
This article is part of the Research Topic Recent Advances and Perspectives on the Gastrointestinal Microbiota of Small Ruminants View all 30 articles

Survey of the fecal microbiota of indigenous small ruminants living in different areas of Guizhou

Provisionally accepted
Wei Guo Wei Guo 1Tingmei Liu Tingmei Liu 1Weiwei Wang Weiwei Wang 1Yinshu Yu Yinshu Yu 1Andre L. Neves Andre L. Neves 2Mi Zhou Mi Zhou 3*Xiang Chen Xiang Chen 1*
  • 1 Guizhou University, Guiyang, China
  • 2 University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark
  • 3 University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The gut microbiota is associated with the health and performance of ruminant species. To explore how fecal microbiota of small ruminants differ among animal populations, here we characterized the fecal microbiota in two goat breeds and one sheep breed distributed across sex groups (males and females). We employed 16S rRNA sequencing to profile the fecal bacteria in Hei and Qianbei Ma goats and Weining sheep in the Chinese of Guizhou province. The fecal microbial profile varied with herd (genetics/altitude) and sex. All samples were categorized into two enterotypes, with the UCG-005 and Christensenellaceae_R-7_group dominating enterotypes 1 and 2 respectively, which may be highly driven by host genetics (breed). The predicted functional profiles of fecal microbiota were also assigned to two clusters that corresponded exactly to the enterotypes. Cluster 1 of the functional profiling was characterized by biosynthesis pathways and cluster 2 by energy metabolism pathways. In conclusion, this study unveiled both the bacterial fecal microbiota profile and the constitution of fecal enterotypes in goats and sheep breeds in Guizhou. Our findings may provide new insight into fecal microbial community and enterotypes in small ruminant by herds, which offers clues for deciphering the mechanisms of the fecal microbiota contributes to the divergent host phenotypes in indigenous small ruminants in Guizhou.

    Keywords: fecal microbiota, Goat, Sheep, Enterotypes, Guizhou

    Received: 10 Apr 2024; Accepted: 22 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Guo, Liu, Wang, Yu, Neves, Zhou and Chen. 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) or licensor 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.

    * Correspondence:
    Mi Zhou, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 2R3, Alberta, Canada
    Xiang Chen, Guizhou University, Guiyang, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.