Unraveling the Fecal Microbiota and Metagenomic Functional Capacity Associated with Feed Efficiency in Pigs

Frontiers in Microbiology

Hui Yang¹  Ming Yang²  Zhenfang Wu²  Shaoming Fang³  Zhiyan Zhang³  Xiaochang Huang³  Congying Chen³  Yuanzhang Zhao³  Lusheng Huang³  Maozhang He³ 

[1] College of Bioscience and Engineering, Jiangxi Agricultural UniversityNanchang, China;National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Wens Foodstuff Co. Ltd.Xinxing, China;State Key Laboratory of Pig Genetic Improvement and Production Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural UniversityNanchang, China;

关键词: feed efficiency;    gut microbiota;    metagenome;    16S rRNA gene;    swine;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmicb.2017.01555

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Gut microbiota plays fundamental roles in energy harvest, nutrient digestion, and intestinal health, especially in processing indigestible components of polysaccharides in diet. Unraveling the microbial taxa and functional capacity of gut microbiome associated with feed efficiency can provide important knowledge to improve pig feed efficiency in swine industry. In the current research, we studied the association of fecal microbiota with feed efficiency in 280 commercial Duroc pigs. All experimental pigs could be clustered into two enterotype-like groups. Different enterotypes showed the tendency of association with the feed efficiency (P = 0.07). We further identified 31 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) showing the potential associations with porcine feed efficiency. These OTUs were mainly annotated to the bacteria related to the metabolisms of dietary polysaccharides. Although we did not identify the RFI-associated bacterial species at FDR < 0.05 level, metagenomic sequencing analysis did find the distinct function capacities of gut microbiome between the high and low RFI pigs (FDR < 0.05). The KEGG orthologies related to nitrogen metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and transport system, and eight KEGG pathways including glycine, serine, and threonine metabolism were positively associated with porcine feed efficiency. We inferred that gut microbiota might improve porcine feed efficiency through promoting intestinal health by the SCFAs produced by fermenting dietary polysaccharides and improving the utilization of dietary protein. The present results provided important basic knowledge for improving porcine feed efficiency through modulating gut microbiome.

【 授权许可】

Unknown