Sex- and age-specific variation of gut microbiota in Brandt’s voles

PeerJ

article

Xiaoming Xu¹  Zhibin Zhang¹ 

[1] State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences;CAS Center for Excellence in Biotic Interactions, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

关键词: Gut microbiota;    Sex;    Age;    Wild animal;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.11434

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundGut microbiota plays a key role in the survival and reproduction of wild animals which rely on microbiota to break down plant compounds for nutrients. As compared to laboratory animals, wild animals face much more threat of environmental changes (e.g. food shortages and risk of infection). Therefore, studying the gut microbiota of wild animals can help us better understand the mechanisms animals use to adapt to their environment.MethodsWe collected the feces of Brandt’s voles in the grassland, of three age groups (juvenile, adult and old), in both sexes. We studied the gut microbiota by 16S rRNA sequencing.ResultsThe main members of gut microbiota in Brandt’s voles were Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria. As voles get older, the proportion of Firmicutes increased gradually, and the proportion of Bacteroides decreased gradually. The diversity of the microbiota of juveniles is lower, seems like there is still a lot of space for colonization, and there are large variations in the composition of the microbiome between individuals. In adulthood, the gut microbiota tends to be stable, and the diversity is highest. In adult, the abundances of Christensenellaceae and Peptococcus of female were significantly higher than male voles.ConclusionsThe gut microbiota of Brandt’s vole was influenced by sex and age, probably due to growth needs and hormone levels. Gut microbiota of wild animals were much influenced by their life-history reflected by their age and sex. Future studies will be directed to identify functions of these “wild microbiota” in regulating physiological or behavioral processes of wild animals in different life stage or sexes.

【 授权许可】

CC BY