Social behavior of musk deer during the mating season potentially influences the diversity of their gut microbiome

PeerJ

article

Jianmei Li¹  Wei Luo²  Yudong Zhu²  Qinlong Dai²  Guoqi Liu⁴  Chengli Zheng⁵  Lei Zhou⁵  Shengqiang Li⁶  Zhu Chen⁷  Jianming Wang⁵  Dayong Feng⁵  Kunlin Yang⁸  Zhisong Yang¹  Lifeng Zhu⁹ 

[1] China West Normal University;Sichuan Liziping National Nature Reserve;Shimian Research Center of Giant Panda Small Population Conservation and Rejuvenation;Mingke Biotechnology Co., Ltd.;Sichuan Institute of Musk Deer Breeding;Sichuan Academy of Giant Panda;Sichuan Snail and Tree Education Technology Col, Ltd.;Sichuan Station of Wildlife survey and Management;Biology, Nanjing Norma University

关键词: Musk deer;    Social behavior;    Mating season;    Similarity;    Gut microbiome transmission;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.10860

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

An increasing body of research has revealed that social behavior shapes the animal gut microbiome community and leads to the similarity among the same social group. However, some additional factors (e.g., diet and habitat within each social group) may also contribute to this similarity within the social group and dissimilarity between social groups. Here, we investigated the potential correlation between social behavior and the gut microbiome community in 179 musk deer from four breeding regions in the Maerkang Captive Center, Sichuan. The dominant gut microbiome phyla in the musk deer in this study were Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria. We found significant effects on the alpha and beta diversity of the gut microbiome due to the breeding regions. The similarity within breeding regions was higher than that between the breeding regions. Due to their solitary lifestyle, captive musk deer are raised in single cages with no direct social contact most of the time. Deer in all of the breeding regions have the same diet and similar living conditions. However, during each mating season from November to January, in each region, one adult male and about six adult females will be put together into a large cage. Social behavior happens during cohabitation, including mating behavior, grooming within the same sex or between different sexes, and other social contact. Therefore, we speculated that high similarity within the breeding region might be associated with the social behavior during the mating season. This was a simple and straightforward example of the relationship between animal social behavior and the gut microbiome.

【 授权许可】

CC BY