Diversity of the fecal microbiota in Chinese ponies

Shipeng Lv; Yanli Zhang; Zhengkai Zhang; Sihan Meng; Yabin Pu; Xuexue Liu; Lingling Liu; Yuehui Ma; Wujun Liu; Lin Jiang

doi:10.3389/fvets.2023.1102186

Diversity of the fecal microbiota in Chinese ponies

Front Vet Sci. 2023 Jan 26:10:1102186. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1102186. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Shipeng Lv^{1

2}, Yanli Zhang^{2

3}, Zhengkai Zhang^{2

3}, Sihan Meng^{2

3}, Yabin Pu^{2

3}, Xuexue Liu⁴, Lingling Liu¹, Yuehui Ma^{2

3}, Wujun Liu¹, Lin Jiang^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ College of Animal Science, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi, China.
² Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Beijing, China.
³ CAAS-ILRI Joint Laboratory on Livestock and Forage Genetic Resources, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Beijing, China.
⁴ Centre d'Anthropobiologie et de Génomique de Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.

Abstract

Introduction: The gut microbiomes of equine are plentiful and intricate, which plays an important part in the growth. However, there is a relative lack of information on the microbial diversity in the pony's gut.

Methods: In this article, 118 fecal samples from DeBa pony, NiQi pony and GuZh horse were studied by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing.

Results: Diversity analysis was used to determine the difference of gut microbiota composition among different breeds. Alpha diversity analysis showed that the gut microbiota of NiQi ponies were abundant and various. Beta diversity analysis showed that the microorganisms constitution of DeBa ponies was more similar to that of NiQi ponies. LDA Effect Size (LEfSe) analysis result that the microorganism biomarkers for NiQi pony at the genus level were Phascolarctobacterium, Paludibacter, and Fibrobacter; the bacterial biomarker for DeBa pony was Streptococcus and Prevotella; and the bacterial biomarkers for GuZh horses was Treponema, Treponema Mogibacterium, Adlercreutzia, and Blautia. The correlation analysis between genera with >1% abundance and horse height found that Streptococcus (P < 0.01), Treponema (P < 0.01), Coprococcus (P < 0.01), Prevotella (P < 0.01), Phascolarctobacterium (P < 0.01), and Mogibacterium (P < 0.01) were significantly associated with horses' height. The functional prediction results indicated that DeBa pony have a microbiota functional more similar to NiQi pony.

Discussion: For the first time, our results announce the species composition and structure of the gut microbiota in Chinese ponies. At the same time, our results can provide theoretical reference for further understanding the healthy breeding, feeding management and disease prevention of horses.

Keywords: 16S rRNA sequencing; equine; fecal microbiota transplantation; intestinal microorganisms; microbial community diversity.

Grants and funding

The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31560620, 32002144, 31972530, and 31772553), Project of Natural Science Foundation of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (2019D01B14), and the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program of China (ASTIP-IAS01). XL received the support of the International Postdoctoral Exchange Fellowship Program (20190102) and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sokolowskis-Curie grant agreement 101027750.