Fecal microbial composition associated with testosterone in the development of Meishan male pigs

Xueyuan Jiang; Shaoshan Deng; Naisheng Lu; Wen Yao; Dong Xia; Weilong Tu; Hulong Lei; Peng Jia; Yeqing Gan

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1257295

Fecal microbial composition associated with testosterone in the development of Meishan male pigs

Front Microbiol. 2023 Nov 20:14:1257295. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1257295. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xueyuan Jiang¹, Shaoshan Deng^{1

2}, Naisheng Lu¹, Wen Yao², Dong Xia¹, Weilong Tu¹, Hulong Lei¹, Peng Jia¹, Yeqing Gan³

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Breeding Pig, Livestock and Poultry Resources (Pig) Evaluation and Utilization Key Laboratory of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China.
² College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
³ Meishan Pig Breeding Center of Jiading, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Introduction: The gut microbiota closely relates to host health, whereas the relationship between gut microbiota and testosterone during the development of Meishan male pigs remains unclear. This study investigated the fecal microbiota composition and testosterone level during development in Meishan male pigs.

Methods: Fresh fecal samples of 20 healthy Meishan male pigs were individually collected at 10 and 22 weeks (wk) of age for testosterone content detection and bacteria pyrosequencing analysis. Anaerobic culture experiment of fecal bacteria in vitro was performed for bacteria pyrosequencing analysis.

Results: The fecal testosterone content increased significantly from 10 weeks (wk) to 22 wk of age (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the boars at 22 wk had a lower abundance of phylum Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria, and genus Alloprevotella, Prevotella_1, Prevotellaceae_NK3B31_group, and Streptococcus in the fecal microbiota composition (P < 0.05). but higher proportions of the phylum Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Kiritimatiellaeota, and Tenericutes, and genus Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1, Muribaculaceae and Terrisporobacter than that at 10 wk (P < 0.05), and the Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio was higher at 22 wk than 10 wk (P < 0.05). Moreover, the fecal testosterone level significantly correlated with the relative abundance of the phylum Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Tencuteseri, and genus Alloprevotella, Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1, Muribaculaceae, Prevotella_1 and Streptococcus. Furthermore, the in vitro experiments indicated that the abundance of the phylum Proteobacteria and genus Escherichia-Shigella reduced with the increase of supplemental testosterone level. In contrast, the proportion of Firmicutes phylum increased with additional testosterone levels.

Discussion: Testosterone could modulate the microflora structure. Meanwhile, the bacteria could degrade the testosterone in a dose testosterone-dependent manner. These results provide us with new insights into the relationship between the gut microbiome and testosterone and the contributions of the gut microbiome in physiological regulation in response to gonad development.

Keywords: Meishan male pigs; development; interaction; microbiome; testosterone.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The work was supported by Youth Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32100033 and Grant No. 32002177).