Comparative analysis of fasting effects on the cecum microbiome in three guinea pig breeds: Andina, Inti, and Peru

Hugo Frias; Nilton Luis Murga Valderrama; Gary J Flores Durand; Victor G Cornejo; Ana C Romani; William Bardales; G T Segura; Richard C Polveiro; Dielson da S Vieira; Eduardo M Ramos Sanchez; Rainer M Lopez Lapa; Jorge Luis Maicelo Quintana

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1283738

Comparative analysis of fasting effects on the cecum microbiome in three guinea pig breeds: Andina, Inti, and Peru

Front Microbiol. 2023 Dec 20:14:1283738. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1283738. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Hugo Frias^#^{1

2}, Nilton Luis Murga Valderrama^#^{1

2}, Gary J Flores Durand^#³, Victor G Cornejo³, Ana C Romani³, William Bardales^{1

2

4}, G T Segura^{1

2}, Richard C Polveiro⁵, Dielson da S Vieira^{6

7}, Eduardo M Ramos Sanchez^{8

9}, Rainer M Lopez Lapa^{1

3

9}, Jorge Luis Maicelo Quintana^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Facultad de Ingeniería Zootecnista, Agronegocios y Biotecnología, Instituto de Investigación en Ganadería y Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza de Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru.
² Facultad de Ingeniería Zootecnista, Agronegocios y Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza de Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru.
³ Laboratorio de Fisiología Molecular, Facultad de Ingeniería Zootecnista, Agronegocios y Biotecnología, Instituto de Investigación en Ganadería y Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza de Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru.
⁴ Laboratorio de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Parasitarias, Facultad de Ingeniería Zootecnista, Agronegocios y Biotecnología, Instituto de Investigación en Ganadería y Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza de Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru.
⁵ Laboratory of Bacterial Diseases, Sector of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Public Health, Department of Veterinary, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, MG, Brazil.
⁶ Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States.
⁷ Chemistry Department, Institute for Drug Discovery, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States.
⁸ Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência Animal, Departamento de Zootecnia, Centro de Ciências Agrárias, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Areia, Brazil.
⁹ Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza de Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Guinea pigs have historically been used as a food source and are also an important model for studying the human intestines. Fasting is the act of temporarily stopping the intake of food. This process can alter the microbiota of various animals. This study is the first to investigate the impact of fasting on the cecum microbiome of three guinea pig breeds. We investigated the impact of fasting on the microbiome population structure in the cecum of three guinea pig breeds. This was done by sequencing and analyzing the V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene in bacterial communities found in cecum mucosa samples. To achieve this, we established two treatment groups (fasting and fed), for each of the three guinea pig breeds: Andina, Inti, and Peru. The study involved twenty-eight guinea pigs, which were divided into the following groups: Andina-fed (five), Andina-fasting (five), Inti-fed (four), Inti-fasting (five), Peru-fed (five), and Peru-fasting (four). The results indicated a significant difference in beta diversity between the treatment groups for the Peru breed (P-value = 0.049), but not for the treatment groups of the Andina and Inti breeds. The dominant phyla across all groups were Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. We observed variations in the abundance of different taxa in the cecum microbiota when comparing the treatment groups for each breed. Additionally, there was a higher number of unique taxa observed in the fasting groups compared to the fed groups. We discovered that the genus Victivallis was the only one present in all fasting groups across all breeds. Despite the findings, the resilience of the gut microbiome was not challenged in all three breeds, which can lead to disruptive changes that may affect the overall maintenance of the cecum microbiome. Based on the observed differences in the treatment groups of the Peru breed, it can be suggested that fasting has a greater impact on this particular breed.

Keywords: Andina breed; Guinea pig; Inti breed; Peru breed; cecum microbiome; fasting.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded, in whole, by the project CUI No 2254946 from the National University Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza, Amazonas, Peru.