Metagenomics Of The Gut Microbiota In Divergently Selected Chicken Lines

The organism is a superorganism which is consisted of the body andthe micro-organism that colonized in the gut. The interaction betweenmicrobes and host are mysterious and complicated. Previous studies showthat many physiological characteristics of the animal, including diabetes,hypertension, obesity, chronic diseases and so on, are influenced by theirinteraction. However, the mechanism of the interaction is still obscure.This experiment studied the population structure of gut microbiota intwo lines of chickens maintained under the same husbandry and dietaryregimes using next-generation sequencing. The lines, which originatedfrom a common founder population, had undergone54generations ofdivergently selection for high (HW) or low (LW)56-day body weight, andnow differ by more than10-fold in body weight at selection age.Of190microbiome species found in the two lines,68that affected bygenotype (line), gender, and genotype by gender interactions were showedsignificant differences（P<0.05）. Species affected by genotype and gender were29and48, respectively. It was interesting that fifteen of the68species belong to Lactobacillus, the probiotics caused widespread concerntoday. The study suggested that while maintained under the samehusbandry and dietary regimes, the host quantitative genotype couldinfluence the composition of the gut intestinal microbiota, and within aline the population structure of the gut microbiota was not necessarily thesame for the females and males. Thus the two divergently selected chickenlines were considered as an ideal model used for studying themetagenomics of the gut of animals, and the results obtained in this studywill provide a basic reference for investigating the mutualistic symbiosisrelationship and co-metabolism between the host and the gut microbiota,including humans.