The Intestinal Microbial Composition And Diversity Of Red Deer(Cervus Elaphus Xan Thopygus)during Winter In Gaogustai,Inner Mongolia,China

The red deer?Cervus elaphus?,a large forest-inhabiting herbivore in the family Cerdivae,is identified as national second-class protected wildlife in China and plays an important role in northern forest ecosystem.The intestinal microbiota plays an important role in the circulation of materials,the flow of energy,signal transmissions and neurological regulations.The health condition of organism has close connection with compositional stability of the intestinal microbiota.Considering the influence of microbiota on wildlife,the analysis about intestinal microbial composition and diversity allows us to reveal micro-ecosystem of red deer and evaluate the health level on population,and helps us make population conservation and habitat restoration strategies for red deer.So we collected 63 samples of red deer from Gaogustai Hanula national nature reserve,then we analyzed the intestinal microbial composition and diversity by 16S rRNA sequencing technology to reveal the intestinal micro-ecology of red deer.The main research results were showed:?1?By high-throughout sequencing technology,we obtained 1701000 effective tags,and 24720TU were identified based on a distance matrix of 97%of similarity.The result showed that the gut microbiota community of red deer comprised 22 phyla,34 classes,79 orders,145 families and 346 genera.At phylum level,Firmicutes?79.03%?was the most abundant phylum,followed by Bacteroidete?16.74%?,the two phyla accounted for about 96%of the intestinal microbiota.At family level,Ruminococcaceae?51.45%?was the most abundant family,followed by Lachnospiraceae?13.19%?,the two families accounted for about 65%of the intestinal microbiota..At the genus level,Ruminococcaceae_UCG-005?21.12%?was the most abundant genus,followed by Christensenellaceae_R-7_group?8.86%?,the two genera accounted for about 30%of the intestinal microbiota.?2?Compared the alpha diversity between different periods in winter:The samples collected in later winter had higher Shannon diversity than the samples collected in the early winter,and the significant difference was discovered in female samples?P<0.05?.Although the male samples didn't showed significant difference?P>0.05?,the Shannon diversity also increased in later winter.?3?At phylum level,the gut microbial composition and structure had no significant difference.At class level,the relative abundance of Bacilli in later winter?female samples?was about 2.6 times higher than in early winter?P=0.02111<0.05?.At order level,the relative abundance of Bacillales in later winter?female samples?was about 2.7 times higher than in early winter?P<0.05?,and Micrococcales in later winter was about 7 times higher than in the early winter?P<0.05?.At genus level,the relative abundance of Bacillus in later winter?male samples?was about 3 times higher than in the early winter?P<0.05?.?4?The number of OTU was higher in female samples than in male samples,and the number of unique OTU also was higher in female samples.At phylum level,the abundance of Fibrobaeter?LDA=2.273?in male samples collected from early winter was significant higher than female samples.At family level,the abundance of Fibrobacteraceae?LDA=2.257??norank_oBacteroidales?LDA=3.425??Kaistiaceae?LDA=2.418??p₂534₁8B5_gut_group?LDA=3.170?in male samples collected from early winter were significant higher than female samples,but the abundance of Muribaculaceae?LDA=3.228??Micrococcaceae?LDA=2.077??lostridiaceae₁?LDA=3.046?in female samples were significant higher than male samples.All of these showed that some gut microbiota had significant difference between sexes,and these microbial community make significant influence on the gut microbiota of red deer.