Quantitative genetic background of the host influences gut microbiomes in chickens

Abstract

Host genotype and gender are among the factors that influence the composition of gut microbiota. We studied the population structure of gut microbiota in two lines of chickens maintained under the same husbandry and dietary regimes. The lines, which originated from a common founder population, had undergone 54 generations of selection for high (HW) or low (LW) 56-day body weight, and now differ by more than 10-fold in body weight at selection age. Of 190 microbiome species, 68 were affected by genotype (line), gender, and genotype by gender interactions. Fifteen of the 68 species belong to Lactobacillus. Species affected by genotype, gender, and the genotype by gender interaction, were 29, 48, and 12, respectively. Species affected by gender were 30 and 17 in the HW and LW lines, respectively. Thus, under a common diet and husbandry host quantitative genotype and gender influenced gut microbiota composite.

Figure 1. Generation means at selection age (56-day body weight) for high (HW) and low (LW) line females and the distribution for the gut microbiomes composite for HW and LW lines at the phylum level.

Figure 2. Gut microbiota compositions for two lines (HW and LW) of chickens with different quantitative genotypes.

(a) Distribution of gut microbiomes composite for HW females, HW males, LW females and LW males at the genera level. (b) The principal components analysis (PCA) plot of 56 samples from HW and LW lines using 29 gut microbiome species which were affected by quantitative genetics background. (c) PCA plot of 56 samples from HW and LW lines using 11 gut microbiome species belong to Lactobacillus which were affected by gender. (d) PCA plot of 29 samples from HW and LW males using 8 gut microbiome species which were affected by quantitative genetic background. (e) PCA plot of 27 samples from HW and LW females using 20 gut microbiome species which were affected by quantitative genetic background.