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. 2018 Jan 31:9:32.
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.00032. eCollection 2018.

The Dynamic Distribution of Small-Tail Han Sheep Microbiota across Different Intestinal Segments

Hao Zhang  1   2 , Mingxu Shao  3 , He Huang  4 , Shujuan Wang  1   2 , Lili Ma  1   2 , Huining Wang  1   2 , Liping Hu  5 , Kai Wei  1   2 , Ruiliang Zhu  1   2
Affiliations

The Dynamic Distribution of Small-Tail Han Sheep Microbiota across Different Intestinal Segments

Hao Zhang et al. Front Microbiol. .

Abstract

The sheep intestinal tract is characterized by a diverse microbial ecosystem that is vital for the host to digest diet material. The importance of gut microbiota (GM) of animals has also been widely acknowledged because of its pivotal roles in the health and well-being of animals. However, there are no relevant studies on GM of small-tail Han sheep, a superior mutton variety domestic in China. In this study, the structure and distribution of gut microflora were studied by high-throughput sequencing technology. Results showed a significant difference between jejunum and cecum, jejunum, and rectum. Meanwhile, the cecum and rectum not only display higher species richness but also exhibit higher similarity of the bacterial diversity than that of the jejunum based on the results of abundance-based coverage estimator (ACE), Chao1, and Shannon indexes. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were the predominant phyla in cecum and rectum, while higher relative abundances of Firmicutes and Cyanobacteria were observed in jejunum. At the genus level, Bacteroidetes, Ruminococcus, Lactobacillus, Flavonifractor, and Clostridium were the dominant genera in the cecum and rectum. An obvious dynamic distribution of Lactobacillus is continuously decreasing from the jejunum to the cecum, then to the rectum, whereas the result of Bacteroides is completely inverse. In addition, this study also found many kinds of bacteria associated with the production of volatile fatty acids (VFA) colonized in the large intestine. This study is the first to investigate the distribution of intestinal flora in small-tail Han sheep. The findings provide an important indication for diagnosis and treatment of intestinal diseases in small-tail Han sheep, as well as offer a direction for the development of intestinal microecological preparations.

Keywords: dynamic distribution; gut microbiota; high-throughput sequencing; small-tail Han sheep; volatile fatty acids.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Differences in bacterial community structures and relationship between all of the samples. (A) Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) of bacterial community structures of the gut microbiota of the three sample groups. Each symbol represents each gut microbiota. PCoA shows distinct bacterial communities between different samples. (B) The UPGMA tree analysis of samples in evolution.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Microbial composition of different samples. Each bar represents the average relative abundance of each bacterial taxon within a group. The top 21 abundant taxa are shown. (A) Taxa assignments at Phylum level. (B) Taxa assignments at Family level. (C) Taxa assignments at Genus level. (D) Between-group taxa assignments at Genus level.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Heatmap of hierarchy cluster results for the abundance of genus in different intestine segments.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
The scalar-Venn representation of share genera among microbiota in different groups.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Bacterial taxa significantly differentiated between the jejunum, caecum, and rectum samples identified by linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) using the default parameters. (A) Histogram of the LDA scores computed for bacterial taxa differentially abundant among different groups. (B) Bacterial taxa that were differentially abundant in different groups visualized using a cladogram.
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