Comparative Analysis of Fecal Microbiota of Grazing Mongolian Cattle from Different Regions in Inner Mongolia, China

Abstract

Mongolian cattle from China have strong adaptability and disease resistance. We aimed to compare the gut microbiota community structure and diversity in grazing Mongolian cattle from different regions in Inner Mongolia and to elucidate the influence of geographical factors on the intestinal microbial community structure. We used high throughput 16S rRNA sequencing to analyze the fecal microbial community and diversity in samples from 60 grazing Mongolian cattle from Hulunbuir Grassland, Xilingol Grassland, and Alxa Desert. A total of 2,720,545 high-quality reads and sequences that were 1,117,505,301 bp long were obtained. Alpha diversity among the three groups showed that the gut microbial diversity in Mongolian cattle in the grasslands was significantly higher than that in the desert. The dominant phyla were Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, whereas Verrucomicrobia presented the highest abundance in the gut of cattle in the Alxa Desert. The gut bacterial communities in cattle from the grasslands versus the Alxa Desert were distinctive, and those from the grasslands were closely clustered. Community composition analysis revealed significant differences in species diversity and richness. Overall, the composition of the gut microbiota in Mongolian cattle is affected by geographical factors. Gut microbiota may play important roles in the geographical adaptations of Mongolian cattle.

Keywords: 16S rRNA sequencing; Mongolian cattle; geography; gut microbiota; high throughput sequencing; microbial diversity.

Figure 1

The detailed characteristics of the Hulunbuir (HM), Xilingol (XM), and Alxa (AM) regions of Inner Mongolia, China.

Figure 2

Relationship of the gut microbiota of the Mongolian cattle from three different regions. (a) Clustering analysis of the evolution of the gut microbiotas in the Mongolian cattle from Xilingol (XM), Hulunbuir (HM), and Alxa (AM). Gut microbiota trees were generated by using the UPGMA algorithm based on the Unweighted Unifrac distances generated by QIIME software. (b) PcoA based on Weighted Unifrac distance of Mongolian cattle microbial community in three different regions.

Figure 3

Taxonomic profiles at the phyla. (a) Relative abundance of bacterial groups from the HM, XM, and AM groups at the phylum level. (b) At the phyla level, the statistical chart of species significance difference of 60 Mongolian cattle fecal samples from HM, XM, and AM groups.

Figure 4

Relative abundance of bacterial groups from the HM, XM, and AM groups at the family level.

Figure 5

The Venn diagram based on OTUs of Mongolian cattle fecal microbiota from the three different regions.

Figure 6

LDA Effect Size (LEfSe) algorithm was used on OTU tables to determine taxa that best characterize each biological class. (a) Cladogram showing the phylogenetic distribution of the bacterial lineages between Mongolian cattle from the three different regions. Different colored regions represent different constituents (blue, XM; green, HM; red, AM). (b) Circles from the inside out indicate phylogenetic levels from genus to phylum.