Colon microbiota and metabolite potential impact on tail fat deposition of Altay sheep

Abstract

Tail fat deposition of Altay sheep not only increased the cost of feeding but also reduced the economic value of meat. Currently, because artificial tail removal and gene modification methods cannot solve this problem, it is maybe to consider reducing tail fat deposition from the path of intestinal microbiota and metabolite. We measured body weight and tail fat weight, collected the serum for hormone detection by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and collected colon contents to 16S rRNA sequence and liquid chromotography with mass spectrometry detection to obtain colon microbiota and metabolite information, from 12 3-month-old and 6-month-old Altay sheep. Subsequently, we analyzed the correlation between colon microbiota and tail fat weight, hormones, and metabolites, respectively. We identified that the tail fat deposition of Altay sheep increased significantly with the increase of age and body weight, and the main microbiota that changed were Verrucomicrobia, Cyanobacteria, Akkermansia, Bacteroides, Phocaeicola, Escherichia-Shigella, and Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1. The results indicated that the diversities of metabolites in the colon contents of 3-months old and 6-months old were mainly reflected in phosphocholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) in the lipid metabolism pathway. The correlations analyzed showed that Verrucomicrobia, Chlamydiae, Akkermansia, Ruminococcaceae_UCG-005, Bacteroides, and Phocaeicola were negatively correlated with tail fat deposition. Verrucomicrobia, Akkermansia, and Bacteroides were negatively correlated with growth hormone (GH). Verrucomicrobia was positively correlated with L-a-lysophosphatidylserine and PE(18:1(9Z)/0:0). Our results showed that tail fat deposition of Altay sheep was probably correlated with the abundance of Verrucomicrobia, Akkermansia, Bacteroides of colon microbiota, PC, PE of metabolites, and GH of serum.

Importance: Excessive tail fat deposition of Altay sheep caused great economic losses, and the current research results could not solve this problem well. Now, our research speculates that the tail fat deposition of Aletay sheep may be related to the abundance of Verrucomicrobia, Akkermansia, Bacteroides, metabolites phosphocholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, and growth hormone of serum. Further investigation of the interaction mechanism between these microbiota or metabolites and tail fat deposition is helpful in reducing tail fat deposition of Altay sheep and increasing the economic benefits of breeding farms.

Keywords: Altay sheep; colon; metabolite; microbiota; tail fat deposition.

Fig 1

Diversities in body weight and tail fat weight of Altay sheep at different months of age. 3 months, 3-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6); 6 months, 6-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6). Columns, mean of average value; bars, SD. Statistical significance is indicated by *P < 0.05.

Fig 2

The serum hormone indicators. 3 months, 3-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6); 6 months, 6-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6). Columns, mean of average value; bars, SD. Statistical significance is indicated by *P < 0.05.

Fig 3

Alpha and beta diversities’ analysis at different months of age. 3 months, 3-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6); 6 months, 6-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6). (A) Sobs index of the phylum level, (B) coverage index of the phylum level, (C) sobs index of the genus level, (D) coverage index of the genus level, and (E) PCoA analysis. Columns, mean of average value; bars, SD. Statistical significance is indicated by *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.

Fig 4

OTUs Venn diagram. 3 months, 3-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6); 6 months, 6-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6).

Fig 5

Community abundance of the colon microbiota. (A) Phylum level and (B) genus level. 3 months, 3-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6); 6 months, 6-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6).

Fig 6

Microbiota diversities of the colon microbiota between the 3 months and 6 months Altay sheep. (A) Microbial diversities: phylum level, determined by the Wilcoxon rank-sum test; the confidence interval was 95%. (B) Microbial diversities: genus level, determined by the Wilcoxon rank-sum test; the confidence interval was 95%. 3 months, 3-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6); 6 months, 6-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.

Fig 7

COG function classification of the colonic microbiota. 3 months, 3-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6); 6 months, 6-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6).

Fig 8

(A) OPLS-DA model overview, (B) OPLS-DA model score.

Fig 9

Cluster analysis of various metabolites. 3 months, 3-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6); 6 months, 6-month-old Altay sheep (n = 6).

Fig 10

(A) Compounds classification of differential metabolites. (B) Diverse metabolite KEGG functional pathway. (C) KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. The ordinate is the KEGG pathway. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.

Fig 11

Correlation between colon microbiota and metabolites related. (A) Phylum level and (B) genus level. Statistical significance is indicated by *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.

Fig 12

Correlation between tail fat deposition, GH, and colon microbiota related. (A) Phylum level and (B) genus level. Statistical significance is indicated by * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01.

Fig 13

Correlation between tail fat deposition, GH, and metabolites related. Statistical significance is indicated by * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01.