title: Insight into the bacterial gut microbiome of the North American moose (Alces alces).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The work presented here provides the first intensive insight into the bacterial populations in the digestive tract of the North American moose (Alces alces). Eight free-range moose on natural pasture were sampled, producing eight rumen samples and six colon samples. Second generation (G2) PhyloChips were used to determine the presence of hundreds of operational taxonomic units (OTUs), representing multiple closely related species/strains (>97% identity), found in the rumen and colon of the moose.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 789 unique OTUs were used for analysis, which passed the fluorescence and the positive fraction thresholds. There were 73 OTUs, representing 21 bacterial families, which were found exclusively in the rumen samples: Lachnospiraceae, Prevotellaceae and several unclassified families, whereas there were 71 OTUs, representing 22 bacterial families, which were found exclusively in the colon samples: Clostridiaceae, Enterobacteriaceae and several unclassified families. Overall, there were 164 OTUs that were found in 100% of the samples. The Firmicutes were the most dominant bacteria phylum in both the rumen and the colon. Microarray data available at ArrayExpress, accession number E-MEXP-3721.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Using PhyloTrac and UniFrac computer software, samples clustered into two distinct groups: rumen and colon, confirming that the rumen and colon are distinct environments. There was an apparent correlation of age to cluster, which will be validated by a larger sample size in future studies, but there were no detectable trends based upon gender.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Vermont, 203 Terrill Building, 570 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05405, USA. slpelleg@uvm.edu
authors.forename: Suzanne L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Ishaq
authors.forename: André-Denis G
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Wright
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D044822:Biodiversity; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003106:Colon / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D054892:Metagenome; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012417:Rumen / Q000382:microbiology*; D012418:Ruminants / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S