title: Comparison of Fecal Microbiota of Mongolian and Thoroughbred Horses by High-throughput Sequencing of the V4 Region of the 16S rRNA Gene.
abstract: The hindgut of horses is an anaerobic fermentative chamber for a complex and dynamic microbial population, which plays a critical role in health and energy requirements. Research on the gut microbiota of Mongolian horses has not been reported until now as far as we know. Mongolian horse is a major local breed in China. We performed high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA genes V4 hypervariable regions from gut fecal material to characterize the gut microbiota of Mongolian horses and compare them to the microbiota in Thoroughbred horses. Fourteen Mongolian and 19 Thoroughbred horses were used in the study. A total of 593,678 sequence reads were obtained from 33 samples analyzed, which were found to belong to 16 phyla and 75 genera. The bacterial community compositions were similar for the two breeds. Firmicutes (56% in Mongolian horses and 53% in Thoroughbred horses) and Bacteroidetes (33% and 32% respectively) were the most abundant and predominant phyla followed by Spirochaete, Verrucomicrobia, Proteobacteria, and Fibrobacteres. Of these 16 phyla, five (Synergistetes, Planctomycetes, Proteobacteria, TM7, and Chloroflexi) were significantly different (p<0.05) between the two breeds. At the genus level, Treponema was the most abundant genus (43% in Mongolian horses vs 29% in Thoroughbred horses), followed by Ruminococcus, Roseburia, Pseudobutyrivibrio, and Anaeroplasma, which were detected in higher distribution proportion in Mongolian horses than in Thoroughbred horses. In contrast, Oscillibacter, Fibrobacter, Methanocorpusculum, and Succinivibrio levels were lower in Mongolian horses. Among 75 genera, 30 genera were significantly different (p<0.05) between the two breeds. We found that the environment was one of very important factors that influenced horse gut microbiota. These findings provide novel information about the gut microbiota of Mongolian horses and a foundation for future investigations of gut bacterial factors that may influence the development and progression of gastrointestinal disease in horses.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Inner Mongolia Mongolian Horse Genetic Resources Protection and Industrial Engineering Laboratory, Hohhot 010018, China.
authors.forename: Yiping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Inner Mongolia Mongolian Horse Genetic Resources Protection and Industrial Engineering Laboratory, Hohhot 010018, China.
authors.forename: Bei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Inner Mongolia Mongolian Horse Genetic Resources Protection and Industrial Engineering Laboratory, Hohhot 010018, China.
authors.forename: Dongyi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Inner Mongolia Mongolian Horse Genetic Resources Protection and Industrial Engineering Laboratory, Hohhot 010018, China.
authors.forename: Jinlong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Inner Mongolia Mongolian Horse Genetic Resources Protection and Industrial Engineering Laboratory, Hohhot 010018, China.
authors.forename: Wunierfu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shiraigo
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Inner Mongolia Mongolian Horse Genetic Resources Protection and Industrial Engineering Laboratory, Hohhot 010018, China.
authors.forename: Lihua
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Inner Mongolia Mongolian Horse Genetic Resources Protection and Industrial Engineering Laboratory, Hohhot 010018, China.
authors.forename: Qinan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Inner Mongolia Mongolian Horse Genetic Resources Protection and Industrial Engineering Laboratory, Hohhot 010018, China.
authors.forename: Xiujuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Inner Mongolia Mongolian Horse Genetic Resources Protection and Industrial Engineering Laboratory, Hohhot 010018, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Inner Mongolia Mongolian Horse Genetic Resources Protection and Industrial Engineering Laboratory, Hohhot 010018, China.
authors.forename: Wuyundalai
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Inner Mongolia Mongolian Horse Genetic Resources Protection and Industrial Engineering Laboratory, Hohhot 010018, China.
authors.forename: Manglai
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dugarjaviin
keywords: 16S rRNA Gene; Fecal Microbiota; High-throughput Sequencing; Mongolian Horses