16S rRNA Profiling of Rat Gut Microbiota:Date Products vs Refined Sugar
The gut microbial community was profiled using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Genomic DNA was extracted from rat cecal contents. The V3-V4 hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene were amplified using the 341F/805R primer set. Sequencing libraries were prepared using the Nextera XT Index Kit (V2) following the Illumina 16S Metagenomic Sequencing Library Preparation protocol. Final libraries were sequenced on an Illumina system (301 bp paired-end reads) to assess taxonomic composition across different dietary treatment groups.