Exploring The Dynamics Of The Developing Captive Giant Panda Gut Microbiota

The giant panda,as the flagship species of animal conservation,has always been the focus of attention for scientists.The intestinal flora has a close relationship with the host in the nutrition metabolism,disease and other aspects.Researches on the development of early intestinal flora in infants and several other mammalian species have shown that the colonization of gut microbiota during the early development of the host has an important effect on the subsequent development of intestinal physiolo gy and the functioning of the immune system.Therefore,the study of giant panda intestinal flora is of great significance to host health.In this paper,six newborn pandas were selected to track the dynamic changes of intestinal microflora in 1-17 months.The V4-V5 variable region amplicons of 16 S rRNA gene of panda stool samples were sequenced using next-generation sequencing technique,and a basic bioinformat ics analysis process of 16 S rRNA metagenome was established.Sequence analysis was performed using USEARCH.QIIME software was used for OTU clustering and to analyze the alpha diversity and the taxonomy of intestinal flora.A total of 880 OTUs were clustered,28 phyla,64 classes,124 orders,221 families and 442 genera were identified.The Shannon index and the observed OTU index showed a tendency to rise first and then decrease in the alpha diversity of the flora among 1-6 months,7-12 months and 13-17 months.And there was significant difference among the groups,Shannon index of 13-17 months is very close to which of adult pandas.At the same time,the difference of OTU abundance and the composition of flora among three groups were compared.The results showed that there were 21 significant OTUs and 66 significant genera which have different abundance among groups,among which the proportion of Lactobacillus decreased as the age increasing,while the change of proportion of Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Streptococcus was opposite.In this paper,the bioinformatics method was used to discover the dynamic changes of the intestina l flora of giant panda during the development.The further work could combine microbiome and the physiological function of the host to provide some points for the protection of giant panda species.