| Zokor is a type of herbivorous rodent which living in northern China.Zokor inhabit in various types of grasslands,farmlands,and young forests.The main food resources are mainly indigestible roots that rich in cellulose and hemicellulose,and leaves and stems of plants.The herbivorous rodents have distinct features of food digestion and absorption of secondary metabolites.During the long-term evolution,they have formed a unique way of digestion.In the long-term evolutionary process,a unique way of digestion has been formed.Zokor is a typical herbivorous fermented herbivorous mammal.The cecum is the main fermentation site.which the density of bacteria is the highest,and it is complex and diverse,also is the main site of colonization of the gastrointestinal flora.There are a large number of microbial communities in the gut,and the formation of complex micro flora is an indispensable part of the host’s life.which participates in life activities such as host nutrient absorption,energy metabolism,immunity,gastrointestinal tract development,and adaptive evolution to the environment in the gut.At the same time,these gut flora are affected by various factors such as the environment,geographical isolation,environmental temperature,and host genetics.The purpose of this study was to identify the bacterial species in the gut of the zokor by Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology,to analyze the predominant flora in the gut,and the structure and composition of the gastrointestinal flora.Further,the adaptability of the environment under different geographical populations was explored through its intestinal microbial structure and composition of zokor.The main findings are as follows:1.The composition of gut bacteria in Gansu zokor shows a high degree of adaptability to herbivorous food sources.(1)At the level of phylum,Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes are the core bacteria of the intestine of Gansu zokor,and the sum of them accounted for about 88% of the total intestinal bacteria.Many studies on intestinal microflora have shown that Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes in the intestine contribute to the host’s digestion and absorption of plant food resources.(2)At the family level,the core bacteria in the intestine of Gansu zokor also demonstrated adaptability to herbivory resources.The core strains are Ruminococcaceae,Clostridiales incertae sedis,S24-7 and Lachnospiraceae.These bacteria have a positive role in assisting the host in digesting and decomposing food resources from plants.which have a high content in the intestinal microflora of herbivorous wild mammals such as ruminants and primates.(3)At the genus level,the predominant genera were Oscillospira,Ruminococcus,Coprococcus and Desulfovibrio.Studies have shown that Oscillospira appears mostly in the guts of herbivores,which use the animal-derived glucose to produce butylhydrochloric acid for the host’s basic metabolism.2.Bacterial community of Gansu zokor has positive response to the seasonal changes based on food source,while the influence of region and gender on the intestinal bacterial community of Gansu zokor is relatively small.(1)There was no significant difference in the composition and structure of intestinal bacterial communities in the Gansu Zokor in five counties of Liupanshan region.There was no significant difference in the richness of intestinal bacteria in the Gansu Zokor in five counties.In addition,the Alpha diversity and Beta diversity of intestinal bacterial communities in Gansu Zokor at six counties did not show significant differences.In this regard,we speculate that the geographical spacing of the five regions is too small,the straight-line spacing does not exceed one hundred kilometers,and there is no significant difference in the distribution of vegetation types.There is no geographic isolation or geography differences,and therefore five counties in Gansu province The flora shows a convergence.(2)There was no significant difference in the diversity and abundance of intestinal bacterial communities between male and female zokor.There was no significant difference in the proportion of intestinal bacteria between the female and male groups in the Gansu zokor at the level of gate and genus.And for Alpha diversity analysis,there was no significant difference between male and female rats.for Beta diversity analysis,NMDS analysis showed that the distance between the female group and the male group was greater than that of the male group.(3)The composition and structure of intestinal bacteria in the Gansu zokor have obvious responses to the seasonal fluctuation of food resources.In the analysis of differences in intestinal bacterial abundance in different seasons,the abundances of Lachnospiraceae Incertae Sedis and Ruminococcaceae Incertae Sedis were higher in spring than in autumn,and there was a lack of food resources in autumn(April)compared with autumn,and mainly in Pinus tabulaeformis and Gansu in the Gansu zokor.The roots of afforestation tree species such as Pinus sylvestris,Apricot apricot,and Prunus davidiana are rich in cellulose and hemicellulose.The abundance of cellulose-degrading bacteria in intestinal bacteria has also increased correspondingly.The diversity of autumn samples in Gansu zokor was significantly greater than that of spring in Alpha diversity analysis.The diversity of food resources was positively correlated with the diversity of intestinal bacterial communities in herbivores.In autumn,Gansu zokor is rich in food resources,and there are many kinds of edible plant roots.Plant species are more mixed than in spring.In addition,the similarity of bacterial community structure in the gut of Gansu Zokor was greater in autumn than in spring in Beta diversity analysis.3.Significant differences in composition and structure of gut bacterial communities in different geographic populations of zokor(1)There were significant differences in the intestinal bacterial community composition among the four species of zokor.at the level of phylum,Firmicutes was significantly increased in the samples of Plateau zokor,and Bacteroidetes showed a significant increase in the intestinal tract of Roche zokor.At the genus level,Oscillospira,Clostridium,Roseburia,Anaeroplasma,and Blautia have a significant increase in the samples of Plateau zokor.Lactobacillus and Actinomyces increased significantly in the intestine of Prairie zokor.Lachnospira and Coprococcus were significantly increased in the gut of Gansu zokor.Streptococcus and Desulfonatronovibrio showed a significant increase in the samples of Roche zokor.(2)Significant differences in intestinal bacterial diversity among four species of zokors.The diversity of intestinal bacterial communities in Gansu zokor and Plateau zokor were respectively significantly higher than those in Prairie zokor and Roche zokor.In the Shannon index analysis,the uniformity of the intestinal bacterial communities in Gansu zokor and the Plateau zokor were significantly different from the samples of Prairie zokor and Roche zokor.There was no significant difference of intestinal bacterial communities between Gansu zokor and the Plateau zokor,and there was no significant difference of bacterial communities between Prairie zokor and Roche zokor.(3)Analysis of the Beta diversity of the intestinal bacterial community structure in four species of squirrels.NMDS analysis showed that the intestinal bacterial community structure was similar in Plateau zokor and gansu zokor.The structure of gut microbiota in the other two species was relatively different.In the long-term coordinated adaptive evolution of the zokor and intestinal micro flora,the intestinal bacterial communities of Prairie zokor and Roche zokor have formed their own unique characteristics,which are different from each other of intestinal bacterial communities.structure. |
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