A Comparative Study Of The Intestinal Microbiome Of Red Fox And Sand Fox

Intestinal microbiomes,the second genome of host,play important roles in their living and environmental adaptation.The understanding of co-evolution between intestinal microbiomes and host is crucial important for understanding the host's adaptive evolution mechanisms.Both red fox(Vulpes vulpes),distributed throughout the Eurasia and north Africa,and corsac fox(Vulpes corsac),distributed in the grasslands and deserts of Central Asia and Northeast Asia,belong to the vulpes genus,canine family.Our field work found that there are constant red fox and corsac fox populations in the Hulunbuir grassland,which mainly diet on small rodents and are very important in the grassland ecosystem.Another import finding was that red fox dominating wider ecological niche and more complicated habitat than that of corsac fox.However,the mechanisms,especially the response mechanism of intestinal microbiomes for this kind of difference are still unclear.Therefore,we have studied the intestinal microbiomes of these two foxes in the Hulunbuir grassland in order to demonstrate its structure and functional composition and the co-evolution mechanisms with their hosts.The results are as follows:(1)The Firmicutes,Bacteroidetes,Fusobacteria,Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were the dominate phyla,ed in the intestinal microbiome both for red fox and corsac fox.At the genus level,Fusobacterium,Bacteroides,Blautia,unidentified?Clostridiale and Peptoclostridium were the dominant genera in the two kinds of foxes.(2)The results of LEf Se analysis showed that the Bacteroidaceae and Bacteroides were significantly enriched in the intestinal microbiomes of red fox;the Lachnospiraceae,Blautia and Terrisporobacter were enriched significantly in the intestinal microbiome of corsac fox(LDA score>4),which were all related to carbohydrate decomposition.We also found that the relative abundance of Bacteroides and Blautia were significantly higher in the intestinal microbiome of red fox than that of Lachnospiraceae,Blautia and Terrisporobacter in the intestinal microbiome of corsac fox,which indicate that the intestinal microbiome of red fox might have stronger ability for carbohydrate decomposition.(3)The results of functional analysis showed that(1)the K12373 and K21572 were significantly enriched in the intestinal microbiome of red fox based on the KEGG database,whose function were mainly related to the degradation and synthesis pathway of various sugars,the transport of macromolecular substances(such as starch),promoting theabsorption and utilization of sugars by the host.(2)the abundance of glucoside hydrolase genes annotated in the intestinal microbiome of red fox were higher than that in the intestinal of corsac fox,whose function were mainly involved in decomposing carbohydratesinto simple sugar and short-chain fatty acids,which can provide carbon source,energy for the host and maintain the homeostasis of intestinal flora.It indicated that the intestinal microbiome of red fox might have stronger ability for sugar utilization and carbohydrates decomposition according to the functional analysis.In summary,we revealed that the intestinal microbiome of red fox might have stronger ability for carbohydrates decomposition,various sugars utilization and energy producing,which could provide red fox the capability for adapting wider ecological niche and more complex habitat,and satisfying its requirement for more food variation and energy consuming.The present study clarified the intestinal microbiome structure and function character of red fox and corsac fox which occupied different ecological niche width and habitat,and provided important miceobiome data for understanding the adaptation wider niche and more complex habitat of red fox.