Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (6): 2619-2630.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2023.06.038

• BASIC VETERINARY MEDICINE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Analysis on the Age Succession of Intestinal Flora of Giant Panda

LI Wei1, ZHANG Qiang2, QU Jiahao1, WU Yaping2, HU Ruochen1, JIA Ruoyi2, GUO Ruhai1, MA Qingyi2, PAN Guanglin2*, WANG Xinglong1*   

  1. 1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China;
    2. Research Center for Qinling Giant Panda(Shaanxi Rare Wildlife Rescue Base), Zhouzhi 710400, China
  • Received:2022-11-09 Online:2023-06-23 Published:2023-06-16

Abstract: The study aimed to explore the succession of intestinal flora diversity, structure and function of giant pandas at different ages. Fresh feces of 16 giant pandas of different ages were collected in Research Center for Qinling Giant Panda, divided into 5 groups and analyze based on 16SrDNA high-throughput sequencing technology and hierarchical clustering method. The results showed that the main bacterial phyla in giant pandas at different ages consisted of Firmicutes (60.44%) and Proteobactera (38.69%), and the relative abundance of Firmicutes increased while Proteobacteria decreased with age; at the genus level, the bacteria consisted mainly of Escherichia Shigella (57.35%) and Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 (15.17%), while the gender difference has little effect on the intestinal flora structure of giant pandas. There was a significant difference in the Alpha diversity of intestinal flora (P<0.05), showing a trend of first increasing and then decreasing with age, reaching the highest in 18-22 years old. Beta diversity results show that the difference between groups is greater than the difference within groups, and the interpretation of sample differences by different groups has credibility. The dominant bacteria unique to adult giant pandas aged 13-14 years-Weissella (9.975%) is intestinal probiotics. The relative abundance in amino acid transport and metabolism, signal transduction, defense mechanisms and other pathways of 34 year old giant pandas is different from other age groups. Its unique dominant bacteria-Sarcina (53.29%) is conditioned pathogen. To sum up, this study believes that the intestinal flora diversity of giant pandas first increases and then decreases with age, and the abundance and function of common and unique dominant bacteria in different age groups are different, showing a certain succession law with age, suggesting that the corresponding lack of nutrients can be supplemented in the feeding process of giant pandas at different ages to maintain the intestinal microecology balance.

Key words: high throughput sequencing, panda, intestinal flora, age

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