R. brelichi
To investigate the potential differences in composition of the microbial
community between wild and captive populations, LEfSe was used to
analyze the gut microbes of samples from both groups (LDA score of
differences (Figure 5). At the phylum level, the relative abundances of
Bacteroidota, Spirochaetota, Fibrobacterota, and Desulfobacterota were
significantly higher in the captive R. brelichi than in their
wild counterparts. In contrast, the relative abundance of
Actinobacteriota was significantly higher in wild R. brelichi than in their captive counterparts. At the genus level, the relative
abundances of Prevotellaceae_UCG_001, UCG_005 ,Fibrobacter, Sphaerochaeta , Treponema ,Ruminococcus , Bradymonadales (unidentified genus),Faecalibacterium , and Bacteroides were significantly
higher in the captive R. brelichi than in their wild
counterparts. At the same time, Christensenellaceae_R_7 _group,Clostridia_UCG_014 , dgA_11_gut_group ,Pseudomonas , Acinetobacter , RF39 , andAkkermansia were more abundant in wild R. brelichi .
3.4 Predicted functional differences of the gut microbiota between wild
and captive R. brelichi
We performed analysis of KEGG metabolic pathways in both captive and
wild R. brelichi . In KEGG Level l categories, the gut microbial
genes of captive and wild R. brelichi were associated with six
types of metabolic pathways (Figure 6a), three of which exhibited
significant differences. Specifically, the enrichment of environmental
information processing genes was significantly higher in wild R.
brelichi than in captive R. brelichi , while the opposite pattern
was observed for genes involved in genetic information processing and
organismal systems (Figure 6b). In KEGG Level 2 categories, the gut
microbial genes of captive and wild R. brelichi were associated
with 32 types of metabolic pathways (Figure 6a), among which 15 differed
significantly (p < 0.05). Specifically, the captive
group showed significant enrichment of pathways such as cell growth and
death, replication and repair, translation, amino acid metabolism,
biosynthesis of other secondary metabolites, carbohydrate metabolism,
glycan biosynthesis and metabolism, infectious diseases, immune system,
digestive system, and endocrine system. Meanwhile, the wild group showed
significant enrichment of pathways such as membrane transport, signal
transduction, xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism, and lipid
metabolism (Figure 6c).