Abstract
This study aimed to reveal the microbial diversity in the fecal samples of bactrian camels using the 16S rRNA sequencing analysis on the Illumina MiSeq platform. Three fecal samples were collected from two geographical regions in China. Operational taxonomic unit (OTU) clustering was performed by identifying an OTU at 97% sequence identity. The alpha and beta diversities were applied to estimate the differences in microbial diversity among the three fecal samples. Totally, 4409, 3151 and 4075 OTUs in the fecal samples were identified in the Lop Nor wild camel (Camelus ferus), the domestic camel (C. bactrianus) and Dunhuang wild camel (C. ferus), respectively. The majority of bactreria were affiliated with phylum Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes in the three samples. The wild camels had higher gastrointestinal tract microbial diversity than the domestic one, while the microbial composition of the Lop Nor wild camel shared higher similarity with domestic camel at the genus and family levels than that of the Dunhuang wild camel did. Our results may provide a theoretical basis for assessing their health conditions and may thus be useful for protecting the critically endangered species of C. ferus.
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This research was supported by the Xinjiang Lop Nur Wild Camels National Reserve Comprehensive Scientific Research Projects by The Environmental Protection Agency of China (20100228).
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Yuan, L., Qi, A., Cheng, Y. et al. Fecal microbiota of three bactrian camels (Camelus ferus and Camelus bactrianus) in China by high throughput sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. J. Arid Land 9, 153–159 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-016-0026-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-016-0026-7