A survey of the sperm whale (Physeter catodon) commensal microbiome

Background Mammalian commensal microbiota play important roles in the health of its host. In comparison to terrestrial mammals, commensal microbiota of marine mammals is mainly focused on the composition and function of skin and gut microbiota, with less attention paid to the health impact of bacteria and viruses. Previous studies on sperm whales (Physeter catodon) have affirmed their important phylogenetic position; however, studies on their commensal microbiota have not been published, due to difficulty in sample collection. Methods Here, we sequenced the metagenomes of blood, muscle and fecal samples from a stranded sperm whale using the BGISEQ-500 platform. We compared the diversity and abundance of microbiomes from three different tissues and tried to search pathogenic bacterial and virulence genes probably related to the health of the sperm whale. We also performed 16S rDNA sequencing of the fecal sample to compare to published gut metagenome data from other marine mammals. Results Our results demonstrated notable differences in species richness and abundance in the three samples. Extensive bacteria, including Enterococcus faecium, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus anginosus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Streptococcus suis, and five toxigenic Clostridium species usually associated with infection, were found in the three samples. We also found the taxa composition of sperm whale gut microbiota was similar to that of other whales, suggesting co-evolution with its host. This study is the first report of the sperm whale gut microbiome, and provides a foundation for the pathogen detection and health assessment of the sperm whale.

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The plant secondary compound swainsonine reshapes gut microbiota in plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae)

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ◽

10.1007/s00253-021-11478-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Shien Ren ◽

Chao Fan ◽

Liangzhi Zhang ◽

Xianjiang Tang ◽

Haibo Fu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gut Microbiota ◽

Artificial Diet ◽

Alpha Diversity ◽

Term Treatment ◽

Short Term Treatment ◽

Ochotona Curzoniae ◽

Rdna Sequencing ◽

Long Term Treatment ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Herbivorous Mammals

Abstract Plants produce various plant secondary compounds (PSCs) to deter the foraging of herbivorous mammals. However, little is known about whether PSCs can reshape gut microbiota and promote gut homeostasis of hosts. Using 16S rDNA sequencing to investigate the effects of PSCs on the gut microbiota of small herbivorous mammals, we studied plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae) fed diets containing swainsonine (SW) extracted from Oxytropis ochrocephala. Our results showed that both long- and short-term treatment of a single artificial diet in the laboratory significantly reduced alpha diversity and significantly affected beta diversity, core bacteria abundance, and bacterial functions in pikas. After SW was added to the artificial diet, the alpha diversity significantly increased in the long-term treatment, and core bacteria (e.g., Akkermansiaceae) with altered relative abundances in the two treatments showed no significant difference compared with pikas in the wild. The complexity of the co-occurrence network structure was reduced in the artificial diet, but it increased after SW was added in both treatments. Further, the abundances of bacteria related to altered alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism in the artificial diet were restored in response to SW. SW further decreased the concentration of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in both treatments. Our results suggest that PSCs play a key role in regulating gut microbiota community and intestinal homeostasis, thereby maintaining host health. Key points • Swainsonine improves the intestinal bacterial diversity of plateau pikas. • Swainsonine promotes the recovery of core bacterial abundances in the gut of plateau pikas. • Swainsonine promotes the restoration of intestinal bacterial functions of plateau pikas.

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Analysis of the Gastro-Intestinal Tract of Marine Mammals: A Multidisciplinary Approach with a New Multi-Sieves Tool

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani11061824 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 1824

Author(s):

Giorgia Corazzola ◽

Matteo Baini ◽

Carla Grattarola ◽

Cristina Panti ◽

Federica Marcer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cause Of Death ◽

Marine Mammals ◽

Intestinal Tract ◽

Multidisciplinary Approach ◽

Sample Collection ◽

Important Data ◽

New Device ◽

Specific Protocol ◽

Specific Analysis ◽

Gastro Intestinal Tract

Organs and content of the gastro-intestinal tract (GIT) of marine mammals are relevant for a variety of investigations and provide data to researchers from different fields. Currently used protocols applied to the GIT for specific analysis limit the possibility to execute other investigations and important information could be lost. To ensure a proper sample collection and a multidisciplinary investigation of the GIT of marine mammals, a new multi-sieves tool and a specific protocol have been developed. This new device and approach allowed the simultaneous sampling of the GIT and its content for the main investigations concerned. The samples collected during these preliminary trials were suitable to perform all the different research procedures considered in this work. The obtained results show that with a few and easy procedural adjustments, a multidisciplinary sampling and evaluation of the GIT of marine mammals is possible. This will reduce the risk of losing important data aimed at understanding the cause of death of the animal, but also biology and ecology of marine mammals, and other important data for their conservation and habitats management.

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Cetacean strandings along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua from 2014 to 2021

Marine Biodiversity Records ◽

10.1186/s41200-021-00209-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Joëlle De Weerdt ◽

Eric Angel Ramos ◽

Etienne Pouplard ◽

Marc Kochzius ◽

Phillip Clapham

Keyword(s):

Marine Mammals ◽

Sperm Whale ◽

Distribution Patterns ◽

Sperm Whales ◽

The Pacific ◽

Toothed Whale ◽

Beaked Whales ◽

Causes Of Mortality ◽

Cuvier’S Beaked Whale ◽

Stenella Attenuata

AbstractDocumenting marine mammal strandings provides important information needed to understand the occurrence and distribution patterns of species. Here, we report on strandings of cetaceans on the Pacific (n = 11) and Caribbean (n = 2) coasts of Nicaragua, documented opportunistically from 2014 to 2021. Strandings included three species of baleen whale (blue whale Balaenoptera musculus, Bryde’s whale Balaenoptera edeni, humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae) and five species of toothed whale (dwarf sperm whale Kogia sima, Guiana dolphin Sotalia guianensis, pantropical spotted dolphin Stenella attenuata, spinner dolphin Stenella longirostris, Cuvier’s beaked whale Ziphius cavirostris). These are the first published accounts of blue whales, Bryde’s whales, dwarf sperm whales, and Cuvier’s beaked whales in Nicaraguan waters. Limited resources and the advanced decomposition of animals prevented necropsies in most cases, the identification of the causes of mortality in all cases, and the species identification of two dolphins. Information derived from these stranding events offers new insights into the occurrence of marine mammals on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua and Central America.

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Bio-Inspired Covert Active Sonar Strategy

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s18082436 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (8) ◽

pp. 2436 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Jiajia Jiang ◽

Xianquan Wang ◽

Fajie Duan ◽

Chunyue Li ◽

Xiao Fu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Marine Mammals ◽

Estimation Method ◽

Sperm Whale ◽

Waveform Design ◽

Velocity Estimation ◽

Estimation Methods ◽

Range Resolution ◽

Active Sonar ◽

Ocean Noise ◽

Underwater Target

The covertness of the active sonar is a very important issue and the sonar signal waveform design problem was studied to improve covertness of the system. Many marine mammals produce call pulses for communication and echolocation, and existing interception systems normally classify these biological signals as ocean noise and filter them out. Based on this, a bio-inspired covert active sonar strategy was proposed. The true, rather than man-made sperm whale, call pulses were used to serve as sonar waveforms so as to ensure the camouflage ability of sonar waveforms. A range and velocity measurement combination (RVMC) was designed by using two true sperm whale call pulses which had excellent range resolution (RR) and large Doppler tolerance (DT). The range and velocity estimation methods were developed based on the RVMC. In the sonar receiver, the correlation technology was used to confirm the start and end time of sonar signals and their echoes, and then based on the developed range and velocity estimation method, the range and velocity of the underwater target were obtained. Then, the RVMC was embedded into the true sperm whale call-train to improve the camouflage ability of the sonar signal-train. Finally, experiment results were provided to verify the performance of the proposed method.

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Visual multiple cross displacement amplification for the rapid identification of S. agalactiae immediately from vaginal and rectal swabs

AMB Express ◽

10.1186/s13568-020-01168-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Xueqin Cheng ◽

Zhiqian Dou ◽

Jing Yang ◽

Dexi Liu ◽

Yulong Gu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Pathogen Detection ◽

Clinical Specimen ◽

Rapid Identification ◽

Sample Collection ◽

Special Equipment ◽

Multiple Cross ◽

Rectal Swabs ◽

Cost Efficient ◽

The Cost ◽

Positive Results

AbstractStreptococcus agalactiae (S. agalactiae) is an important pathogen that can lead to neonatus and mother infection. The current existing techniques for the identification of S. agalactiae are limited by accuracy, speed and high-cost. Therefore, a new multiple cross displacement amplification (MCDA) assay was developed for test of the target pathogen immediately from vaginal and rectal swabs. MCDA primers screening were conducted targeting S. agalactiae pcsB gene, and one set of MCDA primers with better rapidity and efficiency was selected for establishing the S. agalactiae-MCDA assay. As a result, the MCDA method could be completed at a constant temperature of 61 °C, without the requirement of special equipment. The detection limit is 250 fg (31.5 copies) per reaction, all S. agalactiae strains displayed positive results, but not for non-S. agalactiae strains. The visual MCDA assay detected 16 positive samples from 200 clinical specimen, which were also detected positive by enrichment/qPCR. While the CHROMagar culture detected 6 positive samples. Thus, the MCDA assay is prefer to enrichment/qPCR and culture for detecting S. agalactiae from clinical specimen. Particularly, the whole test of MCDA takes about 63.1 min, including sample collection (3 min), DNA preparation (15 min), MCDA reaction (45 min) and result reporting (6 s). In addition, the cost was very economic, with only US$ 4.9. These results indicated that our S. agalaciae-MCDA assay is a rapid, sensitive and cost-efficient technique for target pathogen detection, and is more suitable than conventional assays for an urgent detection, especially for 'on-site' laboratories and resource-constrained settings.

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Lupus Gut Microbiota Transplants Cause Autoimmunity and Inflammation

10.1101/2021.08.15.456375 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yiyangzi Ma ◽

Ruru Guo ◽

Yiduo Sun ◽

Xin Li ◽

Lun He ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gut Microbiota ◽

Lupus Erythematosus ◽

Fecal Microbiota Transplantation ◽

Fecal Microbiota ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Germ Free ◽

Autoimmune Antibodies ◽

Expression Of Genes ◽

Rdna Sequencing

Background: The etiology of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is multifactorial. Recently, growing evidence suggests that the microbiota plays a role in SLE, yet whether gut microbiota participates in the development of SLE remains largely unknown. To investigate this issue, we carried out 16s rDNA sequencing analyses in a cohort of 18 female un-treated active SLE patients and 7 female healthy controls, and performed fecal microbiota transplantation from patients and healthy controls to germ-free mice. Results: Compared to the healthy controls, we found no significant different microbial diversity but some significantly different species in SLE patients including Turicibacter genus and other 5 species. Fecal transfer from SLE patients to germ free (GF) C57BL/6 mice caused GF mice to develop a series of lupus-like phenotyptic features, which including an increased serum autoimmune antibodies, and imbalanced cytokines, altered distribution of immune cells in mucosal and peripheral immune response, and upregulated expression of genes related to SLE in recipient mice that received SLE fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). Moreover, the metabolism of histidine was significantly altered in GF mice treated with SLE patient feces, as compared to those which received healthy fecal transplants. Conclusions: Overall, our results describe a causal role of aberrant gut microbiota in contributing to the pathogenesis of SLE. The interplay of gut microbial and histidine metabolism may be one of the mechanisms intertwined with autoimmune activation in SLE.

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Integrated Fecal Microbiome and Serum Metabolomics Analysis Reveals Abnormal Changes in Rats with Immunoglobulin A Nephropathy and the Intervention Effect of Zhen Wu Tang

Frontiers in Pharmacology ◽

10.3389/fphar.2020.606689 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Jicheng Li ◽

Yiwen Cao ◽

Ruirui Lu ◽

Honglian Li ◽

Yu Pang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gut Microbiota ◽

Renal Disease ◽

Intestinal Microbiota ◽

Renal Damage ◽

Immunoglobulin A ◽

Metabolic Phenotype ◽

Immunoglobulin A Nephropathy ◽

Metabolic Phenotypes ◽

Potential Relationship ◽

Rdna Sequencing

Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN), an autoimmune renal disease with complicated pathogenesis, is one of the principal reasons for end-stage renal disease in the clinic. Evidence has linked apparent alterations in the components of the microbiome and metabolome to renal disease in rats. However, thus far, there is insufficient evidence that supports the potential relationship between gut microbiome, circulating metabolites, and IgAN. This study was designed to probe the effects of IgAN on intestinal microecology and metabolic phenotypes and to understand the possible underlying mechanisms. Fecal and serum samples were collected from IgAN rats. Composition of the gut microbiota and biochemical changes in the metabolites was analyzed using 16S rDNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomics. The IgAN rats exhibited renal insufficiency and increased concentration of 24-h urine protein, in addition to deposition of IgA and IgG immune complexes in the kidney tissues. There was a disturbance in the balance of gut microbiota in IgAN rats, which was remarkably associated with renal damage. Marked changes in microbial structure and function were accompanied by apparent alterations in 1,403 serum metabolites, associated with the disorder of energy, carbohydrate, and nucleotide metabolisms. Administration of Zhen Wu Tang ameliorated microbial dysbiosis and attenuated the renal damage. Besides, treatment with Zhen Wu Tang modulated the metabolic phenotype perturbation in case of gut microbiota dysbiosis in IgAN rats. In conclusion, these findings provided a comprehensive understanding of the potential relationship between the intestinal microbiota and metabolic phenotypes in rats with IgAN. Elucidation of the intestinal microbiota composition and metabolic signature alterations could identify predictive biomarkers for disease diagnosis and progression, which might contribute to providing therapeutic strategies for IgAN.

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Role of the gut microbiota in airway immunity and host defense against respiratory infections

Biological Chemistry ◽

10.1515/hsz-2021-0281 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Maike Willers ◽

Dorothee Viemann

Keyword(s):

Gut Microbiota ◽

Host Defense ◽

Gut Microbiome ◽

Respiratory Infections ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Viral Pathogens ◽

Commensal Microbiota ◽

Enhanced Resistance ◽

The Impact

Abstract Colonization of the intestine with commensal bacteria is known to play a major role in the maintenance of human health. An altered gut microbiome is associated with various ensuing diseases including respiratory diseases. Here, we summarize current knowledge on the impact of the gut microbiota on airway immunity with a focus on consequences for the host defense against respiratory infections. Specific gut commensal microbiota compositions and functions are depicted that mediate protection against respiratory infections with bacterial and viral pathogens. Lastly, we highlight factors that have imprinting effects on the establishment of the gut microbiota early in life and are potentially relevant in the context of respiratory infections. Deepening our understanding of these relationships will allow to exploit the knowledge on how gut microbiome maturation needs to be modulated to ensure lifelong enhanced resistance towards respiratory infections.

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Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury alters inflammation-associated gut microbiota

10.21203/rs.2.22246/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Cuifang Kuang ◽

Lingqin Su ◽

Manman Qin ◽

Liang Qiu ◽

Jun Yu

Keyword(s):

Myocardial Ischemia ◽

Gut Microbiota ◽

Relative Abundance ◽

Ischemia Reperfusion ◽

Coronary Artery Ligation ◽

Sham Surgery ◽

Surgery Group ◽

Group I ◽

Rdna Sequencing ◽

Myocardial Ischemia Reperfusion

Abstract Background The gut microbiota plays important roles in the development of cardiovascular diseases. However, whether myocardial ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) alters gut microbiota composition and its significance remains unknown. In this work, Sprague–Dawley rats were subjected to left anterior descending coronary artery ligation and reperfusion. The fecal DNA isolated before myocardial ischemia and after reperfusion were analyzed for microbiota changes by high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing. Results Results showed that compared with the pre-I/R and pre-sham surgery group, I/R and sham surgery significantly increased the relative abundance of the phyla Proteobacteria , and decreased the relative abundance of the phylum Firmicutes . The I/R surgical procedure increased the proportions of phylum Spirochaetes and genus Enterococcus compared to pre-I/R and sham surgery group. Moreover, I/R surgery significantly worsened the infiltration of macrophages into heart tissue compared with sham surgery. Conclusions Taken together, these findings suggested that myocardial I/R altered the gut microbiota profile, which may promote inflammatory cell infiltration in the injured heart.

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Pure total flavonoids from citrus attenuate non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in mice via the gut microbiota

10.21203/rs.3.rs-15520/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Beihui He ◽

Jianping Jiang ◽

Zheng Shi ◽

Dawei Cui ◽

Sumei Xu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Liver Disease ◽

Gut Microbiota ◽

Fatty Liver ◽

Fatty Liver Disease ◽

Total Flavonoids ◽

Alcoholic Fatty Liver ◽

Composition And Structure ◽

Rdna Sequencing ◽

Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease ◽

Gut Microbiota Composition

Abstract Background An increasing number of studies suggest that gut microbiota composition and structure contribute to the pathophysiology of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD),and the gut microbiota has been proposed as a new target in the treatment of diet-induced NAFLD. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of pure total flavonoids from citrus (PTFC) on NAFLD and gut microbiota dysbiosis in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice and to further investigate whether the attenuation of NAFLD is related to the modulation of the gut microbiota. Results PTFC intervention could significantly attenuate symptoms in mice with HFD-induced NAFLD.Based on the results of 16S rDNA sequencing, PTFC treatment could increase the phylogenetic diversity of the HFD-induced microbiota. PTFC intervention could significantly restore the HFD-induced increases in the relative abundances of Bacteroidaceae and Christensenellaceae. Conclusion Our results suggested that PTFC could serve as a novel candidate for the prevention of NAFLD by modulating the gut microbiota.

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