FREE SHIPPING over $40
OVER 9000 FIVE-STAR REVIEWS
5% OFF ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS
100% HAPPINESS GUARANTEE
Analyze Diet
0
Home / Equine Research Bank / Mol Biol Rep / Analysis of stomach bacterial communities in Australian fera...
Molecular biology reports2012; 40(1); 369-376; doi: 10.1007/s11033-012-2070-5

Analysis of stomach bacterial communities in Australian feral horses.

Abstract: We investigated the community structure of bacteria that populate the stomach of the Brumby, a breed of feral horses from the Australian outback. Using a 16S rRNA gene clone library, we identified 155 clones that were assigned to 26 OTUs based on a 99.0 % sequence identity cutoff. Two OTUs represented 73.5 % of clones, while 18 OTUs were each assigned only a single clone. Four major bacterial types were identified in the Brumby stomach: Lactobacillaceae, Streptococcaceae, Veillonellaceae and Pasteurellaceae. The first three groups, which represented 98.1 % of the Brumby stomach library clones, belonged to the bacterial phylum Firmicutes. We found that 49.7 % of clones were related to bacterial species previously identified in the equine hindgut, and that 44.5 % of clones were related to symbiotic bacterial species identified in the mouth or throat of either horses or other mammals. Our results indicated that the composition of mutualistic bacterial communities of feral horses was consistent with other studies on domestic horses. In addition to bacterial sequences, we also identified four plastid 16S rRNA gene sequences, which may help in further characterizing the type of vegetation consumed by Brumby horses in their natural environment.
Get Full Text
Publication Date: 2012-10-13 PubMed ID: 23065252DOI: 10.1007/s11033-012-2070-5Google Scholar: Lookup
The Equine Research Bank provides access to a large database of publicly available scientific literature. Inclusion in the Research Bank does not imply endorsement of study methods or findings by Mad Barn.
LinkedInCopy
  • Journal Article

Summary

This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.

This research studies the types and structure of bacteria found in the stomachs of wild Australian horses, known as Brumbies, using gene analysis techniques. The results show that the bacterial communities are similar to those found in domestic horses and may also provide insights into the Brumbies’ diet.

Study Methodology and Findings

  • The researchers investigated the structure of bacterial communities in the stomach of the Brumby, a type of feral horse from Australia.
  • They used a methodology based on the 16S rRNA gene clone library, a technique used to identify and study bacteria.
  • From this analysis, 155 clones were identified and assigned to 26 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), groups used in taxonomy to classify groups of closely related organisms. These groups were identified based on a 99.0 % sequence identity cutoff, a standard threshold for determining the similarity of genetic sequences.
  • Two of these OTUs represented a majority (73.5%) of the clones discovered whereas 18 other OTUs were each represented by only one clone.

Identified Bacterial Types

  • Four key types of bacteria were found in the Brumby – Lactobacillaceae, Streptococcaceae, Veillonellaceae and Pasteurellaceae.
  • The majority of the bacteria identified (98.1 %) were from the bacterial phylum Firmicutes, including Lactobacillaceae, Streptococcaceae, and Veillonellaceae.

Comparison to Other Species

  • Almost half of the bacterial clones found (49.7%) were related to bacterial species already documented in the hindgut of horses. This suggests commonalities in the bacteria found across different digestion-based regions of horses.
  • 44.5% of the bacterial clones identified were related to symbiotic species, that is, species–which contribute to the health or survival of their host–previously found in the mouth or throat of horses and other mammals.
  • The study found that the composition of these symbiotic bacterial communities in Brumbies was similar to the communities found in domestic horses. This suggests the equine gut bacterial community may be stable across wild and domesticated horse populations, despite differences in diet or environment.

Additional Insights

  • Additionally, the study found four plastid 16S rRNA gene sequences. Plastids are small organelles found in plant cells, and their identification here can provide information about the types of plants consumed by the Brumby horses.

Conclusion

  • This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the bacterial community in the stomach of feral Australian horses, revealing valuable insights into their diet, health, and similarities with domesticated horses. More broadly, it contributes to the understanding of microbial diversity and its role in the biology and ecology of wild animals.

Cite This Article

APA
St-Pierre B, de la Fuente G, O'Neill S, Wright AD, Al Jassim R. (2012). Analysis of stomach bacterial communities in Australian feral horses. Mol Biol Rep, 40(1), 369-376. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-012-2070-5

Publication

Molecular biology reports
ISSN: 1573-4978
NlmUniqueID: 0403234
Country: Netherlands
Language: English
Volume: 40
Issue: 1
Pages: 369-376

Researcher Affiliations

St-Pierre, Benoit
  • Department of Animal Science, The University of Vermont, 570 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05405, USA.
de la Fuente, Gabriel
    O'Neill, Sean
      Wright, André-Denis G
        Al Jassim, Rafat

          MeSH Terms

          • Animals
          • Australia
          • Bacteria / classification
          • Bacteria / genetics
          • Horses
          • Molecular Sequence Data
          • Phylogeny
          • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
          • Stomach / microbiology

          References

          This article includes 32 references
          1. Christensen H, Bisgaard M, Olsen JE. Reclassification of equine isolates previously reported as Actinobacillus equuli, variants of A. equuli, Actinobacillus suis or Bisgaard taxon 11 and proposal of A. equuli subsp. equuli subsp. nov. and A. equuli subsp. haemolyticus subsp. nov.. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2002 Sep;52(Pt 5):1569-1576.
            pubmed: 12361259doi: 10.1099/00207713-52-5-1569google scholar: lookup
          2. Willing B, Vörös A, Roos S, Jones C, Jansson A, Lindberg JE. Changes in faecal bacteria associated with concentrate and forage-only diets fed to horses in training.. Equine Vet J 2009 Dec;41(9):908-14.
            pubmed: 20383990doi: 10.2746/042516409x447806google scholar: lookup
          3. Morita H, Shiratori C, Murakami M, Takami H, Kato Y, Endo A, Nakajima F, Takagi M, Akita H, Okada S, Masaoka T. Lactobacillus hayakitensis sp. nov., isolated from intestines of healthy thoroughbreds.. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2007 Dec;57(Pt 12):2836-2839.
            pubmed: 18048734doi: 10.1099/ijs.0.65135-0google scholar: lookup
          4. Kim M, Morrison M, Yu Z. Status of the phylogenetic diversity census of ruminal microbiomes.. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 2011 Apr;76(1):49-63.
            pubmed: 21223325doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2010.01029.xgoogle scholar: lookup
          5. Bailey SR, Baillon ML, Rycroft AN, Harris PA, Elliott J. Identification of equine cecal bacteria producing amines in an in vitro model of carbohydrate overload.. Appl Environ Microbiol 2003 Apr;69(4):2087-93.
            pubmed: 12676687doi: 10.1128/AEM.69.4.2087-2093.2003google scholar: lookup
          6. FITZGERALD RJ, KEYES PH. Demonstration of the etiologic role of streptococci in experimental caries in the hamster.. J Am Dent Assoc 1960 Jul;61:9-19.
            pubmed: 13823312doi: 10.14219/jada.archive.1960.0138google scholar: lookup
          7. Altschul SF, Madden TL, Schäffer AA, Zhang J, Zhang Z, Miller W, Lipman DJ. Gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST: a new generation of protein database search programs.. Nucleic Acids Res 1997 Sep 1;25(17):3389-402.
            pubmed: 9254694doi: 10.1093/nar/25.17.3389google scholar: lookup
          8. Argenzio RA. Functions of the equine large intestine and their interrelationship in disease.. Cornell Vet 1975 Jul;65(3):303-30.
            pubmed: 237739
          9. Al Jassim RA, Scott PT, Trebbin AL, Trott D, Pollitt CC. The genetic diversity of lactic acid producing bacteria in the equine gastrointestinal tract.. FEMS Microbiol Lett 2005 Jul 1;248(1):75-81.
            pubmed: 15953698doi: 10.1016/j.femsle.2005.05.023google scholar: lookup
          10. Eckburg PB, Bik EM, Bernstein CN, Purdom E, Dethlefsen L, Sargent M, Gill SR, Nelson KE, Relman DA. Diversity of the human intestinal microbial flora.. Science 2005 Jun 10;308(5728):1635-8.
            pubmed: 15831718doi: 10.1126/science.1110591google scholar: lookup
          11. Kimura M. A simple method for estimating evolutionary rates of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences.. J Mol Evol 1980 Dec;16(2):111-20.
            pubmed: 7463489doi: 10.1007/BF01731581google scholar: lookup
          12. Sundset MA, Praesteng KE, Cann IK, Mathiesen SD, Mackie RI. Novel rumen bacterial diversity in two geographically separated sub-species of reindeer.. Microb Ecol 2007 Oct;54(3):424-38.
            pubmed: 17473904doi: 10.1007/s00248-007-9254-xgoogle scholar: lookup
          13. Godoy-Vitorino F, Ley RE, Gao Z, Pei Z, Ortiz-Zuazaga H, Pericchi LR, Garcia-Amado MA, Michelangeli F, Blaser MJ, Gordon JI, Domínguez-Bello MG. Bacterial community in the crop of the hoatzin, a neotropical folivorous flying bird.. Appl Environ Microbiol 2008 Oct;74(19):5905-12.
            pubmed: 18689523doi: 10.1128/AEM.00574-08google scholar: lookup
          14. Whitford MF, Forster RJ, Beard CE, Gong J, Teather RM. Phylogenetic analysis of rumen bacteria by comparative sequence analysis of cloned 16S rRNA genes.. Anaerobe 1998 Jun;4(3):153-63.
            pubmed: 16887636doi: 10.1006/anae.1998.0155google scholar: lookup
          15. Yu Z, Morrison M. Improved extraction of PCR-quality community DNA from digesta and fecal samples.. Biotechniques 2004 May;36(5):808-12.
            pubmed: 15152600doi: 10.2144/04365ST04google scholar: lookup
          16. Cummings JH, Macfarlane GT. Role of intestinal bacteria in nutrient metabolism.. JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr 1997 Nov-Dec;21(6):357-65.
            pubmed: 9406136doi: 10.1177/0148607197021006357google scholar: lookup
          17. Morita H, Nakano A, Shimazu M, Toh H, Nakajima F, Nagayama M, Hisamatsu S, Kato Y, Takagi M, Takami H, Akita H, Matsumoto M, Masaoka T, Murakami M. Lactobacillus hayakitensis, L. equigenerosi and L. equi, predominant lactobacilli in the intestinal flora of healthy thoroughbreds.. Anim Sci J 2009 Jun;80(3):339-46.
            pubmed: 20163646doi: 10.1111/j.1740-0929.2009.00633.xgoogle scholar: lookup
          18. Endo A, Roos S, Satoh E, Morita H, Okada S. Lactobacillus equigenerosi sp. nov., a coccoid species isolated from faeces of thoroughbred racehorses.. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2008 Apr;58(Pt 4):914-8.
            pubmed: 18398194doi: 10.1099/ijs.0.65250-0google scholar: lookup
          19. Schloss PD, Westcott SL, Ryabin T, Hall JR, Hartmann M, Hollister EB, Lesniewski RA, Oakley BB, Parks DH, Robinson CJ, Sahl JW, Stres B, Thallinger GG, Van Horn DJ, Weber CF. Introducing mothur: open-source, platform-independent, community-supported software for describing and comparing microbial communities.. Appl Environ Microbiol 2009 Dec;75(23):7537-41.
            pubmed: 19801464doi: 10.1128/AEM.01541-09google scholar: lookup
          20. Morotomi M, Yuki N, Kado Y, Kushiro A, Shimazaki T, Watanabe K, Yuyama T. Lactobacillus equi sp. nov., a predominant intestinal Lactobacillus species of the horse isolated from faeces of healthy horses.. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2002 Jan;52(Pt 1):211-214.
            pubmed: 11837305doi: 10.1099/00207713-52-1-211google scholar: lookup
          21. Qin J, Li R, Raes J, Arumugam M, Burgdorf KS, Manichanh C, Nielsen T, Pons N, Levenez F, Yamada T, Mende DR, Li J, Xu J, Li S, Li D, Cao J, Wang B, Liang H, Zheng H, Xie Y, Tap J, Lepage P, Bertalan M, Batto JM, Hansen T, Le Paslier D, Linneberg A, Nielsen HB, Pelletier E, Renault P, Sicheritz-Ponten T, Turner K, Zhu H, Yu C, Li S, Jian M, Zhou Y, Li Y, Zhang X, Li S, Qin N, Yang H, Wang J, Brunak S, Doré J, Guarner F, Kristiansen K, Pedersen O, Parkhill J, Weissenbach J, Bork P, Ehrlich SD, Wang J. A human gut microbial gene catalogue established by metagenomic sequencing.. Nature 2010 Mar 4;464(7285):59-65.
            pubmed: 20203603doi: 10.1038/nature08821google scholar: lookup
          22. Hughes CV, Kolenbrander PE, Andersen RN, Moore LV. Coaggregation properties of human oral Veillonella spp.: relationship to colonization site and oral ecology.. Appl Environ Microbiol 1988 Aug;54(8):1957-63.
            pubmed: 3178207doi: 10.1128/aem.54.8.1957-1963.1988google scholar: lookup
          23. Bergman EN. Energy contributions of volatile fatty acids from the gastrointestinal tract in various species.. Physiol Rev 1990 Apr;70(2):567-90.
            pubmed: 2181501doi: 10.1152/physrev.1990.70.2.567google scholar: lookup
          24. Argenzio RA, Southworth M, Stevens CE. Sites of organic acid production and absorption in the equine gastrointestinal tract.. Am J Physiol 1974 May;226(5):1043-50.
            pubmed: 4824856doi: 10.1152/ajplegacy.1974.226.5.1043google scholar: lookup
          25. Endo A, Okada S, Morita H. Molecular profiling of Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, and Bifidobacterium species in feces of active racehorses.. J Gen Appl Microbiol 2007 Jun;53(3):191-200.
            pubmed: 17726300doi: 10.2323/jgam.53.191google scholar: lookup
          26. Ouwehand AC, Salminen S, Isolauri E. Probiotics: an overview of beneficial effects.. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek 2002 Aug;82(1-4):279-89.
            pubmed: 12369194
          27. Tamura K, Peterson D, Peterson N, Stecher G, Nei M, Kumar S. MEGA5: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis using maximum likelihood, evolutionary distance, and maximum parsimony methods.. Mol Biol Evol 2011 Oct;28(10):2731-9.
            pubmed: 21546353doi: 10.1093/molbev/msr121google scholar: lookup
          28. Yang S, Ma S, Chen J, Mao H, He Y, Xi D, Yang L, He T, Deng W. Bacterial diversity in the rumen of Gayals (Bos frontalis), Swamp buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) and Holstein cow as revealed by cloned 16S rRNA gene sequences.. Mol Biol Rep 2010 Apr;37(4):2063-73.
            pubmed: 19662514doi: 10.1007/s11033-009-9664-6google scholar: lookup
          29. Cummings JH, Macfarlane GT. Colonic microflora: nutrition and health.. Nutrition 1997 May;13(5):476-8.
            pubmed: 9225346doi: 10.1016/s0899-9007(97)00114-7google scholar: lookup
          30. Daly K, Shirazi-Beechey SP. Design and evaluation of group-specific oligonucleotide probes for quantitative analysis of intestinal ecosystems: their application to assessment of equine colonic microflora.. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 2003 May 1;44(2):243-52.
            pubmed: 19719641doi: 10.1016/S0168-6496(03)00032-1google scholar: lookup
          31. Meyer W, Kacza J, Schnapper A, Verspohl J, Hornickel I, Seeger J. A first report on the microbial colonisation of the equine oesophagus.. Ann Anat 2010 Feb 20;192(1):42-51.
            pubmed: 19942420doi: 10.1016/j.aanat.2009.10.004google scholar: lookup
          32. Yuki N, Shimazaki T, Kushiro A, Watanabe K, Uchida K, Yuyama T, Morotomi M. Colonization of the stratified squamous epithelium of the nonsecreting area of horse stomach by lactobacilli.. Appl Environ Microbiol 2000 Nov;66(11):5030-4.
            pubmed: 11055960doi: 10.1128/AEM.66.11.5030-5034.2000google scholar: lookup

          Citations

          This article has been cited 2 times.
          1. Kau S, Mansfeld MD, Šoba A, Zwick T, Staszyk C. The facultative human oral pathogen Prevotella histicola in equine cheek tooth apical/ periapical infection: a case report.. BMC Vet Res 2021 Oct 30;17(1):343.
            doi: 10.1186/s12917-021-03048-9pubmed: 34717609google scholar: lookup
          2. Guzman CE, Bereza-Malcolm LT, De Groef B, Franks AE. Presence of Selected Methanogens, Fibrolytic Bacteria, and Proteobacteria in the Gastrointestinal Tract of Neonatal Dairy Calves from Birth to 72 Hours.. PLoS One 2015;10(7):e0133048.
            doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0133048pubmed: 26186002google scholar: lookup
          Subscribe to our newsletter
          Join 99,344 horse owners like you who receive our email updates on horse health and nutrition.