Dramatic shifts in intestinal fungal community between wintering Hooded Crane and Domestic Goose

Abstract

Background The intestinal microbiota play remarkable roles in maintaining the health of their hosts. Recent studies focused on gut bacterial diversity in birds and poultry, with little information about the ecological functions of their gut fungal community. Methods The high-throughput sequencing was applied to compare intestinal fungal community structure between Hooded Crane (Grus monacha) and Domestic Goose (Anser anser domesticus), and infer the potential pathogens of each species at Shengjin Lake of China. Results Intestinal fungal alpha diversity was higher in Hooded Crane than Greylag Goose (Anser anser). Gut fungal community composition showed dramatic shifts between the two species. Hooded Cranes mainly eat Vallisneria natans and Potamogeton malaianus, while artificial hurl food (i.e., paddy) was the main food resource for Domestic Geese, suggesting that the variations in fungal community might be induced by different diets between the two hosts. Two enriched genera (i.e., Acremonium and Rhodotorula) which could increase host’s digestion were detected in guts of Hooded Cranes. In addition, there were 42 pathogenic amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), 17% of which shared in Hooded Crane and Greylag Goose. The Hooded Crane had higher gut fungal pathogenic diversity and abundance relative to Greylag Goose. Conclusions The study demonstrated that divergence in intestinal fungal community structure might be induced by different diets between wintering Hooded Crane and Domestic Goose. Hooded Crane might rely more on their gut fungal taxa to acquire nutrients from indigestible food resources. Our study also implied that more research should focus on intestinal pathogens in wild birds and domestic poultry, as they might increase risk of disease in other animals, even human beings. The degree of cross infection in pathogens among wild birds and sympatric poultry should be clearly verified in future study.

Diet Induces the Difference of Gut Fungal Communities between Anser erythropus Wintering at Shengjin and Caizi Lakes, China

“…The gut fungal community of the Anser erythropus was dominated by Ascomycota (61.60%), Basidiomycota (35.60%), Zygomycota (1.84%) and Rozellomycota (0.30%), which was similar to Grus monacha winter at SJ [14]. Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were dominated maybe associated with these geese mainly eat the roots and leaves of plants during wintering period at two lakes, these fungi could help birds to digest and absorb higher abundance of plant saprotroph [14,17,22]. Tomentella may be associated with the produce of acetate in the gut of birds, suggesting that the gut fungi might be involved in the metabolism of dietary polysaccharides [14].…”

“…Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were dominated maybe associated with these geese mainly eat the roots and leaves of plants during wintering period at two lakes, these fungi could help birds to digest and absorb higher abundance of plant saprotroph [14,17,22]. Tomentella may be associated with the produce of acetate in the gut of birds, suggesting that the gut fungi might be involved in the metabolism of dietary polysaccharides [14]. Archaeorhizomyces and Ceratobasidium might increase host's digestion and immunity.…”

“…Birds are interesting study groups in which to investigate the roles of gut microbes, because they have extremely complex and unique diets, physiological traits, and developmental strategies [14]. Because of their ying ability and unique life history such as migratory behavior, complex dietary and nest habitats, additionally, they lives at various habitats during migration, which can get and spread microbes over vast distances, representing an interesting and best-studied groups for gut microbiota [14]. As high-throughput sequencing development, the knowledge of gut microbiome about migratory waterbirds has markedly increased during past few years [15][16].…”

Intestinal Microbes of Hooded Cranes (Grus monacha) Wintering in Three Lakes of the Middle and Lower Yangtze River Floodplain

“…Moreover, the Hooded Cranes at Shengjin Lake mainly fed on high fiber P. criopolitanum in the wild. Compared with O. sativa, the nutrient content of wild food resources (such as the roots and leaves of certain plants) is relatively lower [52]. The higher diversity of intestinal bacteria might be beneficial for the Hooded Cranes at Shengjin Lake to obtain nutrients effectively from indigestible and nutrient-limited food [53].…”

Effects of Food Changes on Intestinal Bacterial Diversity of Wintering Hooded Cranes (Grus monacha)

“…Sequences were grouped into amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) [17]. The VSEARCH method was used to filter chimeras, and the UNITE database (20 February 2020) was applied for annotating Taxonomy to each ASV [18]. Singletons were filtered for downstream analysis.…”