Identification microflora related to growth performance in pigs based on 16s rRNA sequence analyses

Abstract

Intestinal microorganisms have been shown to be important factors that affect the growth performance of pigs. Therefore, to investigate the effect of the intestinal microflora structure on the growth performance of pigs, samples from Duroc (n=10), Landrace (n=9) and Yorkshire (n=21) pigs under the same diet and feeding conditions were collected. The fecal microbial composition was profiled via 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing. And we also analyzed their growth performance. We found that Duroc and Landrace had significant differences in average daily gain (ADG), feed efficiency ratio (FER), growth index (GI), and 100kg daily age ( P<0.05 ). Moreover, through the analysis of the intestinal flora, we also identified that there were 18 species of intestinal flora with significant differences between Duroc and Landrace ( P<0.05 ). In order to eliminate the influence of genetic background, the intestinal differential flora of 21 Yorkshire pigs with different growth performance was analyzed. The results showed that there were significant correlations between Barnesiella , Dorea , Clostridium and Lactobacillus and pig growth performance. To explore the effect of intestinal flora on the growth performance of pigs at the molecular level, Lactobacillus , which has the highest content in the intestine, was selected for isolation and purification, and co-cultured with intestinal epithelial cells. The qPCR was used to determine the effect of Lactobacillus on MC4R gene expression in intestinal epithelial cells. The results showed that Lactobacillus inhibited MC4R gene expression in intestinal epithelial cells. The results provided useful reference for the further study on the relationship between intestinal flora and pig growth performance.