Inheritance and Establishment of Gut Microbiota in Chickens

Abstract

In mammals, the microbiota can be transmitted from the placenta, uterus, and vagina of the mother to the infant. Unlike mammals, development of the avian embryo is a process isolated from the mother and thus in the avian embryo the gut microbial developmental process remains elusive. To explore the establishment and inheritance of the gut microbiome in the avian embryo, we used the chicken as the model organism to investigate the gut microbial composition in embryos, chicks, and maternal hens. We observed: (1) 28 phyla and 162 genera of microbes in embryos where the dominated genus was Halomonas (79%). (2) 65 genera were core microbiota in all stages with 42% and 62% gut microbial genera of embryo were found in maternal hen and chick, respectively. There was a moderate correlation (0.40) between the embryo and maternal, and 0.52 between the embryo and chick at the family level. (3) Gut microbes that are involved in substance metabolism, infectious disease, and environmental adaptation are enriched in embryos, chicks, and maternal hens, respectively. (4) 94% genera of gut microbial composition were similar among three different chicken breeds which were maintained under similar conditions. Our findings provide evidence to support the hypothesis that part of the microbial colonizers harbored in early embryos were inherited from maternal hens, and the gut microbial abundance and diversity were influenced by environmental factors and host genetic variation during development.

Comparative analysis of the gut microbiota of hornbill and toucan in captivity

“…The current study is the first to assess the gut microbiota of hornbills and toucans. Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were the dominant phyla in the gut microbiotas of the three omnivorous species examined in this study, which corroborated with the previous studies on the gut microbiotas of omnivorous birds (Ding et al, ; Grond, Ryu, Baker, Domingo, & Buehler, ; Hird, Carstens, Cardiff, Dittmann, & Brumfield, ; Risely, Waite, Ujvari, Hoye, & Klaassen, ; Vecherskii et al, ). Furthermore, the Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were also found to be the most abundant bacterial phyla in the gut of other carnivorous birds (such as the Accipitridae vultures (Roggenbuck et al, ) and Spheniscidae penguins (Dewar et al, )) and herbivorous birds (such as Anatidae geese (Wang et al, ) and Psittacidae Parrot (Waite, Eason, & Taylor, )).…”

Effects of a gut microbiota transfer on emotional reactivity in Japanese quails (Coturnix japonica)

“…These results supported the demonstration that anaerobic conditions increase with the age of the animal (Mancabelli et al, 2016;Qu et al, 2008;Roto et al, 2015). They also showed that GM evolves with time in both groups but this evolution is not the same in the two groups, probably as a result of host genetics (Ding et al, 2017).…”

Effects of in ovo Inoculation of Multi-Strain Lactobacilli on Cytokine Gene Expression and Antibody-Mediated Immune Responses in Chickens

“…In chickens, the establishment of the gut microbiota occurs within 3 days post-hatch and the microbial composition remains relatively unchanged until 30 days of age (8). This indicates that early establishment of beneficial bacteria is very important and can further impact gut microbiota colonization and the development of barrier functions of the gastrointestinal tract (9)(10)(11). Therefore, pre-hatch colonization of chickens' gastrointestinal tracts with beneficial bacteria through in ovo technology may prevent pathogen colonization via competitive exclusion in addition to accelerating intestinal and immune system development (10).…”