Molecular diversity of the foregut bacteria community in the dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius)

Abstract

The molecular diversity of the foregut bacterial community in the dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) in Central Australia was investigated through comparative analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequences prepared from the foregut contents of 12 adult feral camels fed on native vegetation. A total of 267 full-length 16S rRNA gene clones were examined, with 151 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) identified at a 99% species-level identity cut-off criterion. The prediction of actual diversity in the foregut of the dromedary camel using the Chaol approach was 238 OTUs, while the richness and evenness of the diversity estimated using Shannon index was 4.84. The majority of bacteria in the current study were affiliated with the bacterial phylum Firmicutes (67% of total clones) and were related to the classes Clostridia, Bacilli and Mollicutes, followed by the Bacteroidetes (25%) that were mostly represented by the family Prevotellaceae. The remaining phyla were represented by Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Cynophyta, Lentisphaerae, Planctomycetes, Proteobacteria and Sphirochaetes. Moreover, 11 clones of cultivated bacteria were identified as Brevundimonas sp., Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens, Prevotella sp. and Ruminococcus flavefaciens. The novelty in this foregut environment is remarkable where 97% of the OTUs were distantly related to any known sequence in the public database.

Bacterial community composition and fermentation in the rumen of Xinjiang brown cattle (Bos taurus), Tarim red deer (Cervus elaphus yarkandensis), and Karakul sheep (Ovis aries)

“…Certain bacterial members within the family Succinivibrionaceae produce succinate as the principal fermentation product, and a number of exogenous sources of hydrogen could stimulate the formation of succinate (Pope et al 2011;Stackebrandt and Hespell 2006), which was dominant in the rumen of sika deer (Li et al 2015). Bacteria within the family Lachnospiraceae produced butyrate (Cotta and Forster 2006), which was also dominant in the rumens of moose and various arctic ruminants (Ishaq and Wright 2012;Ishaq and Wright 2014) as well as in the foregut of dromedary camels in Australia (Samsudin et al 2011). Taken together, these results suggested that these bacteria may contribute to the converting plant materials to propionate and butyrate to meet the host's energy demands under harsh conditions.…”

Examination of the Rumen Bacteria and Methanogenic Archaea of Wild Impalas (Aepyceros melampus melampus) from Pongola, South Africa

“…Proteobacteria species at this frequency was previously observed by using a Phylochip microarray in Vermont moose [11] but at lower frequencies based upon nextgeneration sequencing on moose samples from Alaska, Norway, and Vermont amplified with the same primer pair (i.e., 27 F, 519R) [31]. Furthermore, bacteria belonging to the phylum Proteobacteria were at frequencies less than 10 % in feral dromedary camels in Australia, Moxotó goats from Brazil, elk, white-tailed deer from Canada, mithun in India, and dry dairy cattle in Canada [13,29,[36][37][38]. Seeing that three impala had higher frequencies of Proteobacteria while two had frequencies that were in agreement with previous studies suggests an individual animal effect.…”

Phylogenetic and Functional Diversity of Faecal Microbiome of Pack Animals

“…Comparative analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequences prepared from the foregut contents of 12 adult feral camels in Australia fed on native vegetation also observed that the majority of bacteria were ailiated to phylum Firmicutes. The remaining phyla were represented by Actinobacteria, Chlorolexi, Cynophyta, Lentisphaerae, Planctomycetes, Proteobacteria and Sphirochaetes [25]. Proteobacteria (9.2%) phyla as predominant camel rumen taxa and Bacteroides species dominated the camel rumen metagenome [26].…”