Study on diversity of intestinal microbial community in 0 to 6 months old Pishan red sheep

BIJIGULI Sataer; NUERABUDULA Wujiwaili; ZHU Mengting; YANG Huiguo; YIMING Sulaiman

doi:10.13557/j.cnki.issn1002-2813.2025.20.016

Abstract：The experiment aimed to investigate differences in the intestinal microbial diversity of Pishan red sheep at different growth stages.Twelve lambs with similar birth weights were selected,and rectal fecal samples were collected at 0,2,and 6 months of age,yielding a total of 36 fecal samples.After DNA extraction,metagenomic next-generation sequencing was used to analyze the microbial diversity in the rectal contents of the lambs.A total of 119 564 947.16 raw reads were obtained through Illumina sequencing.The average raw data was 39 854 982.39 sequences,and the average filtered data volume was 7 539 585 857.50 bp,with Q20 and Q30 rates exceeding 98.69％and 96.06％,respectively.The results showed that the quality of the filtered data was high and suitable for subsequent analysis.Alpha diversity analysis showed that the Shannon and Simpson indices at 2 months of age were not significantly different from those at 6 months(P＞0.05),but were extremely higher than those at 0 months of age(P＜0.01).The Ace and Chao1 indices at 2 and 6 months of age were also extremely higher than those at zero months of age(P＜0.01).At the phylum level,the dominant bacteria in the fecal samples of Pishan Red Sheep were Firmicutes,Bacteroidota,Proteobacteria,and Actinobacteria.At the genus level,Escherichia,Staphylococcus,and Butyricicoccus were predominant at 0 months of age,Lactobacillus,Clostridium,and Bacteroides were more abundant at 2 months of age,while Bacteroides,Escherichia-Shigella,and Clostridium were the main genera at 6 months of age.The study indicates that the diversity and abundance of intestinal microbiota in Pishan red Sheep gradually increases with age.