Publication
Gut microbiota of the European Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus)
Publisher:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:
25-02-2019
DOI:
10.1038/S41598-019-39638-9
Abstract: Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract due to changes in the bacterial flora have been described with increasing incidence in the European brown hare. Despite extensive demographic and phylogeographic research, little is known about the composition of its gut microbiota and how it might vary based on potential environmental or host factors. We analysed the intestinal and faecal microbiota of 3 hare populations by Illumina MiSeq 16S rRNA gene licon sequencing. The phyla and OTU abundance composition differed significantly between intestinal and faecal s les (PERMANOVA: P = 0.002 and P = 0.031, respectively), but in both s le types Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes dominated the microbial community composition (45.51% and 19.30% relative abundance). Intestinal s les contained an enrichment of Proteobacteria compared with faecal s les (15.71-fold change, P 0.001). At OTU level, a significant enrichment with best BLAST hits to the Escherichia-Shigella group, Eubacterium limosum , Sphingomonas kyeonggiensis , Flintibacter butyricus and Blautia faecis were detected in intestinal s les ( P 0.05). In our statistical model, geographic location and possibly associated environmental factors had a greater impact on the microbiota composition than host factors. Population had a significant effect on the composition of abundant intestinal and faecal OTUs, and on the abundance of potential pathogenic bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae , regularly associated with intestinal dysbiosis in hares, in faecal s les. Our study is the first to describe the microbiota in brown hares and provides a foundation to generate hypothesis aiming to test the role of gut health in population fluctuations of the species.