%A Fan Xia, Jing Yang, Jian Li, Yang Shi, Lixin Gai, Wenhua Huang, Jingwei Zhang, Nan Yang, Fuli Gao, Yingying Han, Weidong Bao %T Gut bacterial composition of four leopard cat subpopulations in Beijing %0 Journal Article %D 2022 %J Biodiv Sci %R 10.17520/biods.2022103 %P 22103- %V 30 %N 9 %U {https://www.biodiversity-science.net/CN/abstract/article_82730.shtml} %8 2022-09-20 %X

Aims: The composition of gut microbiota of wild animals is most influenced by food types and genetic background. This study aimed to investigate gut bacterial composition of leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) and its influencing factors in Beijing.
Methods: In this study, fecal samples of leopard cat collected from Yunmengshan, Yunfengshan, Songshan and Baihuashan were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing on bacterial 16S rRNA hypervariable region of V3-V4.
Results: The results showed that the dominant flora of gut bacteria of leopard cat in phyla included Firmicutes (relative abundance 52.40%), Proteobacteria (25.18%), Actinobacteria (9.07%), Bacteroidetes (8.17%), and Fusobacteria (4.74%). The top 5 genera of bacteria with the highest abundance accounted for about 50% of the total abundance, which were Pseudomonas (13.37%), Blautia (11.20%), Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 (9.10%), Peptoclostridium (8.62%), and Lactobacillus (6.08%). There was no significant difference in gut bacterial abundance and β diversity among the leopard cat subpopulations in four sampling areas, but the ACE index and Chao 1 index in Songshan subpopulation were different from those in Yunmengshan and Yunfengshan.
Conclusion: Considering there was a disparity trend in genetic structure in Songshan subpopulation, and the climate types of the four areas and food composition of the leopard cat were highly similar, we postulated that the gut bacteria of leopard cat was mainly influenced by the genetic traits for local adaptation.