Chicken Intestinal Mycobiome: Initial Characterization and Its Response to Bacitracin Methylene Disalicylate
Kelsy Robinson, Yingping Xiao, Timothy J. Johnson, Binlong Chen, Qing Yang, Wentao Lyu, Jing Wang, Nicole Fansler, Sage Becker, Jing Liu, Hua Yang, Guolong Zhang
Abstract
The intestinal microbiota is critical to host physiology, metabolism, and health. However, the fungal community has been often overlooked. Recent studies in humans have highlighted the importance of the mycobiota in obesity and disease, making it imperative that we increase our understanding of the fungal community. The significance of this study is that we revealed the spatial and temporal changes of the mycobiota in the GI tract of the chicken, a nonmammalian species. To our surprise, the chicken intestinal mycobiota is dominated by a limited number of fungal species, in contrast to the presence of hundreds of bacterial taxa in the bacteriome. Additionally, the chicken intestinal fungal community is more diverse in the upper than the lower GI tract, while the bacterial community shows an opposite pattern. Collectively, this study lays an important foundation for future work on the chicken intestinal mycobiome and its possible manipulation to enhance animal performance and disease resistance.