Study for giant panda gut microbiota and cellulose digestion mechanism

The giant panda feeds almost exclusively on bamboo, a diet highly enriched in lignin and cellulose, but is characterized by adigestive tract similar to carnivores. It is still large unknown if and how the giant panda gut microbiota contributes to ligninand cellulose degradation. Here we show the giant pandas' gut microbiota does not significantly contribute to cellulose andlignin degradation. We found that no operational taxonomic unit had a nearest neighbor identified as a cellulolytic species orstrain with a significant higher abundance in juvenile than cubs, a very low abundance of putative lignin and cellulose genesexisted in part of analyzing samples but a significant higher abundance of genes involved in starch and hemicellulosedegradation in juveniles than cubs. Moreover, a significant lower abundance of putative cellulolytic genes and a significanthigher abundance of putative a-amylase and hemicellulase gene families were present in giant pandas than in omnivores orherbivores.