Characterization of gut microbiota compositions along the intestinal tract in CD163/pAPN double knockout piglet and their potential roles on iron absorption

The gut microbiota is known to play a role in regulating host metabolism, yet the mechanisms underlying this regulation are not well elucidated. Our study aimed to characterize differences in gut microbiota composition and function between wild-type (WT) and CD163/pAPN double knockout (DKO) weaned piglets. We sampled 58 intestinal content specimens along the entire digestive tract (including duodenum, jejunum, ileum, caecum and colon) and feces for analysis of microbial community using bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The colonic microbiota function and their metabolites were determined by metagenomic sequencing and untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), respectively.

已知肠道菌群（gut microbiota）在调控宿主代谢过程中发挥关键作用，但其介导该调控的具体机制尚未得到充分阐释。本研究旨在解析野生型（wild-type，WT）与CD163/pAPN双基因敲除（double knockout，DKO）断奶仔猪的肠道菌群组成及功能差异。我们采集了覆盖全消化道（包括十二指肠、空肠、回肠、盲肠和结肠）以及粪便的58份肠道内容物标本，采用细菌16S rRNA基因测序技术对微生物群落进行分析；并分别通过宏基因组测序（metagenomic sequencing）与非靶向液相色谱-质谱联用（LC-MS）技术，测定了结肠菌群的功能及其代谢产物。