Abstract #M315

# M315
Comparative analysis of bacterial community composition from the different ruminal ecological niche of Alxa Bactrian camel.
J. Zhao*1,2, Z. Yu2, H. Wu1, 1Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, China, 2The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.

Similar to ruminants, camels, as pseudoruminants, depend on the microbiota in their pseudorumen (a 3-chambered forestomach) to digest fibrous feed. Compared with the ruminal microbiome of cattle and sheep, the microbiome in the pseudorumen of camels is poorly understood. The objective of this research was to characterize the bacteria community compositions partitioned into different niches: liquid phase (LP), solid phase (SP), and epimural phase (EP), of the pseudorumen of Alxa Bactrian camel. Samples of the 3 phases were collected from 6 slaughtered Alxa Bactrian camels. Community composition of bacteria were determined through sequencing 16S rRNA gene amplicons of the V3-V5 hypervariable regions on the Illumina MiSeq platform. Weighted UniFrac analysis revealed that the bacterial community of LP was clearly different from that of SP and EP. From 619,517 quality-checked sequences, 774 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified at a 97% sequence identity. As in the rumen, Bacteroidetes (46.6% of the total sequences) and Firmicutes (32.8%) were the 2 most predominant phyla, with other minor phyla also being represented: Verrucomicrobia (4.4%), Spirochaetes (3.3%), Proteobacteria (2.8%), Fibrobacteres (2.6%), Tenericutes (2.4%), and Lentisphaerae (1.2%). Bacteroidetes was more predominant in LP than in SP and EP, while Fibrobacteres was more predominant in SP than in LP. At genus level, a total of 117 taxa were observed across all the samples, but 48 taxa of them were belong to unknown genera. Only 0.1% of the total sequences were assigned to archaea. The results showed that the camel pseudoruminal microbiome was structurally similar but compositionally distinct from that of true rumen, reflecting the different dietary and genetic impact of camels on their pseudoruminal microbiome. These findings also demonstrated the compositional differences among LP, SP, and EP, indicating that those bacterial communities are specific and adapted to their niches.

Key Words: Alxa Bactrian camel, bacteria, microbiome