Background: Gut microbiota play important roles in their co-evolution with mammals. However, little is understood about gut bacterial community of Tibetan sheep compared with other sheep breeds. In this study, we investigated the gut bacterial community in 4 different sheep breeds living in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) of China using high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technique. Results: The results suggested that bacterial community abundance and breeds diversity of Tibetan sheep (TS) were significantly lower than that of the other three breeds of sheep [Dorset sheep (DrS), Dorper sheep (DrS) and Small Tail Han sheep (STHS)] (p < 0.05). Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) and nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis indicated that microbiome composition of TS was significantly different from that of other three sheep breeds (p < 0.01). Firmicutes was the most predominant microbial phylum in the gut, followed by Bacteroidetes. The gut bacterial community of TS showed higher proportions of phylum Spirochaetes, Proteobacteria and Verrucomicrobia, compared to the other three sheep breeds, but the Deferribacteres was absent in TS. At the genus level, Treponema, Succinivibrio, 5-7 N15 and Prevotella showed significantly higher abundance in TS than in the other three sheep breeds (p < 0.05). Conclusions: In this study, we first employed HTS to understand the gut microbiomes among different sheep breeds in QTP of China.

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Abstract Background: Gut microbiota play important roles in their co-evolution with mammals. However, little is understood about gut bacterial community of Tibetan sheep compared with other sheep breeds. In this study, we investigated the gut bacterial community in 4 different sheep breeds living in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) of China using high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technique. Results: The results suggested that bacterial community abundance and breeds diversity of Tibetan sheep (TS) were significantly lower than that of the other three breeds of sheep [Dorset sheep (DrS), Dorper sheep (DrS) and Small Tail Han sheep (STHS)] (p < 0.05). Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) and nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis indicated that microbiome composition of TS was significantly different from that of other three sheep breeds (p < 0.01). Firmicutes was the most predominant microbial phylum in the gut, followed by Bacteroidetes. The gut bacterial community of TS showed higher proportions of phylum Spirochaetes, Proteobacteria and Verrucomicrobia, compared to the other three sheep breeds, but the Deferribacteres was absent in TS. At the genus level, Treponema, Succinivibrio, 5-7N15 and Prevotella showed significantly higher abundance in TS than in the other three sheep breeds (p < 0.05). Conclusions: In this study, we first employed HTS to understand the gut microbiomes among different sheep breeds in QTP of China.

Background: Gut microbiota play important roles in their co-evolution with mammals and may influence their emissions into numerous habitats. Mammal lifestyle is related to immune and metabolic system, driven by difference in their gut microbiota composition. Results: Using 16S rDNA genes Illumina sequencing, we dissect the specificity of gut microbiota among four breeds of sheep and find the difference between TSs and other three types of sheep (DsSs, STHSs and DrSs). The results also indicate that gut microbes effect on the adaptation of high-elevation animals, which can contribute to the survival of their hosts in high-altitude conditions. Besides, the analysis of function abundance profile shows that commensal bacteria are entirely possible to coevolved with their host genomes by gene lineages contribute to energy metabolism. And the study of low methane metabolism in mammals at high-elevation environment may give theoretical basis for the biologic supervision of greenhouse gas emissions, which is the byproduct of high-methane-producing animals. Conclusions: In conclusion, our results reveal the value of characterizing mammalian gut microbiomes to fully understand mammal’s lifestyle among different breeds.

Background: The recent emergence of viral pneumonia was caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2), which has spread to many countries and threated the global public health.Results: In the current study, we provide a primary evolutionary analysis based on the codon usage patterns of SARS-Cov-2 genome sequences. We employed bioinformatics technologies to measure the nucleotide compositions, the relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU), the codon adaptation index (CAI), and other indices. Our results reflected that there were some similarities of codon usage bias between SARS-Cov-2 and its natural reservoirs, suggesting that SARS-Cov-2 was tended to evolve its codon usage which was comparable to that of its hosts. Additionally, various degree of adaptation to the SARS-Cov-2 host and vector were estimated, even different genes have different codon adaptation to their reservoirs. We further suggested that SARS-Cov-2 isolates were evolving at a rapid substitution rate under their translation selection pressure of their hosts.Conclusions: The findings of the present study will provide help for the understanding of the elements leading to viral evolution and adaptation to reservoirs.