PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Digestive and respiratory tracts are inhabited by rich bacterial communities that can vary between their different segments. In comparison with other bird taxa with developed caeca, parrots that lack caeca have relatively lower variability in intestinal morphology. Here, based on 16S rRNA metabarcoding, we describe variation in microbiota across different parts of parrot digestive and respiratory tracts both at interspecies and intraspecies levels. In domesticated budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus), we describe the bacterial variation across eight selected sections of respiratory and digestive tracts, and three non-destructively collected sample types (faeces, and cloacal and oral swabs). Our results show important microbiota divergence between the upper and lower digestive tract, but similarities between respiratory tract and crop, and also between different intestinal segments. Faecal samples appear to provide a better proxy for intestinal microbiota composition than the cloacal swabs. Oral swabs had a similar bacterial composition as the crop and trachea. For a subset of tissues, we confirmed the same pattern also in six different parrot species. Finally, using the faeces and oral swabs in budgerigars, we revealed high oral, but low faecal microbiota stability during a 3-week period mimicking pre-experiment acclimation. Our findings provide a basis essential for microbiota-related experimental planning and result generalisation in non-poultry birds.
摘要：
消化道和呼吸道居住着丰富的细菌群落，这些群落在它们的不同部分之间可能有所不同。与其他具有发达盲肠的鸟类类群相比，缺乏盲肠的鹦鹉在肠道形态上的变异性相对较低。这里,基于16SrRNA元编码，我们描述了鹦鹉消化道和呼吸道不同部位在种间和种间水平的微生物群的变化。在驯化的鹦鹉（Melopsittacusundulatus）中，我们描述了呼吸道和消化道的八个选定部分的细菌变异，和三种非破坏性收集的样本类型(粪便，和泄殖腔和口腔拭子）。我们的结果表明上消化道和下消化道之间的重要微生物群分歧，但是呼吸道和作物之间的相似之处，也在不同的肠段之间。与泄殖腔拭子相比，粪便样品似乎可以更好地代表肠道微生物群组成。口腔拭子具有与作物和气管相似的细菌组成。对于组织的子集，我们在六种不同的鹦鹉中也证实了同样的模式。最后,使用虎皮鹦鹉的粪便和口腔拭子，我们揭示了高口腔，但在模拟实验前适应的3周内，粪便微生物群稳定性较低。我们的发现为非禽类中与微生物群相关的实验计划和结果概括提供了必要的基础。
