Premium
A Comparative Study of Equine Gut Microbiomes Using 16S and 18S rRNA Sequencing
Author(s) -
Jorgenson Jillian K.,
Bennett Jennifer A.,
Burk Steffanie V.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2019.33.1_supplement.484.8
Subject(s) - microbiome , biology , feces , metagenomics , equus , zoology , dna sequencing , gut microbiome , 16s ribosomal rna , ribosomal rna , 18s ribosomal rna , parasite hosting , dna extraction , computational biology , evolutionary biology , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , polymerase chain reaction , dna , bacteria , gene , world wide web , computer science
The gut microbiome of domestic horses ( Equus ferus caballus ) can be broken down into three primary divisions: (1) bacterial composition, (2) fungal composition, and (3) eukaryotic parasite communities. While each has been the subject of various scientific explorations, in this study we analyze the potential interconnectedness of these three categories. To determine the extent to which each component of the gut microbiome influences the other, we extracted and amplified DNA from equine fecal samples and utilized a combination of 16S and 18S rRNA Illumina Sequencing to illustrate the bacterial and fungal compositions taxonomically with the assistance of QIIME2 software. Meanwhile, fecal egg counts for each sample were completed using the modified Stoll method to estimate the parasitic load for each horse. The identification of relationships between bacterial communities, fungal communities, and parasite load could have clinical applications to future studies of equine health. Additionally, comparisons could be made between domestic horses and exotic hoofstock as a means to improve our understanding of gut microbiome health in lesser studied species. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .