Spatial composition differences and diversity of gut eukaryotes in white-lipped deer in Xizang, China

ABSTRACT The microbiome plays an important role in human health and biodiversity conservation. However, the gut microbial composition of many wild animals is still unknown due to the difficulty in sampling. To explore and describe the microbiome of white-lipped deer, we conducted 18S rRNA gene sequencing and analyzed the gut eukaryotes in 20 fecal samples in both GBJD (white-lipped deer populations from Gongbujiangda White-lipped deer National Nature Reserve) and ND (Naidong district) regions of Xizang, China. From a total of 161.78G clean data, 313 genera were identified, belonging to 25 phyla. Nematoda, Evosea, Basidiomycota, Cercozoa, and Ascomycota were the dominant phyla in GBJD, while Evosea, Nematoda, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Cercozoa were dominant in ND. Moreover, alpha diversity indexes differed significantly between the two regions (ACE: p = 0.000; Sobs: p = 0.001; Chao1: p = 0.001; Shannon: p = 0.038). Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis indicated significant differences in the beta diversity of the gut eukaryotes between the two regions. These results showed that the composition and the alpha and beta diversity of the gut eukaryotes in white-lipped deer differed significantly between GBJD and ND. Additionally, food resources and human disturbance could impact the composition and diversity of gut eukaryotes in wild white-lipped deer. Our results suggested that gut eukaryotes can facilitate their host to adapt to different environments during the coevolution with their hosts.