Analysis of microbial communities in allogeneic matured muskrat musk and natural musk

Abstract Musk, a widely used ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, exhibits diverse pharmacological activities and holds significant value. Due to the limited yield of natural musk, which falls far short of market demand, muskrat musk is increasingly explored as a potential alternative. To investigate the microbial differences between natural musk and muskrat musk, this study extracted bacterial and fungal DNA from four sample types: natural musk (D1), muskrat musk (D2), immature musk during its peak period (S1), and allogeneic matured muskrat musk (S2). The Illumina HiSeq sequencing platform and bioinformatics analysis were employed to construct 16S rDNA v3-v4 gene sequencing libraries and ITS1 sequencing libraries for 18 samples. While no significant differences were observed between D1 and D2, S1 and S2 exhibited lower microbial diversity. In contrast, fungal diversity showed no significant differences across all samples. According to PICRUSt2 analysis, energy metabolism and amino acid metabolism were the most prominently represented functional categories in D2. Additionally, functional changes were observed in S2 compared to D1. Overall, the findings suggest that the musk gland in forest musk deer influences microbial composition during seasonal development, and the microbiota in the musk gland plays a crucial role in the maturation process of musk.