We retained a total of 63, 944 high quality reads after denoising, with anaverage of 3,761 sequences per sample ranging from 1,214 to 7,450. The sequenceswere processed and analyzed by using the mothur software package 9. We also sequenced the gut microbiotas of 6 Asian black bears, which arephylogenetically closer to the giant panda than to the red panda. We characterized the gut microbiotas of 6 red and 5 giant pandas by sequencingthe 16S V1–V3 hyper variable region of their feces collected from thezoo. We found adivergent evolution pattern in the gut microbiotas of the pandas.Ĭomparison of the gut microbiota of the three carnivores To determine their evolutionary patterns we characterized the gut microbiotas in the twotypes of pandas and compared them to the gut microbiotas of black bears. However,it is still unclear whether the gut microbiota in the red and the giant pandas convergeddue to the similar, highly specialized bamboo diet, or diverged corresponding to otherunknown factors. Theyboth independently developed several similar morphological features such as the falsethumb 8 in adaptation to the same dietary switch to bamboo. Both speciesexperienced a dietary switch from carnivores to highly specialized bamboo eaters. The red and the giant pandas are interesting models to study the evolution of the gutmicrobiota as they are carnivores by phylogeny but herbivores by diet. Several factorssuch as diet and phylogeny have been reported to play important roles in shaping the gutmicrobiota at different taxonomic scales 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. The evolution of the gutmicrobiota has recently received great interests 1, 2, 3. The advent of the high throughput next generation sequencing has allowed scientists toexplore the gut microbiota with an unprecedented depth. Our data suggests the divergent evolution of the gutmicrobiota in the pandas. By analyzing the microbiota from these 3 speciesand those from other carnivores reported previously, we found the gut microbiotas ofthe giant pandas are distinct from those of the red pandas and clustered closer tothose of the black bears. We alsoincluded fecal samples from Asian black bears, a species phylogenetically closer tothe giant panda, in our analyses. Wecharacterized the fecal microbiota from these two species by pyrosequencing the 16SV1–V3 hypervariable regions using the 454 GS FLX Titanium platform. The goal of this study was to determine whether thegut microbiota of the pandas converged due to the same diet, or diverged. Althoughprevious studies have shown convergent evolution of the giant and the red pandas atboth morphological and molecular level, the evolution of the gut microbiota in thesepandas remains largely unknown. The independent dietary shift from carnivore to herbivore with over 90% being bambooin the giant and the red pandas is of great interests to biologists.
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