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Analysis of the microbial diversity in the fecal material of the critically endangered African wild dog, Lycaon pictus

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Abstract

The African wild dog (AWD) (Lycaon pictus) is a critically endangered species. These animals are hypercarnivores, hunting mostly medium-sized antelope. In this study, using bacterial tag-encoded FLX-Titanium amplicon pyrosequencing (bTEFAP®), the microbiota in the fecal material of AWDs living in the Great Plains Zoo & Delbridge Museum of Natural History was investigated. In both samples, the most predominant bacterial phylum was the Firmicutes with members of the genus Blautia spp. being the most dominant bacteria.

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Data availability

The NGS data have been deposited in the Sequence Read Archive under accession numbers SRX10894549 and SRX10894550.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

This research was done as part of a Provost Honors project under the leadership of Zina Haywood, Executive Vice President/Provost. We also thank Jorge Nieto, Nicole Dutton and Donald Zakutansky for their enthusiastic support of this research.

Funding

This project was supported by funding provided by Gateway Technical College and by the Gateway Foundation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. General Studies, Gateway Technical College, Kenosha, WI, 53144, USA

    Fatima Aguilar Sanchez & Richard William McLaughlin

  2. MR DNA (Molecular Research LP), Shallowater, TX, USA

    Scot E. Dowd

  3. Great Plains Zoo & Delbridge Museum of Natural History, Sioux Falls, SD, 57104, USA

    Janelle Brandt

Authors
  1. Fatima Aguilar Sanchez
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  2. Scot E. Dowd
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  3. Janelle Brandt
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  4. Richard William McLaughlin
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Contributions

FAS and RWM designed this project. JB provided the fecal samples and information about the African wild dogs used in this study. SED was responsible for bTEFAP® and data collecting. FAS and RWM analyzed data. FAS and RWM wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed to discussions and revisions, and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard William McLaughlin.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Additional information

Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

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Sanchez, F.A., Dowd, S.E., Brandt, J. et al. Analysis of the microbial diversity in the fecal material of the critically endangered African wild dog, Lycaon pictus. Arch Microbiol 204, 42 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-021-02678-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-021-02678-9

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