Characterization of the Oral Microbiota in Captive Sichuan Golden Snub-nosed Monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) of Different Ages

• Published in: International journal of primatology 2023-12, Vol.44 (6), p.1149-1165
• Main Authors: Chen, Rong, Liu, Xinyi, Li, Meirong, Xu, Xiaojuan, Lv, Ran, Chen, Yuanyuan, Wang, Guodong, Deng, Changlin, Chen, Nan, Jia, Ting, Wang, Siteng, Liu, Guangjin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Age differences; Age groups; Animal Ecology; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Anthropology; Bacteria; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Evolutionary Biology; Firmicutes; Flora; Human Genetics; Infants; Life Sciences; Microbiota; Microorganisms; Monkeys; Monkeys & apes; Next-generation sequencing; Oral cavity; Pathogens; Positive reinforcement; Primates; Reinforcement; Relative abundance; Rhinopithecus roxellana; rRNA 16S; Zoology
• ISSN: 0164-0291; 1573-8604
• DOI: 10.1007/s10764-023-00393-4

The oral microbiota is essential for the maintenance of oral and systemic health but is poorly characterized in primates. We used positive reinforcement training to collect 20 oral samples from three infant, ten juvenile/subadult, and seven adult Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys ( Rhinopithecus roxellana ). We subjected these samples to 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing, as well as bacterial culture and identification. The 16S rRNA sequencing data showed the diversity of the oral flora did not differ significantly across these three age groups, while at the phyla level, the dominant flora in the oral cavity were Firmicutes and Proteobacteria (totaling 77.62%), and the relative abundance of Firmicutes in the adults was significantly higher than in the juvenile/subadults. Meanwhile, Enterococcus was the most abundant genus in this population, and there was no significant difference in the oral flora at the genus level across the age groups. We also isolated several opportunistic pathogenic bacteria in the oral samples from noninfant, Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys. Although our sample size is small, particularly for infants, our study describes the characteristics of oral flora in captive, Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys of different age groups and provides important information about possibly pathogenic bacteria.