Abstract:

Analyses of the gut microbiome profile using bacterial 16S rRNA gene between two maternal rabbit lines (A and LP) and two groups of animals from line LP with different longevity (LLP and HLP, females up to four parities and with more than four parities, respectively) were carried out. For that, 298 soft faeces samples collected from 191 does were sequenced. After filtering and quality control, the sequences were analysed using QIIME2. Differences between lines A and LP (DLINES) and between groups LLP and HLP (DLP GROUPS) in both alpha and beta diversities indexes at first parity were observed. The PLS-DA analysis allowed us to identify 45 and 37 Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) that were able to discriminate between lines A and LP, and between the two groups within line LP. Eubacteriacea and Ruminococcus were the main taxa presented in the final ASVs for both DLINES and DLP GROUPS comparison. Preliminary results support that gut microbiome profile is related to longevity and it could be used to improve resilience in rabbits commercial lines.