A common vaginal microbiota composition among breeds of Bos taurus indicus (Gyr and Nellore)

• DOI: 10.1007/s42770-019-00120-3
• Publication Date: 2019-08-29T22:02:41Z
• Authors: Silvia Giannattas...; Mateus Laguardia-...; Marcela Ribeiro G...; Laura Rabelo Leite; Flávio Marcos Gom...; Anna Christina de...; André Penido de O...; Jacques Robert Ni...; Guilherme Corrêa ...; Flavio Guimarães ...; Edel Figueiredo B...
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 2. Zero hunger; Rumen; Bacteria; Microbiota; Fungi; Breeding; Archaea; 03 medical and health sciences; Vagina; Animals; Cattle; Female; Metagenomics; Phylogeny

Describing the bovine vaginal microbiota is essential to better understand its physiology and its impact on health maintenance. Despite the economic importance of reproduction of these animals, bovine vaginal microbial community is still poorly described in comparison with rumen microbiome. Previous studies of our group described the vaginal microbiota of Nellore, an important Bos taurus indicus breed, using metagenomics. In order to better understand this microbiota, the present work aims to investigate another important breed, Gyr. Results have shown bacterial dominance over Archaea and Fungi was observed, with the most abundant bacterial phylum (Firmicutes) representing 40-50% of bacterial population, followed by Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria. The Fungi kingdom had the Mycosphaerella genus as its main representative, followed by Cladosporium. Archaea were observed at a very low abundance in all animals, with a high relative abundance of Methanobrevibacter genus. These results demonstrate a high microbial diversity on vaginal tract of Gyr, as demonstrated for Nellore and different from the previously described for other species. Our results indicate a great similarity between vaginal microbiota of Nellore and Gyr despite the differences in animal handling and genetic improvement. As observed for both breeds, individual variation is the largest source of microbial diversity between animals.