First Study on profiling of gut microbiome in wild and captive Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii)

Vet World Vol.16 April-2023 Article-8

Research Article

Veterinary World, 16(4): 717-727

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2023.717-727

Safika Safika¹, Agustin Indrawati¹, Usamah Afiff¹, Yohana Tri Hastuti², Zureni Zureni³, and Afif Pranaya Jati⁴

1. Division of Medical Microbiology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia.
2. Senior Veterinarian, Taman Safari Indonesia, Bogor, Indonesia.
3. Class II Agricultural Quarantine Center Medan, Indonesia.
4. Indonesian Society of Bioinformatics and Biodiversity Indonesia.

Background and Aim: Orangutans are an “umbrella species” for conserving tropical forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan. There are remarkable changes between the gut microbiomes of wild and captive Sumatran orangutans. This study aimed to profile gut microbiota of wild and captive Sumatran orangutans.

Materials and Methods: Nine fecal samples collected from wild orangutans and nine fecal samples collected from captive orangutans were divided into three replicates. Each replicate randomly combined three pieces and were analyzed on the Illumina platform. A bioinformatics study of 16S rRNA according to Qiime2 (Version 2021.4) and microbiome profiling analysis was conducted.

Results: The relative abundance of different microbial taxa varied significantly between wild and captive Sumatran orangutans. Among the operational taxonomic units, various proportions of Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Euryarchaeota, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria and Verrucomicrobia predominated. Solobacterium was found only in 19% of captive orangutans. Methanobrevibacter was identified to be prevalent among wild orangutans (16%). Analysis of the core microbiome from the combined wild and captive data revealed seven species as cores. According to linear discriminant analysis effect size, Micrococcus luteus, Bacteroidescaccae, Lachnospiraceae bacterium, Ruthenibacterium lactatiformans, Haemophilus haemolyticus, and Chishuiella spp. were microbiome biomarkers in captive orangutans, whereas Roseburia inulinivorans, Collinsella aerofaciens, Oscillibacter spp., and Eubacterium hallii were microbiome biomarkers in wild orangutans.

Conclusion: There were differences in the microbiome biomarkers of wild and captive Sumatran orangutans. This study is important for understanding the role of gut bacteria in the health of Sumatran orangutans. Keywords: captive Sumatran orangutans, core microbiome, gut microbiota, Pongo abelii, wild Sumatran orangutans.

Keywords: captive Sumatran orangutans, core microbiome, gut microbiota, Pongo abelii, wild Sumatran orangutans.

How to cite this article: Safika S, Indrawati A, Afiff U, Hastuti YT, Zureni Z, and Jati AP (2023) First study on profiling of gut microbiome in wild and captive Sumatran orangutans (

Received: 08-11-2022 Accepted: 27-02-2023 Published online: 12-04-2023

Corresponding author: E-mail: safika@apps.ipb.ac.id

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2023.717-727

Copyright: Safika, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.