description |
Pig is a main species for livestock and biomedicine. The pig genome sequence was recently reported. To boost research, we established a catalogue of the genes of the gut microbiome based on faecal samples of 287 pigs from France, Denmark and China. More than 7.6 million non-redundant genes representing 719 metagenomic species were identified by deep metagenome sequencing, highlighting more similarities with the human than with the mouse catalogue. The pig and human catalogues share only 12.6 and 9.3 % of their genes, respectively, but 70 and 95% of their functional pathways. The pig gut microbiota is influenced by gender, age and breed. Analysis of the prevalence of antibiotics resistance genes (ARGs) reflected antibiotics supplementation in each farm system, and revealed that non-antibiotics-fed animals still harbour ARGs. The pig catalogue creates a resource for whole metagenomics-based studies, highly valuable for research in biomedicine and for sustainable knowledge-based pig farming. |