CU Denver Dept. of Integrative Biology
Graduate Student Thesis Defense

ALEX ROMERO
Integrative Biology M.S. Candidate in Dr. Chris Miller’s Lab

WHEN:  May 7, 2021 at 2:30p—4:30p

WHERE: Seminar will be presented via Zoom.  Please contact Jacki Craig for the Zoom Link.

Characterizing the Gut Microbiome of Golden Retrievers Using Highly Replicated 16s rRna Sequencing

Differences in the microbial community of the gastrointestinal tract of humans have shown strong association with health and disease. Less has been done to understand links between health and disease with the gut microbiome of companion dogs. Golden Retrievers are among the most common purebred companion dogs and have increased odds ratios to be overweight or obese compared to other dog breeds. This makes them a perfect candidate to investigate gut microbiome in relation to weight status, as quantified by a dog’s Body Condition Score. Using 213 fecal samples collected by the Morris Animal Foundation as part of the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, our project identified the bacterial communities present in the gut microbiome of a large, single-breed, Golden Retriever cohort. By leveraging a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE), our study included a highly replicated sampling design, which allowed for quantification of the level of technical variability inherent in our 16S sequencing protocols. Based on these data, we propose a filtering method for 16S rRNA amplicon studies that relies on replication to identify and remove samples with high technical variability. Consistent with other mammalian gut microbiomes, we find the gut microbiome of Golden Retrievers is dominated by Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes which on average make up 80% of the bacteria within their gut. However, the abundances of these two phyla vary greatly from dog to dog despite lower host diversity of a single breed study. Our data do not support previously reported associations between Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio and Body Condition Score. We also find no association between gut microbiome alpha diversity and Body Condition Score. Project findings highlight the need to quantify variability within sequencing projects via replication.

Everyone is welcome to join the seminar, please see the Zoom link information above.