Relationship between feed efficiency and gut microbiota in laying chickens under contrasting feeding conditions.

The gut microbiota is known to play an important role in energy harvest and is likely to affect feed efficiency. In this study, we used 16S metabarcoding sequencing to analyse the caecal microbiota of laying hens from feed-efficient and non-efficient lines obtained by divergent selection for residual feed intake. The two lines were fed either a commercial wheat-soybean based diet (CTR) or a low-energy, high-fibre corn-sunflower diet (LE). The analysis revealed a significant line x diet interaction, highlighting distinct differences in microbial community composition between the two lines when hens were fed the CTR diet, and more muted differences when hens were fed the LE diet. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that a richer and more diverse microbiota may play a role in enhancing feed efficiency, albeit in a diet-dependent manner. The taxonomic differences observed in the microbial composition seem to correlate with alterations in starch and fibre digestion as well as in the production of short-chain fatty acids. As a result, we hypothesise that efficient hens are able to optimise nutrient absorption through the activity of fibrolytic bacteria such as Alistipes or Anaerosporobacter, which, via their production of propionate, influence various aspects of host metabolism.

A multi-omics dataset of the response to early plant polysaccharide ingestion in rabbits.

The transition from a milk-based diet to exclusive solid feeding deeply modifies microbiota-host crosstalk. Specifically, early ingestion of plant polysaccharides would be one of the main nutritional components to drive host-microbiota-interaction. To capture the effects of polysaccharides early-life nutrition (starch vs rapidly fermentable fiber) on the holobiont development, we investigated on the one hand the gut bacteriome and metabolome and on the other hand the transcriptome of two host gut tissues. Rabbit model was used to study post-natal co-development of the gut microbiota and its host around weaning transition. The assessment of the microbial composition of the gut appendix together with the caecum was provided for the first time. Gene expression signatures were analyzed along the gut (ileum and caecum) through high-throughput qPCR. The data collected were completed by the analysis of animal growth changes and time-series assessment of blood biomarkers. Those accessible and reusable data could help highlight the gut development dynamics as well as biological adaptation processes at the onset of solid feeding.