Observational multi-omics study reveals progressive microbial succession and immune gene activation in growing yak calves, indicating coordinated host-microbiota intestinal maturation.
Key Points
To characterize age-dependent intestinal morphological changes, microbial succession patterns, and jejunal transcriptome profiles in yak calves between 3 and 5 months of age.
Evaluated intestinal morphology and profiling of gut microbiota via 16S rRNA sequencing in yak calves across 3, 4, and 5 months of age.
Performed RNA sequencing to construct jejunal transcriptomes along with Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) functional enrichment analyses.
Intestinal maturation progressed with age, marked by preferential development of the large intestine, dynamic microbial succession, and functional enrichment in nucleotide, energy, and amino acid metabolism.
Transcriptomic profiling highlighted ROS1 and multiple immune-related genes (SAMD9, RIG-I, IFIH1, EIF2AK2, IL12RB2, and RSAD2) associated with significant enrichment in immune activation, cell differentiation, and regulatory pathways.