Metabolome Analysis of Japanese Rock Ptarmigan Feces by LC/MS/MS: Application to the Establishment of Breeding Technology for Endangered Species

Introduction

According to the latest Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature issued in 2017, 25,821 species of wildlife are listed in the three high-risk categories (CR, EN and VU). Many endangered species are difficult to breed, and experts in each field are working together to develop breeding techniques. In recent years, the number of Japanese rock ptarmigans has decreased and they are threatened with extinction. In order to protect them against extinction, efforts have been made to breed them outside zoos, etc., and return them to the wild, but there are a number of issues that need to be resolved. One of them is glomerular nephropathy with diarrhea and oxalate deposition when artificially bred Japanese rock ptarmigans eat the alpine plants consumed by wild Japanese rock ptarmigans. This is considered to be because the artificially bred birds are not given alpine plants containing a lot of oxalic acid while being reared, and consequently they lack the intestinal flora that decomposes oxalic acid. This means that a breeding technique that includes reconstruction of the wild intestinal flora must be developed in order to return the birds to the wild. Some means being used to elucidate the effects of intestinal flora on the host are flora analysis using next-generation sequencers and metabolome analysis using mass spectrometers. In this article, feces containing metabolites produced by the intestinal flora of wild and artificially bred Japanese rock ptarmigans were analyzed using LC/MS/MS. It was suggested that metabolome analysis could be applied in establishing breeding technology focused on return to the wild, so we are introducing an example of that here.

October 24, 2019 GMT