Unveiling the Gut Microbiota of Pig-Tailed Macaque (Macaca nemestrina) in Selected Habitats in Malaysia

Background: The gut microbiota plays an important role in primates, which may be associated with their habitat. In Malaysia, pig-tailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina) live in different habitat environments and have traditionally been used for coconut plucking for more than a century. There is currently no information regarding the gut microbiota of this macaque in Malaysia. To address this oversight, this study employed a fecal metabarcoding approach to determine the gut microbiota composition of pig-tailed macaques and establish how these microbial communities correspond with the macaque external environments of residential area, forest edge, and fragmented forest. Methods: To determine this connection, 300 paired-end sequences of 16S rRNA were amplified and sequenced using the MiSeq platform. Results: In the pig-tailed macaque fecal samples, we identified 17 phyla, 40 orders, 52 families, 101 genera, and 139 species of bacteria. The most prevalent bacterial families in the gut of pig-tailed macaques were Firmicutes (6.31%) and Proteobacteria (0.69%). Our analysis did not identify a significant difference between the type of environmental habitat and the gut microbiota composition of these macaques. Conclusions: There was great variation in the population richness and bacterial community structure. The abundance of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria helps this macaque digest food more easily while maintaining a healthy gut microbiota diversity. Exploring the gut microbiota provides an initial effort to support pig-tailed macaque conservation in the future.