Study of the Bacterial Community of Nest Litter from the Burrows of Long-Tailed Gopher by Metagenomic Analysis

The results of a parasitological and metagenomic study of two nests of long-tailed gopher from the Tuva mountain plague focus (Mungun-Taiga kozhuun of the Tuva Republic) are presented. The fauna of blood-sucking arthropods from both nests was formed by the fleas Citellophilus tesquorum Wagn., Frontopsylla elatoides Wagn., Rhadinopsylla li transbaikalica Ioff et Tifl., Oropsylla alaskensis Baker, and Neopsylla mana Wagn. and mites Haemogamasus mandschuricus Vitzthum and Hg. hodosi Goncharova et Buyakova. F. hetera Wagn. and F. frontalis baikal Ioff were sporadically present in nest no. 1. According to the size, depth of occurrence, length of passage to the nest chamber, species composition, and physiological state of ectoparasites, the nests are determined as wintering nest no. 1 and reserve nest no. 2. According to the results of the metagenomic analysis, the community of nest no. 1 contained 64.2% of Proteobacteria phyla (including Allorhizobium (22.8%), Aureimonas (9.71%), and Methylobacterium (7.68%)), 35% of Actinobacteria (including Brachybacterium (3.8%), Amycolatopsis (3.33%), and Brevibacterium (1.76%)), and 0.8% of Firmicutes (Staphylococcus). In the sample from nest no. 2, 87.1% of sequenced sequences belonged to Actinobacteria phyla (including Brachybacterium (51.0%), Brevibacterium (19.6%), and Nocardioides (7.4%)), 12.8% to Firmicutes (Staphylococcus), and 0.08% to Proteobacteria (Methylobacterium). Possible reasons for the differences in the composition of nest bacterial communities are discussed.