Abstract: In order to study the effects of addition of beef and chicken proteins on the composition of gut microbiota under in vitro conditions, we incubated human fecal microbes in the presence of beef or chicken proteins (0.01 g) at 37 ℃ for 48 h, then extracted DNA from the fermentation broth and sequenced the DNA on Illumina PE250 sequencing platform to analyze microbial community composition and structure. The results showed that addition of beef protein and chicken protein significantly affected the composition and structure of gut microbiota. At the phylum level, the beef protein and chicken protein groups had significantly higher abundances of Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria compared with the control group (P < 0.05). The abundance of Bacteroidetes was significantly decreased in the chicken protein group (P < 0.05). At the genus level, a total of 15 species of core microbes were found in the three groups. Compared with the control group, the relative abundance of Prevotella, Parabacteroides and Faecalibacterium in the beef protein and chicken protein groups was significantly decreased (P < 0.05), while the relative abundance of Megasphaera, Megamonas and Escherichia-Shigella was significantly increased (P < 0.05). In addition, significantly increased abundance of Sutterella and Ruminococcus torques was seen in the chicken protein group (P < 0.05), together with an increase in the abundance of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria. Under in vitro fermentation conditions, beef and chicken protein significantly but differently affected the composition and structure of human fecal microbiome.

Key words: beef proteins, chicken proteins, gut microbiota, high-throughput sequencing, anaerobic culture