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The microbiome of the cloacal openings of the urogenital and anal tracts of the tammar wallaby, Macropus eugenii

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, Division of Environmental and Life Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia
² CSIRO Entomology, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
³ Institute of Dental Research, Westmead Millennium Institute and Westmead Center for Oral Health, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia

Correspondence
Elizabeth M. Deane
elizabeth.deane{at}anu.edu.au

The bacterial diversity of the openings of the urogenital and anal tracts of the adult female tammar wallaby, Macropus eugenii, was determined in order to ascertain whether the physical proximity of the openings of these tracts within the cloaca affected the two populations of bacteria. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analyses of 42 wallabies identified 81 different terminal fragments, indicative of diverse and complex microbiomes at these anatomical locations. Subsequent amplified rDNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) identified 72 phylotypes from the urogenital tract and 50 from the anal tract. Twenty-two of these phylotypes were common to both tracts. Phylogenetic analysis of sequenced 16S rDNA showed that 83 % of the phylotypes were unidentified species based on the premise that any sequence possessing <97 % homology to a known bacterial species or phylotype was novel. Thus, despite the close proximity of the openings of the urogenital and anal tracts within the cloaca, the two sites retained a diverse range of distinct bacteria, with only a small percentage of overlapping species.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the DNA sequences of the species or phylotypes identified in this study are EU289036–EU289066 and EU289069–EU289139.

A supplementary table of phylotypes isolated from the urogenital and anal tracts of the tammar wallaby is available with the online version of this paper.