• Journal of Marine Life Science
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.43-49
• /
• 2023

This study applied a metagenomic analysis of the penguins' gut microbiome from fecal samples of Adélie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) and Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) living along the Ross Sea, Antarctica. As a result of taxonomic analysis, 7 phyla and 18 families were mainly present in the gut microbiome of Adélie and Emperor penguins. To assess microbial diversity, we performed alpha diversity and OTU abundance analyses. It was confirmed that the Adélie Penguin's gut microbial species had a higher diversity than Emperor Penguin's. Based on the Beta diversity analysis using PCoA, differences were observed in the clustering between Adélie and Emperor penguins, respectively. Through the KEGG pathway analysis using PICRUSt, the nucleoside and nucleotide biosynthesis pathway was the most prevalent in Adélie and Emperor penguins. This study enabled a comparison and analysis of the composition and diversity of the gut microbiome in Adélie and Emperor Penguins. It could be utilized for future research related to penguin feeding habits and could serve as a foundation for analyzing the gut microbiomes of various other Antarctic organisms.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.137-147
• /
• 1999

Penguins are one of the key constituent organisms in the Antarctic ecosystem. A total of 18 species of penguins occur only in the southern hemisphere from the Galapagos Archipelago to southern area off Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, South America, and the islands scattered in the Southern Ocean to the coast along the Antarctic Continent. In the Antarctic Treaty area, there are only 5 species of penguins such as Emperor (Aptenodytes forsteri), Gentoo (Pygoscelis papua ellsworthi), Adelie (P. adeliae), Chinstrap (p. antarctica), and Macaroni (Eudyptes chrysolophus) penguins. Two additional species, the King (Aptenodytes patagonicus patagonicus) and Rockhopper (Eudyptes chrysocome) penguins, however, are distributed within the Antarctic Convergence. In the vicinity of king Sejong Station located in King George Island, the South Shetland Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, 5 species are observed, among which 2 Pygoscelis species such as the Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins hatch their eggs and raise their chicks at the rookery 2km south offing Sejong Station in summer. Adelie penguins hatch their chicks in other place in King George Island. One Emperor penguin roamed on the frozen Maxwell Bay which has been frozen every two or three years with the approximate thickness of 60cm. And one Macaroni penguin also visited the rookery in summer. We should carry out researches on the penguins occurring in the vicinity of King Sejong Station to monitor the environmental changes around King Sejong Station and the South Shetland Islands.

• Genomics & Informatics
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.5.1-5.9
• /
• 2019

The chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarcticus) and gentoo (P. papua) penguins are distributed throughout Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands. In this study, high-quality de novo assemblies of blood transcriptomes from these penguins were generated using the Illumina MiSeq platform. A total of 22.2 and 21.8 raw reads were obtained from chinstrap and gentoo penguins, respectively. These reads were assembled using the Oases assembly platform and resulted in 26,036 and 21,854 contigs with N50 values of 929 and 933 base pairs, respectively. Functional gene annotations through pathway analyses of the Gene Ontology, EuKaryotic Orthologous Groups, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases were performed for each blood transcriptome, resulting in a similar compositional order between the two transcriptomes. Ortholog comparisons with previously published transcriptomes from the $Ad{\acute{e}}lie$ (P. adeliae) and emperor (Aptenodytes forsteri) penguins revealed that a high proportion of the four penguins' transcriptomes had significant sequence homology. Because blood and tissues of penguins have been used to monitor pollution in Antarctica, immune parameters in blood could be important indicators for understanding the health status of penguins and other Antarctic animals. In the blood transcriptomes, KEGG analyses detected many essential genes involved in the major innate immunity pathways, which are key metabolic pathways for maintaining homeostasis against exogenous infections or toxins. Blood transcriptome studies such as this may be useful for checking the immune and health status of penguins without sacrifice.