Abstract
The musk gland in an adult male forest musk deer is an organ that synthesizes, stores, and secretes musk, a cream-colored liquid upon initial secretion that gradually transforms into a blackish-brown solid substance upon full maturation. In this study, four healthy adult male forest musk deer were selected and a total of 12 musk samples were collected for analysis. The samples were in three different states depending on the different seasonal collection dates, which were in June, August, and October. High-throughput 16S-rRNA gene sequencing technology was used to detect microbiota changes in the gland. The results indicate that microbial richness gradually declined during the musk maturation process. The microbiota composition between the initial liquid and final solid musk samples was varied significantly (P < 0.05). The dominant bacterial phyla were similar at all three stages included Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. However, the abundances were differences in terms of the dominant bacterial genera. PICRUSt analysis showed the highest represented category was "Amino acid transport and metabolism" (24.8%), followed by "Transcription" (22.04%), and "Carbohydrate transport and metabolism" (20.74%). Our findings indicate that the microbiota in the musk gland plays an important role in the maturation process of musk.