Diet conversion experiment
Feces from each individual were collected in each room of the captive
group facilities every month during the diet conversion experiment. A
total of 180 fecal samples were taken for microbial community
compositional analysis via high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing from
the five captive giant panda cubs. Following quality assessment, a total
of 168 fecal samples were subjected to sequencing and 108 of those
samples were subjected to fungal ITS sequencing. The diet conversion
experiment comprised three different periods, including the only milk
diet period from 2 to 7 months old (OMD, 16S rRNA sequencing n=49; ITS
sequencing n=29), the milk and bamboo mixed
diet
period from 8 to 13 months old (MBD, 16S rRNA sequencing n=74; ITS
sequencing n=50), and the bamboo only diet period from 14 to 19 months
old (OBD, 16S rRNA sequencing n=45; ITS sequencing n=29; metagenomic
binning n=60) (Supplementary Table S2).