Simple Summary
Natural musk from forest musk deer varies in quality, but the microbial and chemical reasons for this variation are poorly understood. We asked whether the musk of different quality differs in the microorganisms living in it, in the functions these microorganisms can perform, and in its chemical make-up beyond muscone, the main fragrance compound. We studied musk from six captive male deer, three graded as high quality and three as low quality by experienced assessors at collection, by sequencing the genetic material of the whole microbial community and by two complementary chemical profiling methods. High-quality musk contained more muscone and less water, whereas low-quality musk was wetter and darker, and some samples had putrid, ammonia-like, and rancid off-odors. The two groups harbored different microbial communities; the same metabolic functions were carried by different bacteria in different animals, and many lipid, sterol, and odor-related compounds also differed. Musk quality assessment could therefore combine muscone with moisture and selected microbial and odor markers, and the musk-gland microbiota could be monitored in captive breeding; these candidate markers now need to be tested in larger groups of animals.
Abstract
Whether differences in natural musk quality are associated with identifiable microbial ecological and metabolic configurations remains unclear, as studies integrating phenotype, community composition, functional sources, and non-muscone metabolic background are lacking. In this study, integrated metagenomic and GC–MS/LC–MS analyses were conducted on six natural musk samples from forest musk deer on a single farm, categorized into low-quality-associated (S1, S2, and S6) and high-quality-associated (S3, S4, and S5) groups. The two groups exhibited phenotypic differentiation in muscone, moisture, and sensory characteristics. Genus-level composition revealed quality-associated consortia with individual heterogeneity. KEGG Level 3 pathway decomposition into taxonomic carriers showed that similar functional potential could be achieved across genera, particularly lipid, ketone-body, and terpenoid pathways. After excluding muscone, candidate features related to lipid/membrane components, sterols, macrocyclic ketones, and volatiles changed coordinately along the quality axis. These results outline a multi-omics evidence chain of “phenotypic differentiation–consortium reorganization–functional carrier redistribution–background metabolic remodeling”, in which the identity of the organisms carrying each function provides an additional explanatory layer beyond total pathway abundance. This exploratory cross-sectional study provides testable hypotheses on the quality-associated ecological–metabolic organization of natural musk and targets for subsequent mechanistic validation.