Hakim Joseph A, Schram Julie B, Galloway Aaron W E, Morrow Casey D, Crowley Michael R, Watts Stephen A, Bej Asim K
Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, University of Oregon, 63466 Boat Basin Rd, Charleston, OR 97420, USA.
Microorganisms. 2019 Jan 26;7(2):35. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms7020035.
The sea urchin (order Camarodonta, family Strongylocentrotidae) can be found dominating low intertidal pool biomass on the southern coast of Oregon, USA. In this case study, three adult sea urchins were collected from their shared intertidal pool, and the bacteriome of their pharynx, gut tissue, and gut digesta, including their tide pool water and algae, was determined using targeted high-throughput sequencing (HTS) of the 16S rRNA genes and bioinformatics tools. Overall, the gut tissue demonstrated and (Epsilonproteobacteria) to be abundant, whereas the gut digesta was dominated by (Gammaproteobacteria), (Fusobacteria), and Flavobacteriales (Bacteroidetes). Alpha and beta diversity analyses indicated low species richness and distinct microbial communities comprising the gut tissue and digesta, while the pharynx tissue had higher richness, more closely resembling the water microbiota. Predicted functional profiles showed Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) Level-2 categories of energy metabolism, membrane transport, cell motility, and signal transduction in the gut tissue, and the gut digesta represented amino acid, carbohydrate, vitamin and cofactor metabolisms, and replication and repair. Co-occurrence network analysis showed the potential relationships and key taxa, such as the highly abundant and , influencing population patterns and taxonomic organization between the gut tissue and digesta. These results demonstrate a trend of microbial community integration, allocation, predicted metabolic roles, and taxonomic co-occurrence patterns in the gut ecosystem.
海胆（拱齿目，球海胆科）在美国俄勒冈州南部海岸的潮间带低水位池塘生物量中占主导地位。在本案例研究中，从它们共有的潮间带池塘中采集了三只成年海胆，并使用16S rRNA基因的靶向高通量测序（HTS）和生物信息学工具，确定了它们咽、肠道组织和肠道消化物（包括它们的潮池水体和藻类）的细菌群落。总体而言，肠道组织中变形菌门（特别是ε-变形菌纲）数量丰富，而肠道消化物中以γ-变形菌纲、梭杆菌门和黄杆菌目（拟杆菌门）为主。α和β多样性分析表明，肠道组织和消化物的物种丰富度较低，且微生物群落不同，而咽组织的丰富度较高，与水体微生物群更相似。预测的功能谱显示，肠道组织中有京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）二级分类的能量代谢、膜转运、细胞运动和信号转导，而肠道消化物则代表氨基酸代谢、碳水化合物代谢、维生素和辅因子代谢以及复制和修复。共现网络分析显示了潜在的关系和关键分类群，如高度丰富的脱硫弧菌属和脱硫单胞菌属，影响着肠道组织和消化物之间的种群模式和分类组织。这些结果证明了海胆肠道生态系统中微生物群落整合、分配、预测的代谢作用和分类共现模式的趋势。
