Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, Waterfront Campus, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, European Way, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK; Present address: Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, St Lucia, 4072, Australia.
Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, Waterfront Campus, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, European Way, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK.
Mar Environ Res. 2021 Aug;170:105413. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2021.105413. Epub 2021 Jul 14.
Gut microbiota are important for the health, fitness and development of animal hosts, but little is known about these assemblages in wild populations of fish. Such knowledge is particularly important for juvenile life stages where nutritional intake critically determines early development, growth, and ultimately recruitment. We characterise the microbiome inhabiting the gut of young-of-the-year European plaice ('YOY plaice') on sandy beaches, their key juvenile habitat, and examine how these microbial communities vary spatially in relation to diet and nutritional condition of their plaice hosts. Body size, diet (stomach fullness and eukaryotic 18S ribosomal sequencing), nutritional condition (RNA:DNA) and gut microbiota (16S prokaryotic ribosomal sequencing) were compared in fish at two spatial scales: between beaches separated by 10s of kilometres and between sites at different depths on the same beach, separated by 10s of metres. The main microbial phyla in YOY plaice guts were Proteobacteria, Spirochaetes, Tenericutes and Verrucomicrobiae. Within the Proteobacteria there was an unusual dominance of Alphaproteobacteria. Differences in body size, diet and nutritional condition of YOY plaice between beaches were accompanied by differences in gut microbial assemblage structure. Notably, substantially reduced nutritional condition and size at one of the beaches was associated with lower stomach fullness, reduced consumption of annelids and differences in the abundance and presence of specific microbial taxa. Differences were also detected in microbial assemblages, body size, and diet between depths within the same nursery beach, although stomach fullness and nutritional condition did not vary significantly. The functional links between the environment, gut microbiota, and their hosts are potentially important mediators of the development of young fish through critical life stages. Our study indicates that these links need to be addressed at 10 km and even 10 m scales to capture the variability observed in wild populations of juvenile fish.
肠道微生物群对于动物宿主的健康、适应能力和发育非常重要，但对于野生鱼类群体中的这些组合体知之甚少。这种知识对于幼鱼生命阶段尤为重要，因为营养摄入对早期发育、生长以及最终的补充数量具有决定性作用。我们描述了栖息在幼年期欧鲽（“YOY 鲽鱼”）肠道中的微生物组，这是它们的关键幼年栖息地，并研究了这些微生物群落如何因宿主的饮食和营养状况而在空间上发生变化。在两个空间尺度上比较了鱼类的体型、饮食（饱腹程度和真核 18S 核糖体测序）、营养状况（RNA：DNA）和肠道微生物群（16S 原核核糖体测序）：在相隔数十公里的海滩之间，以及在同一海滩上相隔数十米的不同深度的地点之间。YOY 鲽鱼肠道中的主要微生物门是变形菌门、螺旋体门、厚壁菌门和疣微菌门。在变形菌门中，α变形菌门的存在非常突出。YOY 鲽鱼在体型、饮食和营养状况方面在海滩之间的差异，伴随着肠道微生物群落结构的差异。值得注意的是，在其中一个海滩上，营养状况和体型显著降低与饱腹程度降低、环节动物摄入量减少以及特定微生物类群的丰度和存在差异有关。在同一育苗海滩内的不同深度，也检测到了微生物群落、体型和饮食的差异，尽管饱腹程度和营养状况没有显著差异。环境、肠道微生物群及其宿主之间的功能联系可能是通过关键生命阶段来促进幼鱼发育的重要媒介。我们的研究表明，需要在 10 公里甚至 10 米的尺度上解决这些联系，以捕捉到野生幼鱼群体中观察到的变异性。
