School of Life Science, Huizhou University, No. 46 Yanda Road, Huizhou 516007, China.
Guangdong Huidong Sea Turtle National Nature Reserve Administration, Huidong 516359, Guangdong Province, China.
FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2022 Sep 20;369(1). doi: 10.1093/femsle/fnac073.
Hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) are important for maintaining healthy coral reef ecosystems currently qualify as "critically endangered" by the IUCN. Their gut microbiota is closely linked to host nutrition and health, however, the gut microbiota of hawksbill sea turtles from a natural reserve remains unclear. Therefore, exploring their microbial community structure in a natural reserve may provide valuable information on strategies for protecting this species. In this study, we investigated hawksbill sea turtle fecal microbial communities from a natural reserve using 16S metagenomics and compared the gut microbiota from fecal samples of hawksbill and green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas). The results indicated that the structure of fecal microbial communities was significantly different between hawksbill and green sea turtles. In hawksbill sea turtles, the three dominant phyla were Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Fusobacteria, whereas the fecal microbial communities of green sea turtles were mainly composed of Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria. Among the hawksbill sea turtle fecal microbes, the predominant genera were Cetobacterium and Rikenell, whereas in green sea turtles, the predominant genera were Bacteroides and Paludibacter. In addition, predictive metagenomic analysis indicated that sugar catabolism was enriched in green sea turtle fecal microbiota, whereas pathways related to secondary metabolite production were enriched in hawksbill sea turtle fecal microbiota. Our study provides preliminary data on the fecal microbiota features of sea turtles from the natural reserve, which may contribute to the management of the food requirements and long-term conservation of hawksbill sea turtles.
玳瑁（Eretmochelys imbricata）海龟对维持健康的珊瑚礁生态系统至关重要，目前被 IUCN 列为“极度濒危”物种。它们的肠道微生物群与宿主的营养和健康密切相关，然而，自然保护区玳瑁海龟的肠道微生物群仍不清楚。因此，探索自然保护区中它们的微生物群落结构可能为保护该物种提供有价值的信息。在这项研究中，我们使用 16S 宏基因组学研究了自然保护区玳瑁海龟的粪便微生物群落，并比较了玳瑁和绿海龟（Chelonia mydas）粪便样本中的肠道微生物群。结果表明，玳瑁和绿海龟粪便微生物群落的结构存在显著差异。在玳瑁海龟中，三个主要的门是拟杆菌门、厚壁菌门和梭杆菌门，而绿海龟的粪便微生物群落主要由厚壁菌门、拟杆菌门和变形菌门组成。在玳瑁海龟的粪便微生物中，主要的属是鲸杆菌属和理研菌属，而在绿海龟中，主要的属是拟杆菌属和浮霉菌属。此外，预测宏基因组分析表明，绿海龟粪便微生物群中糖代谢途径富集，而玳瑁海龟粪便微生物群中次级代谢产物产生途径富集。我们的研究提供了自然保护区海龟粪便微生物群特征的初步数据，这可能有助于管理海龟的食物需求和长期保护玳瑁海龟。
