School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
School of Veterinary Science, The University of Queensland, Gatton, Queensland 4343, Australia.
FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2024 May 14;100(6). doi: 10.1093/femsec/fiae051.
Gut bacterial communities play a vital role in a host's digestion and fermentation of complex carbohydrates, absorption of nutrients, and energy harvest/storage. Dugongs are obligate seagrass grazers with an expanded hindgut and associated microbiome. Here, we characterised and compared the faecal bacterial communities of dugongs from genetically distinct populations along the east coast of Australia, between subtropical Moreton Bay and tropical Cleveland Bay. Amplicon sequencing of fresh dugong faecal samples (n=47) revealed Firmicutes (62%) dominating the faecal bacterial communities across all populations. Several bacterial genera (Bacteroides, Clostridium sensu stricto 1, Blautia and Polaribacter) were detected in samples from all locations, suggesting their importance in seagrass digestion. Principal coordinate analysis showed the three southern-most dugong populations having different faecal bacterial community compositions from northern populations. The relative abundances of the genera Clostridium sensu stricto 13 and dgA-11 gut group were higher, but Bacteroides was lower, in the southern dugong populations, compared to the northern populations, suggesting potential adaptive changes associated with location. This study contributes to our knowledge of the faecal bacterial communities of dugongs inhabiting Australian coastal waters. Future studies of diet selection in relation to seagrass availability throughout the dugong's range will help to advance our understanding of the roles that seagrass species may play in affecting the dugong's faecal bacterial community composition.
肠道细菌群落在宿主消化和发酵复杂碳水化合物、吸收营养物质以及收获/储存能量方面发挥着至关重要的作用。儒艮是专性的海草食草动物，具有扩大的后肠和相关的微生物群落。在这里，我们对来自澳大利亚东海岸不同遗传种群的儒艮的粪便细菌群落进行了特征描述和比较，这些种群分布在亚热带的莫顿湾和热带的克利夫兰湾之间。对新鲜儒艮粪便样本（n=47）的扩增子测序显示，厚壁菌门（Firmicutes）（62%）主导了所有种群的粪便细菌群落。在所有地点的样本中都检测到了几个细菌属（拟杆菌属、严格梭菌 1 属、布劳特氏菌属和极地杆菌属），表明它们在海草消化中很重要。主坐标分析显示，三个最南端的儒艮种群的粪便细菌群落组成与北部种群不同。与北部种群相比，南部儒艮种群中严格梭菌 13 属和 dgA-11 肠道群的相对丰度更高，但拟杆菌属的相对丰度更低，这表明与位置相关的潜在适应性变化。本研究有助于我们了解栖息在澳大利亚沿海水域的儒艮的粪便细菌群落。未来对与海草供应有关的饮食选择的研究将有助于我们深入了解海草物种可能在影响儒艮粪便细菌群落组成方面所起的作用。
