Ghafoor Dawood, Hayakijkosol Orachun, Ewels Carla, Kinobe Robert
Veterinary Preclinical Sciences, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia.
Centre for Tropical Biosecurity, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia.
Animals (Basel). 2025 May 29;15(11):1594. doi: 10.3390/ani15111594.
The gut microbiome of sea turtles is essential for their ecological resilience and adaptation to environmental stressors. We hypothesised that different gut microbial profiles existed between green sea turtles kept in captivity and those in the wild. The aim of this systematic review was to determine dominant bacterial phyla in the gut microbiomes of wild and captive green sea turtles. Comparison of the top four bacterial phyla revealed that Bacillota was the most abundant phylum in captive turtles (40.9-87.5%), but it only ranked second (3.5-57.8%) in wild turtles. Bacteroidota had comparable relative abundance in captive (8.7-45.6%) and wild (3.6-43.1%) populations. By contrast, the relative abundance of Pseudomonadota was higher in wild turtles (6.2-68.1%) compared to the captive population (0.1-6.6%). Verrucomicrobiota was less prevalent in wild and captive populations, with relative abundances ranging from 0.28 to 5.4% and 2.3 to 7.2%, respectively. These findings highlight a putative gut microbial shift between wild and captive green sea turtle populations. This shift may be shaped by variations in environmental factors in captivity or the wild. Nonetheless, the significance of these putative changes is still unknown; the potential to use microbial shifts to guide management, rehabilitation, and conservation of green sea turtles is promising, but remains limited.
海龟的肠道微生物群对其生态恢复力和适应环境压力至关重要。我们假设，圈养的绿海龟和野生绿海龟的肠道微生物特征存在差异。本系统评价的目的是确定野生和圈养绿海龟肠道微生物群中的优势细菌门。对四大细菌门的比较显示，芽孢杆菌门是圈养海龟中最丰富的门类（40.9 - 87.5%），但在野生海龟中仅排名第二（3.5 - 57.8%）。拟杆菌门在圈养（8.7 - 45.6%）和野生（3.6 - 43.1%）种群中的相对丰度相当。相比之下，野生海龟中变形菌门的相对丰度（6.2 - 68.1%）高于圈养种群（0.1 - 6.6%）。疣微菌门在野生和圈养种群中不太常见，相对丰度分别为0.28%至5.4%和2.3%至7.2%。这些发现凸显了野生和圈养绿海龟种群之间可能存在的肠道微生物变化。这种变化可能是由圈养或野生环境因素的差异所导致的。尽管如此，这些假定变化的意义仍然未知；利用微生物变化来指导绿海龟的管理、康复和保护具有前景，但仍很有限。
