Bacterial Community Characteristics and Roles in Nitrogen Transformation in Industrial Farming Systems of Litopenaeus vannamei

Abstract

Industrial farming is one of the main farming systems used for L. vannamei, and it is also the main direction of development in the future. To investigate the role of the bacterial community in nitrogen transformation in industrial L. vannamei farming systems, we studied the concentration of nitrogen compounds, the bacterial community using 16S rRNA sequencing, and nitrogen cycling genes’ abundance using absolute quantitative PCR in aquaculture water (using seawater (WD) and groundwater mixed with seawater (CY)) and analyzed the correlations between them using a person analysis. The results showed that the bacterial α-diversity index (ACE, Shannon, and Sobs) significantly changed during culture in WD but not in CY. Bacterial community species composition analysis and linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe analysis) revealed that Cyanobiaceae and Microbacteriaceae were the dominant bacteria and biomarkers in WD. Vibrionaceae, Ateromonadaceae, Microbacteriaceae, Saprospiraceae, and Cryomorphaceae were the dominant bacteria and biomarkers in CY. A functional annotation of procaryotic taxa (FAPROTAX) analysis revealed that the bacterial community in WD exhibited a greater phototrophic activity at early culture stages, while at the same stage, CY exhibited strong nitrate reduction. A correlation analysis of nitrogen cycling genes and environmental factors revealed that napA, narG, ureC, amoA, and nirK were significantly correlated with the concentrations of total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), nitrite (NO2−-N), nitrate (NO3−-N), and total nitrogen (TN) in WD. In CY, amoA was positively correlated and napA and nirK were negatively correlated with TAN and TN concentrations. A correlation analysis between bacterial abundance and environmental factors revealed that Flavobacteriaceae, Saprospiraceae, Cryomorphaceae, Cyanobiaceae, Halieaceae, and Cyclobacteriaceae were significantly correlated with the concentrations of TAN and NO2−-N. The above results indicated that the bacterial community in industrial shrimp farming systems changed under different conditions, with consequent changes in the abundance of genes being involved in the nitrogen cycle and in this biogeochemical process in the water. Our study facilitates further understanding of microbes and their functions in nitrogen cycling in industrial shrimp farming systems.