Abstract
Many marine bivalves are regarded as healthy foods due to their high carotenoid content. Only plants and microorganisms have natural carotenoids biosynthesis ability, hence, animals such as bivalves must obtain carotenoids from their diets. Due to the filter-feeding behavior of bivalves, they have high diversity of gut microbes. However, the relationship between gut microbes and carotenoids has not been explored in mollusks. In the present study, the interaction between gut microbes and carotenoids in two polymorphic noble scallop Chlamys nobilis, golden scallops (designated GG) and brown scallops (designated BW), were studied. The gut of GG and BW showed statistically different bacteria communities. Results from 16S rRNA gene sequencing and qPCR analysis revealed that the gut of GG had significantly higher relative abundance of carotenoids-producing bacteria Brevundimonas, compared with BW. Moreover, HPLC-MS analysis showed that isolate Brevundimonas could produce astaxanthin. The current findings are very useful as they could form the basis for future studies in determining the relationship between gut microbiota and carotenoids absorption in bivalves.
Highlights
Gut microbiota is regarded as an integral component of the host because of its important role in host digestion and health (Sommer and Bäckhed, 2013; Sonnenburg and Bäckhed, 2016)
Over 54% of all Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) were shared by the gut of the two scallops, with GG having more unique OTUs compared with brown scallops (BW)
We assume that the different levels of accumulated carotenoids between golden and brown scallops were contributed to by their gut microbiota
Summary
Gut microbiota is regarded as an integral component of the host because of its important role in host digestion and health (Sommer and Bäckhed, 2013; Sonnenburg and Bäckhed, 2016). The microbiomes of terrestrial invertebrates, especially insects such as wasps (Adams et al, 2011), flies (Erkosar et al, 2013), termites (Poulsen et al, 2014), and beetles (Salem et al, 2017), have been studied and shown to be involved in host nutrient acquisition provided by symbiotic bacteria. A growing number of studies have shown that symbiotic bacteria provide carotenoids to many invertebrates, as in the accessory nidamental glands (ANG)-bacterial community in squids (Barbieri et al, 1996; Grigioni et al, 2000) and endosymbiotic bacteria in whiteflies (Sloan and Moran, 2011). Carotenoids play many important functions in human and animal health (Tanumihardjo, 2013). As natural pigments (with color ranging from yellow to red), carotenoids are involved in the body coloration of animals (Maoka, 2009), and have been reported in vertebrates such as fish (Wang et al, 2006), frogs (Umbers et al, 2016), and birds (Negro and Garrido-Fernèndez, 2000; Weaver et al, 2018), as well as invertebrates such as silkworm Bombyx mori (Tabunoki et al, 2004), sea urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius (Borisovets et al, 2002) and turban shell Turbo cornutus (Maoka, 2011)
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