Red Cusk-Eel (Genypterus chilensis) Gut Microbiota Description of Wild and Aquaculture Specimens.

Jaime Romero,Rodrigo Rojas,Claudio D Miranda,Osmán Díaz

doi:10.3390/microorganisms10010105

Jaime Romero, Rodrigo Rojas + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10010105

Copy DOI

Abstract

Chile has promoted the diversification of aquaculture and red cusk-eel (Genypterus chilensis) is one of the prioritized species. However, many aspects of the biology of the species are unknown or have little information available. These include intestinal microbiota, an element that may play an important role in the nutrition and defense of cultured animals for meat production. This study compares the microbiota composition of the intestinal contents of wild and aquaculture fish to explore the microbial communities present and their potential contribution to the host. DNA was extracted from the intestinal content samples and the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified and sequenced using the Ion Torrent platform. After the examination of the sequences, strong differences were found in the composition at the level of phylum, being Firmicutes and Tenericutes the most abundant in aquaculture and wild condition, respectively. At the genus level, the Vagococcus (54%) and Mycoplasma (97%) were the most prevalent in the microbial community of aquaculture and wild condition, respectively. The evaluation of predicted metabolic pathways in these metagenomes showed that in wild condition there is an important presence of lipid metabolism belonging to the unsaturated fatty acid synthesis. In the aquaculture condition, the metabolism of terpenoids and polyketides were relevant. To our knowledge, this is the first study to characterize and compare the intestinal microbiota of red cusk-eel (Genypterus chilensis) of wild and aquaculture origin using high-throughput sequencing.

Highlights

Aquaculture is an important industry in some countries such as Chile, principally identified with salmon production, being the second producer of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) on the world [1]
The aim of this study is to evaluate possible differences in the microbiota associated to the intestinal contents of red cusk-eel of wild and aquaculture origin using next-generation sequencing (NGS) and to explore the potential importance of these differences to the host
A total of 498,137 high-quality 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequences were obtained from the red cusk-eel analyzed, of which 212,463 reads come from the wild individuals and the other 285,674 reads from aquaculture individuals

Summary

Introduction

Aquaculture is an important industry in some countries such as Chile, principally identified with salmon production, being the second producer of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) on the world [1]. An important issue to be solved by the Chilean aquaculture is the low diversification of this activity, extremely concentrated in the salmonid culture, compromising its sustainability in the long-term. To develop a diverse aquaculture industry, not depending exclusively on the production of salmonid fish, the Chilean government has implemented the Chilean Aquaculture Diversification Program, mainly based on the development of aquaculture of various native fish species, such as the red cusk-eel (Genypterus chilensis), the one with good characteristics that make it a promising species to develop the technology for its cultivation [3]. Red cusk-eel (Genypterus chilensis) belongs to the Actinopterygii Clase, Telostei subclass, and Ophidiidae family, being a morphological characteristic of this family that the dorsal-fin rays usually are equal to or longer than opposing anal-fin rays [4].

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion