Journal of Tropical Oceanography ›› 2022, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (2): 177-188.doi: 10.11978/2021074CSTR: 32234.14.2021074

• Marine Biology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Dysbiosis of both structure and function of intestinal microbiota in lined seahorses (Hippocampus erectus) as response to Edwardsiella tarda infection

ZHANG Lele1(), ZOU Qiang2, TIAN Yanan1, LÜ Chunhui1, ZHENG Shiyi1, JIANG Guangjun1, GAO Longkun1, HOU Yuping3, WANG Kai1()   

  1. 1. School of Agriculture, Ludong University, Yantai 264025, China
    2. Yantai Science and Technology Innovation Promotion Center, Yantai 264003, China
    3. School of Life Science, Ludong University, Yantai 264025, China
  • Received:2021-06-11 Revised:2021-07-22 Online:2022-03-10 Published:2021-07-26
  • Contact: WANG Kai E-mail:2508408930@qq.com;wangkyt@163.com
  • Supported by:
    Program for Outstanding Youth of Colleges and Universities(2020KJF007);Yantai Foundation for Development of Science and Technology(2020LJRC120);Yantai Foundation for Development of Science and Technology(2019CXJJ040);Shandong Province Science and Technology Research Program for Colleges and Universities(J18KA146);LMM;LMB, LMM and LAMB Co-funded Open Funds of the South China Sea Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(LMB20200103);Weihai Foundation for Development of Science and Technology(2017GNS10)

Abstract:

Bacterial enteritis can cause severe damage to seahorse aquaculture, while little is known about the effects of bacterial pathogen infection on intestinal microbiota of seahorses. In the present study, both bacterial pathogen (Edwardsiella tarda YT1) and seahorse research model of bacterial enteritis previously reported by us were employed to explore the role of bacterial pathogen in intestinal microbiota by high-throughput full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed that E. tarda infection significantly altered the composition and abundance, and significantly decreased diversity of intestinal microbiota of lined seahorses (p<0.05); significantly increased the relative abundance of Proteobacteria (p<0.05), and decreased the abundance of Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes (p<0.05); significantly increased the relative abundance of pathogenic Edwardsiella (p<0.01), while decreasing that of Psychrobacter, Rothia, Macrococcus, and Planococcus (p<0.05) at genera level. It indicates that E. tarda infection can reduce the diversity and relative abundance of intestinal autochthonous microbiota and result in dysbiosis in lined seahorses. Based on the results of bacterial function and correlation, increasing relatively abundance of E. tarda may significantly upregulate its activities of bacterial chemotaxis, flagella assembly, ABC transporter, phosphotransferase system, and lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis pathways (p<0.05), cause decrease of the relative abundance of the core intestinal microbiota of Psychrobacter, Planococcus and Glutamicibacter and suppression of their functional activities of ribosome, RNA degradation, nucleotide excision repair, and fatty acid biosynthesis pathways (p<0.05), induce dysbiosis of intestinal microbiota, and finally result in enteritis. These results may be helpful for further revealing pathogenic mechanism of E. tarda-induced enteritis in seahorses by more detailed metagenomic and metabolomics analysis.

Key words: seahorse, intestinal microbiota, enteritis, dysbiosis, Edwardsiella tarda

CLC Number: 

  • P735.51