The Underlying Ecological Processes of Gut Microbiota Among Cohabitating Retarded, Overgrown and Normal Shrimp

Abstract

Increasing evidence of tight links among the gut microbiota, obesity, and host health has emerged, but knowledge of the ecological processes that shape the variation in microbial assemblages across growth rates remains elusive. Moreover, inadequately control for differences in factors that profoundly affect the gut microbial community, hampers evaluation of the gut microbiota roles in regulating growth rates. To address this gap, we evaluated the composition and ecological processes of the gut bacterial community in cohabitating retarded, overgrown, and normal shrimps from identically managed ponds. Gut bacterial community structures were distinct (P = 0.0006) among the shrimp categories. Using a structural equation modeling (SEM), we found that changes in the gut bacterial community were positively related to digestive activities, which subsequently affected shrimp growth rate. This association was further supported by intensified interspecies interaction and enriched lineages with high nutrient intake efficiencies in overgrown shrimps. However, the less phylogenetic clustering of gut microbiota in overgrown and retarded subjects may offer empty niches for pathogens invasion, as evidenced by higher abundances of predicted functional pathways involved in disease infection. Given no differences in biotic and abiotic factors among the cohabitating shrimps, we speculated that the distinct gut community assembly could be attributed to random colonization in larval shrimp (e.g., priority effects) and that an altered microbiota could be a causative factor in overgrowth or retardation in shrimp. To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide an integrated overview of the direct roles of gut microbiota in shaping shrimp growth rate and the underlying ecological mechanisms.

Spatial and temporal axes impact ecology of the gut microbiome in juvenile European lobster (Homarus gammarus)

“…The majority of those deployments (10,987 animals), including those used in the current study, occurred in the summer of 2016. Routine sampling (3,6,28,39,52, 104 weeks post deployment (WPD)) was carried out to monitor the incidence of disease in SBCC populations. In total, 1,698 animals were sampled over the 2-year period.…”

“…Changes in microbiome structure can correlate with digestive enzyme activity and the subsequent pre-digestion of host ingesta. Consequently, the gut microbiota can aid in nutritional breakdown and contribute to the growth of the host [1][2][3]. A diverse microbiome can provide resistance against the proliferation of potentially pathogenic microbes, contributing to host immunity and improving survival [4,5].…”

Integrating gut microbiota immaturity and disease‐discriminatory taxa to diagnose the initiation and severity of shrimp disease

“…It has been long appreciated that the gut symbiont microbiota contributes fundamental roles in host nutrient acquisition (Sullam et al, 2015;Xiong et al, 2016a), antibiotic resistance (Kikuchi et al, 2012) and pathogen defense (Zhu et al, 2016), thereby crucially affecting the health status of the individual. These observations have led scientists to hypothesize that the dysbiosis (unhealthy shifts in microbial community composition) in gut microbial composition is concurrent with host diseases (Berry et al, 2012;Xiong et al, 2015).…”

Spatiotemporal successions of shrimp gut microbial colonization: high consistency despite distinct species pool

“…It is now widely recognized that hosts exhibit intimate and complex interactions with microbes that reside within their gastrointestinal tracts (Mcfall-Ngai et al, 2013). These gut commensals can affect the evolution and fitness of their hosts by affecting life span (Smith et al, 2017), nutrient acquisition (Xiong et al, 2017a), barrier against pathogens (Zhu et al, 2016), immune maturity (Kamada et al, 2013) and among others . We are only recently starting to explore the basic community ecology of these gut ecosystems, and how factors such as diet, rearing condition, host health status or life stage can shape microbial community structure (Giatsis et al, 2015;Mortzfeld et al, 2016;Yan et al, 2016;Zhu et al, 2016;Xiong et al, 2017b).…”