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Microbial community changes in the digestive tract of the clam Meretrix petechialis in response to Vibrio parahaemolyticus challenge

  • Aquaculture and Fisheries
  • Published:
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Abstract

Disease in clams frequently occurred over the last decade and has become a serious threat to the clam aquaculture industry and natural stocks. Mass clam mortality events were reported to be associated with the presence of opportunistic pathogen vibrio. However, the complexity of infection that occurs in the natural environment remains poorly understood. In this study, we smulated a natural disease outbreak by vibrio immersion infection to study the diversity and dynamics of microbiota in the digestive tract of clam Meretrix petechialis during the infection process. Dramatic changes in operational taxonomic unit richness and phylum composition of the bacterial communities were observed during pathogen invasion. In addition, we investigated the potential relationship between microbiota dynamics and host status during disease progression. Results reveal that, at the end stage of vibrio infection, interindividual variation in the digestive tract microbiota increased, as did the difference in individual health status. The moribund clams displayed signs of microbial community shifts to low diversity, and the microbial community was characterized by mass proliferation of a few operational taxonomic units.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Institute of Oceanology, Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Hongxia Wang, Xin Yue, Jiajia Yu, Rui Wang & Baozhong Liu

  2. Laboratory for Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266000, China

    Hongxia Wang, Xin Yue & Baozhong Liu

  3. Zhejiang Mariculture Research Institute, Wenzhou, 325005, China

    Shuangshuang Teng & Jun Fang

  4. Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Exploitation and Preservation of Coastal Bio-resource, Wenzhou, 325005, China

    Shuangshuang Teng & Jun Fang

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  1. Hongxia Wang
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  2. Xin Yue
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  5. Shuangshuang Teng
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  7. Baozhong Liu
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Correspondence to Baozhong Liu.

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Data Availability Statement

RNA-seq data and amplicon sequences for microbiota analysis have been made available through the SRA database (accession Nos. SRR8741669-SRR8741683). Other data analyzed during this study are included in the supplementary file. Complementary information is available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31772845), the China Agriculture Research System (No. CARS-49), the Science and Technology Service Network Initiative of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KFJ-STS-ZDTP-049), and the Foundation of Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Exploitation and Preservation of Coastal Bio-Resource (No. J2018001)

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Wang, H., Yue, X., Yu, J. et al. Microbial community changes in the digestive tract of the clam Meretrix petechialis in response to Vibrio parahaemolyticus challenge. J. Ocean. Limnol. 39, 329–339 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-020-9217-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-020-9217-3

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