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Analysis of the microbial diversity in faecal material of the endangered blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus

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Abstract

Using bacterial and fungal tag-encoded FLX-Titanium amplicon pyrosequencing, the microbiota of the faecal material of two blue whales living in the wild off the coast of California was investigated. In both samples the most predominant bacterial phylum was the Firmicutes with Clostridium spp. being the most dominant bacteria. The most predominant fungi were members of the phylum Ascomycota with Metschnikowia spp. being the most dominant. In this study, we also preliminarily characterised the culturable anaerobic bacteria from the faecal material, using traditional culture and 16S rRNA gene sequencing approaches. In total, three bacterial species belonging to the phylum Firmicutes were identified.

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Acknowledgments

This research was done as part of a Provost Honors project under the leadership of Zina Haywood, Executive Vice President/Provost. We also thank Kathy Nordhaus and Donald Zakutansky for their enthusiastic support of this research. This project was supported by funding provided by Gateway Technical College and by the Gateway Foundation. Sample collection was conducted under NMFS permit no. 17312.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. General Studies, Gateway Technical College, Kenosha, WI, 53144, USA

    Olivia Guass, Lisa Meier Haapanen & Richard William McLaughlin

  2. MR DNA (Molecular Research LP), Shallowater, TX, USA

    Scot E. Dowd

  3. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, California, La Jolla, USA

    Ana Širović

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  1. Olivia Guass
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  2. Lisa Meier Haapanen
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  3. Scot E. Dowd
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  4. Ana Širović
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  5. Richard William McLaughlin
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Correspondence to Richard William McLaughlin.

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Guass, O., Haapanen, L.M., Dowd, S.E. et al. Analysis of the microbial diversity in faecal material of the endangered blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus . Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 109, 1063–1069 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-016-0698-1

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