title: Diversity and function of aerobic culturable bacteria in the intestine of the sea cucumber Holothuria leucospilota.
abstract: Sea cucumbers play an important role in nutrient cycling of marine ecosystems by consuming sediments and moving sand, thus occupying a similar niche to earthworms in terrestrial ecosystems. However, our understanding of microbial diversity and functions associated with sea cucumbers is meager. Here, we isolated 141 bacterial strains under aerobic conditions using various media from the intestine of Holothuria leucospilota, a common sea cucumber in Japanese warm waters. By partial 16S rRNA gene sequences of the isolates, the isolates were tentatively affiliated with 55 described species. Among them, 23 species were common between 2 individuals of H. leucospilota. High diversity was observed in the genera Bacillus and Vibrio, which are often found in marine sediments, marine animals and other various environments. Most isolates showed various polysaccharide degradation activities and were able to grow under or were tolerant of anaerobic condition. We suggest that these aerobically isolated bacteria can play a role in digestion of detritus in aerobic and/or anaerobic regions of the intestine.
authors: Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan.
authors: Xiaochi
authors: X
authors: Zhang
authors: Tomomi
authors: T
authors: Nakahara
authors: Masayuki
authors: M
authors: Miyazaki
authors: Yuichi
authors: Y
authors: Nogi
authors: Shigeto
authors: S
authors: Taniyama
authors: Osamu
authors: O
authors: Arakawa
authors: Tetsushi
authors: T
authors: Inoue
authors: Toshiaki
authors: T
authors: Kudo
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D000818:Animals; D001407:Bacillus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology; D001420:Bacteria, Aerobic / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology; D003470:Culture Media; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D020459:Genes, rRNA; D047332:Holothuria / Q000145:classification / Q000382:microbiology*; D007422:Intestines / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012616:Sea Cucumbers / Q000145:classification / Q000382:microbiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013559:Symbiosis; D014733:Vibrio / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S