title: Individual Apostichopus japonicus fecal microbiome reveals a link with polyhydroxybutyrate producers in host growth gaps.
abstract: Gut microbiome shapes various aspects of a host's physiology, but these functions in aquatic animal hosts have yet to be fully investigated. The sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus Selenka is one such example. The large growth gap in their body size has delayed the development of intensive aquaculture, nevertheless the species is in urgent need of conservation. To understand possible contributions of the gut microbiome to its host's growth, individual fecal microbiome comparisons were performed. High-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing revealed significantly different microbiota in larger and smaller individuals; Rhodobacterales in particular was the most significantly abundant bacterial group in the larger specimens. Further shotgun metagenome of representative samples revealed a significant abundance of microbiome retaining polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) metabolism genes in the largest individual. The PHB metabolism reads were potentially derived from Rhodobacterales. These results imply a possible link between microbial PHB producers and potential growth promotion in Deuterostomia marine invertebrates.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology, Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, Hakodate, Japan.
authors.forename: Yohei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamazaki
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biology, SAGE-COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Pedro Milet
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Meirelles
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology, Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, Hakodate, Japan.
authors.forename: Sayaka
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mino
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Metagenomics, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan.|Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Wataru
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Suda
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Metagenomics, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenshiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oshima
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Metagenomics, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan.|Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Masahira
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hattori
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biology, SAGE-COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fabiano L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Hakodate Fisheries Research, Hokkaido Research Organization, Local Independent Administrative Agency, Hakodate, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.affiliation: Department of Food and Nutrition, Hakodate Junior College, Hakodate, Japan.
authors.forename: Toko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sawabe
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology, Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, Hakodate, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sawabe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049628:Body Size; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D006885:Hydroxybutyrates / Q000378:metabolism*; D054892:Metagenome; D064307:Microbiota / Q000235:genetics*; D047528:Stichopus / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D006885:Hydroxybutyrates