Feed-microbiome-host interactions in Atlantic salmon over life stages
To meet future food demands, more efficient and sustainable animal production systems are needed. Given the crucial importance of the gut microbiota to animal (host) health and nutrition, selective enhancement of beneficial microbes via prebiotics may be a powerful approach for promoting farmed fish welfare and robustness. In this study, we employed three versions of a beta-mannan prebiotic that were fed to Atlantic salmon and explored the combined responses of both gut microbiota and the host from freshwater to seawater life stages. We have used weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) multi-omics data to identify biological interactions between the gut ecosystem and the host. We observed several microbial and host modules through WGCNA that were significantly correlated with life stage, but not with diet. Microbial diversity was highest in the early life of Atlantic salmon and decreased over time. Our findings demonstrate that salmon-microbiota interactions are mainly influenced by life stage, while further research is required to determine whether supplementation of selected prebiotics to diet can be used to modulate the salmon gut microbiota for improving host health and production sustainability.