Carbohydrate utilisation by microbial symbionts in the marine herbivorous fishes Odax cyanomelas and Crinodus lophodon

Carbohydrate uptake and catabolism by the gut microbiota of two species of temperate marine herbivorous fish were investigated using enzyme extracts prepared from microbial pellets. The fish studied were the herring cale Odax cyanomelas (Family Odacidae), which feeds on Ecklonia radiata, and the sea carp Crinodus lophodon (Family Aplodactylidae), which feeds primarily on red and green algae. Constitutive phosphoenolpyruvate phosphotransferase systems for glucose, galactose, fructose and mannitol were present in the microbiota of both fish. Hexokinase, fructokinase and mannitol dehydrogenase activities indicated that transport of the corresponding substrates may be coupled to permeases. Galactokinase activity was only detected in C. lophodon, as expected from its diet. Phosphofructokinase and pyruvate kinase activities were taken to indicate that carbohydrate metabolism proceeded via the fructose bisphosphate pathway. Differences in the transport and metabolism of the different monomers by the microbiota of O. cyanomelas and C. lophodon correlated strongly with predicted monomer availability in the gut of each species, suggesting that the microbiota are an integral component of digestion in these fish. The rates of production in adult fish of acetate, the major short-chain fatty acid, were estimated as 136 μmol·h-1 in O. cyanomelas and 166 μmol·h-1 in C. lophodon. These rates indicate that microbial fermentation is a potentially important source of energy for the host fish.