Monitoring Bacterial Community Dynamics in Abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) and the Correlations Associated with Aquatic Diseases

Bacteria are an integral component of their host. However, information about the microbiota living in and around many aquatic animals is lacking. In this study, multiplex bar-coded pyrosequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene was used to monitor the dynamics of abalone, Haliotis discus hannai, bacterial communities in the intestine, water from cement culture ponds, and surrounding sea areas. Correlations between the bacterial communities and common aquaculture diseases were also evaluated. A total of 329,798 valid sequences and 15,277 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) from 32 samples were obtained by 454 tag amplicon pyrosequencing. The Shannon indices of the seawater samples ranged from 2.84 to 5.6 and the Shannon indices of the abalone intestine samples ranged from 1.2 to 5.12, which were much lower than those of seawater. The dominant phyla in seawater samples were Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Fusobacteria, Cyanobacteria, etc. The dominant phyla in the abalone intestine varied greatly in different months. The dominant genera in the seawater of the cement culture ponds changed in different months, mainly Psychrilyobacter and Pseudoalteromonas. The dominant genera in seawater from the open sea vary considerably between months. The dominant genus of bacteria in the abalone intestine during the months when abalones are susceptible to disease is mainly Mycoplasma spp. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed that bacterial communities in seawater and the intestine responded differently to environmental variables, with similar microbiota in the same area. pH, dissolved oxygen concentration, and temperature were closely related to the samples from the sea area. Oxidation-reduction potential, salinity, phosphate, nitrate, and ammonia nitrogen concentrations were closely related to the water samples from the artificial pools. These findings may add significantly to our understanding of the complex interactions between microbiota and environmental variables in the abalone intestine as well as in the surrounding seawater.