Variation in bacterial communities among stress-sensitive and stress-tolerant black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) individuals

Mortality due to environmental stressors negatively affects Penaeus monodon aquaculture. We compared bacterial communities in P. monodon individuals sensitive and tolerant to salinity and ammonia nitrogen stress using MiSeq in the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Thirty-eight bacterial phyla and 735 genera were identified, with significantly different compositions among shrimp with different stress tolerance. The dominant phyla in all groups were Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Tenericutes, Firmicutes, Fusobacteria, Actinobacteria and Verrucomicrobia. Proteobacteria was the most abundant and largest phylum overall. Actinobacteria, Verrucomicrobia and Chloroflexi were more abundant in ammonia-sensitive shrimp than in ammonia-tolerant ones. Salinity-sensitive shrimp had greater abundances of Planctomycetes and Parcubacteria than salinity-tolerant individuals, but a lower abundance of Tenericutes. At the genus level, ammonia-sensitive shrimp individuals had greater abundances of Pelomonas than ammonia-tolerant individuals. Meanwhile, salinity-sensitive individuals had greater abundances of unclassified Rhodobacteraceae, Nautella and Halomonas than salinity-tolerant individuals, but lower abundances of Vibrio and unclassified Mycoplasmataceae. These results showed that while bacterial compositions were similar across individuals with different stress tolerance, the relative abundances of specific bacterial taxa varied. Our findings indicate a relationship between environmental stress and intestinal microorganisms in P. monodon and contribute to further understand the effects of different environmental stress factors on intestinal microflora of shrimp.

Automated summary

The study demonstrated that environmental stress affects the aquaculture of Penaeus monodon. There were significant differences in the bacterial communities of shrimp individuals with different stress tolerance levels, with specific bacterial taxa showing varying abundance.