Bacterial community in gut, shell sediment, and surrounding water of Hyriopsis cumingii fed three different microalgal diets

A challenge in the intelligent breeding of pearl mussels (Hyriopsis cumingii) is the lack of a high-quality microalgal diet. To select the optimal microalgae diet, we examined the effect of feeding of different microalgal diets on the bacterial community composition in the gut, shell surface sediment, and surrounding water of pearl mussels. The bacterial communities of these three samples were analyzed using Illumina high-throughput sequencing. The effect of feeding of three types of microalgae (Scenedesmus abundans, Chlorella pyrenoidosa, and Scenedesmus dimorphus) to triangle sail mussels was investigated in a small intelligent aquaculture system. The different microalgal diets affected the growth of H. cumingii, and optimal growth was observed in the S. dimorphus group (P < 0.05). The three microalgal diets significantly affected the microbiota abundance and diversity in the gut, surface sediment, and surrounding water (P < 0.05). We also explored the bacterial community relationship among the gut, surface sediment, and surrounding water. A strong correlation was observed between bacterial community in the surface sediment and surrounding water. Our finding that different microalgal diets can affect the bacterial community of H. cumingii gut, shell surface sediment, and surrounding water expand the knowledge of the bacterial community in aquaculture ecosystems of mussels and may contribute to establishing an intelligent breeding model for H. cumingii.

Automated summary

This study found that different microalgal diets can affect the growth of pearl mussels, with the group fed Scenedesmus dimorphus showing the best growth. The different microalgal diets significantly impacted the microbiota abundance and diversity in the gut, surface sediment, and surrounding water of the mussels. Furthermore, a strong correlation was observed between bacterial communities in the surface sediment and surrounding water.