Vertically and horizontally transmitted microbial symbionts shape the gut microbiota ontogenesis of a skin-mucus feeding discus fish progeny

Fish gut microbial communities play key functions for their hosts, but their ontogenesis is poorly understood. Recent studies on the zebrafish suggest that gut symbionts are recruited naturally through horizontal transmission from environmental water. We used an alternative fish model, the discus (Symphysodon aequifasciata), to identify the main factors driving fish gut microbiota ontogenesis. The discus exhibits a unique parenting behavior: both discus parents vertically feed their fry with a cutaneous mucus secretion during three weeks post-hatching. We hypothesized that vertical microbial transmission via parental mucus feeding, along with horizontal transmission of environmental microbial symbionts, helps to shape the taxonomic structure of the discus fry gut microbiota. To assess this premise, we thoroughly documented the gut microbiota ontogenesis of a discus progeny during 100 days post-hatching. The V4 16S rRNA gene was sequenced to assess taxonomic structure of fry gut, parent mucus, and water samples. Our main results suggest that specific microbial symbionts both from the parents skin mucus and environmental water play important roles in shaping the structure of the fry gut microbiota.