Characterization of the bacterial community associated with red spotting disease of the echinoid Strongylocentroyus intermedius

摘要

Red spotting disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in sea urchins. In the present study, bacterial community composition and function of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius with red spotting disease were investigated using high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that 11 phyla, 17 classes, 28 orders, 36 families, and 39 genera were identified by classifiable sequence. Psychrobacter (62.89%), Vibrio (32.47%), and Staphylococcus (2.87%) were the dominant microbiota of sea urchins with red spotting disease, which were significantly different from healthy S. intermedius (P < .05). The predictive functional profiling based on the Clusters of Orthologous Groups of proteins (COGs) database revealed that the inhibition of microbiota with red spotting disease was mainly manifested by the weakening of transcription, secondary metabolites biosynthesis, cell motility, and signal transduction mechanisms. The microbiota was adapted to red spotting disease by strengthening energy production and conversion, amino acid/nucleotide/lipid transport and metabolism, defense mechanisms, cell wall/membrane/envelope biogenesis, translation ribosomal structure and biogenesis, and replication recombination and repair. The predictive functional profiling based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway database showed that microbiota associated with red spotting disease was mainly characterized by strengthening pyrimidine metabolism and folate biosynthesis and by attenuating butirosin and neomycin biosynthesis and peptidases. Our findings can provide valuable information for studying the pathogenic mechanism and control of sea urchins with red spotting disease.