Similar bacterial communities on healthy and injured skin of black tip reef sharks
Type
ArticleAuthors
Pogoreutz, ClaudiaGore, Mauvis A.
Perna, Gabriela
Millar, Catriona
Nestler, Robert
Ormond, Rupert F.
Clarke, Christopher R.
Voolstra, Christian R.
KAUST Department
Red Sea Research Center (RSRC)Marine Science Program
Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division
Online Publication Date
2019-09-17Print Publication Date
2019-12Date
2019-09-17Abstract
Background Sharks are in severe global decline due to human exploitation. The additional concern of emerging diseases for this ancient group of fish, however, remains poorly understood. While wild-caught and captive sharks may be susceptible to bacterial and transmissible diseases, recent reports suggest that shark skin may harbor properties that prevent infection, such as a specialized ultrastructure or innate immune properties, possibly related to associated microbial assemblages. To assess whether bacterial community composition differs between visibly healthy and insulted (injured) shark skin, we compared bacterial assemblages of skin covering the gills and the back from 44 wild-caught black-tip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) from the Amirante Islands (Seychelles) via 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.Results Shark skin-associated bacterial communities were diverse (5971 bacterial taxa from 375 families) and dominated by three families of the phylum Proteobacteria typical of marine organisms and environments (Rhodobacteraceae, Alteromonadaceae, Halomonadaceae). Significant differences in bacterial community composition of skin were observed for sharks collected from different sites, but not between healthy or injured skin samples or skin type (gills vs. back). The core microbiome (defined as bacterial taxa present in ≥50% of all samples) consisted of 12 bacterial taxa, which are commonly observed in marine organisms, some of which may be associated with animal host health.
Conclusion
The conserved bacterial community composition of healthy and injured shark skin samples suggests absence of severe bacterial infections or substantial pathogen propagation upon skin insult. While a mild bacterial infection may have gone undetected, the overall conserved bacterial community implies that bacterial function(s) may be maintained in injured skin. At present, the contribution of bacteria, besides intrinsic animal host factors, to counter skin infection and support rapid wound healing in sharks are unknown. This represents clear knowledge gaps that should be addressed in future work, e.g. by screening for antimicrobial properties of skin-associated bacterial isolates.
Citation
Pogoreutz, C., Gore, M. A., Perna, G., Millar, C., Nestler, R., Ormond, R. F., … Voolstra, C. R. (2019). Similar bacterial communities on healthy and injured skin of black tip reef sharks. Animal Microbiome, 1(1). doi:10.1186/s42523-019-0011-5Acknowledgements
Thank you to N. Rädecker for assistance with statistics in R. Thank you to the KAUST Bioscience Core Lab for sequencing assistance. We thank an anonymous reviewer whose comments have helped improving the manuscript.Funding: Baseline funding by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology to CRV, Specific project funding for fieldwork from the Marine Research Facility, Jeddah
Publisher
Springer NatureJournal
Animal MicrobiomeDOI
10.1186/s42523-019-0011-5Additional Links
https://animalmicrobiome.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42523-019-0011-5Relations
Is Supplemented By:- [Bioproject]
Title: Skin microbiome of black-tip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus). Publication Date: 2018-10-26. bioproject: PRJNA498626 Handle: 10754/666709 - [Dataset]
Pogoreutz, C., Mauvis Gore, Perna, G., Millar, C., Nestler, R., Ormond, R., Clarke, C., & Voolstra, C. (2019). Similar bacterial communities on healthy and injured skin of black tip reef sharks. figshare. https://doi.org/10.6084/M9.FIGSHARE.C.4668008.V1. DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4668008.v1 Handle: 10754/664781