Abstract

Our knowledge regarding microbiota associated with the swim bladder of physostomous, fish with the swim bladder connected to the esophagus via the pneumatic duct, remains largely unknown. The goal of this study was to conduct the first in-depth characterization of the swim bladder-associated microbiota using high-throughput sequencing of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). We observed major differences in bacterial communities composition between swim bladder-associated microbiota and distal intestine digesta microbiota in fish. Whilst bacteria genera, such as Cohnella, Lactococcus and Mycoplasma were more abundant in swim bladder-associated microbiota, Citrobacter, Rhodobacter and Clavibacter were more abundant in distal intestine digesta microbiota. The presumptive metabolic function analysis (PICRUSt) revealed several metabolic pathways to be more abundant in the swim bladder-associated microbiota, including metabolism of carbohydrates, nucleotides and lipoic acid as well as oxidative phosphorylation, cell growth, translation, replication and repair. Distal intestine digesta microbiota showed greater abundance of nitrogen metabolism, amino acid metabolism, biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids and bacterial secretion system. We demonstrated swim bladder harbors a unique microbiota, which composition and metabolic function differ from microbiota associated with the gut in fish.