Metagenomics Analysis Reveals Compositional and Functional Differences in the Gut Microbiota of Red Swamp Crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, Grown on Two Different Culture Environments.

The structure and function of intestinal microorganisms are closely related to host metabolism, development, physiology, and health. The red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, is an important farmed aquatic species in China, which is grown in aquaculture ponds and rice paddy fields. Since these are two distinct cultivation environments with important differences in nutrient input and ecological community composition, we hypothesized that they may have different effects on the gut microbiota of the crayfish. Here, we sought to examine this hypothesis. To that aim, metagenomics analyses were applied to unveil the taxonomic composition and functional diversity of the microbiota in the intestines of red swamp crayfish grown in aquaculture ponds and rice-crayfish cultivation environments. The results showed that Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were the two most abundant microbial components. In addition, the relative abundance of bacterial and archaeal communities, but not that of fungal and viral communities, significantly differed between the two environments. The abundance of genes involved in pathways related to genetic information processing and human diseases was lower in the guts of red swamp crayfish grown in rice-crayfish cultivation environments. In particular, the abundance of two gene sets, K13730 and K08303, which are related to epithelial cell invasion by Listeria monocytogenes and Helicobacter pylori, respectively, decreased in this culture environment. In addition, the samples from rice-crayfish cultivation environments tended to have lower relative abundance of glycosyltransferases (GTs), which were the most abundant carbohydrate-active enzymes in the samples from both groups, higher abundance of glycoside hydrolases, and lower abundance of GT2.

Metagenomics analysis reveals the distribution and communication of antibiotic resistance genes within two different red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii cultivation ecosystems.

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are emerging contaminants that pose a potential risk to human health worldwide. In this study, a metagenomic analysis was performed to investigate the distribution of ARGs in paddy field ecosystems, crayfish monoculture pond ecosystems, and rice-crayfish cultivation field ecosystems. The results showed that MacB and BcrA are two dominant ARGs, and macrolide is the dominant antibiotic not only in the water, but also in the sediment and gut of crayfish, in both the crayfish monoculture and the rice-crayfish cultivation ecosystems. Meanwhile, some lower-abundance ARGs in the water and sediment of crayfish cultivation ecosystems were significantly different in their abundance than those in rice paddy fields, and the ARGs in crayfish culture system and rice paddy fields showed even higher dissimilarities of diversity. Comprehensive analysis with redundancy analysis（RDA）and the distribution of dominant ARGs showed that the dissimilarity was related to the higher concentrations of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), chlorophyll a (Chla), permanganate index (CODMn), and nitrate in the water of rice paddy fields, and was related to the higher contents of N, P, K, and organic matter (OM) in the sediment of rice paddy fields. The source trackers of ARGs within the crayfish cultivation ponds and the rice-crayfish cultivation fields showed that the sediment in crayfish cultivation ponds mainly played the role of the 'sink' for ARGs, and the water and gut of crayfish mutually contributed to the high rates of ARGs. The ARG contribution rates of crayfish gut and sediment decreased and increased, respectively, in rice-crayfish cultivation fields and in crayfish monoculture ponds, which might be related to the lower crayfish biomass and the lower water depth in rice-crayfish cultivation fields.