Changes in the intestinal bacterial community during the growth of white shrimp,<i>Litopenaeus vannamei</i>
AbstractIn this study, we documented the changes in theintestinal bacterial community at four stages inLitopenaeus vannamei: 14 days postlarvae (L14)and 1-, 2- and 3-month old juveniles (J1, J2, J3),using 454 pyrosequencing techniques. The intesti-nal bacterial community was dominated by threebacterial phyla, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes andActinobacteria at all stages. However, the relativeabundance and bacterial lineages varied at thefamily level. The intestinal bacterial community ofL14 and J1 was similar, with dominant membersbelonging to the Comamonadaceae of Betaproteo-bacteria. Conversely, bacterial members afﬁliatedto Flavobacteriaceae of Bacteroidetes were domi-nant in J2 and Vibrionaceae of Gammaproteobac-teria was dominant in J3. The abundance ofMicrobacteriaceae of Actinobacteria also ﬂuctuatedduring the four stages. Bacterial members ofFlavobacteriaceae and Rhodobacteraceae (Alpha-proteobacteria) were present through all growthstages, and likely form the intestinal core microbi-ome of L. vannamei. However, they varied at theoperational taxonomic unit (OTU) level throughthe growth stages. The intestinal bacterial com-munity of pond-rearing shrimp included the threemain bacterial phyla identiﬁed above, and anadditional group, Mycoplasmataceae of Mollicutes.Our results demonstrate that the intestinal bacte-rial community of L. vannamei was highlydynamic during the growth stages. Bacterial mem-bers belonging to Commamonadaceae dominatedin the earlier growth stage of shrimp, possiblyinﬂuenced by feeding with Artemia nauplii, butthere was a shift to Flavobacteriaceae in the midand Vibrionaceae in the late growth stages.Keywords: Litopenaeus vannamei, intestinalbacterial community, growth stages, 454pyrosequencingIntroductionLitopenaeus vannamei (Boone, 1931), commonlyknown as white shrimp, is an economically impor-tant marine species that is widely cultured in thecoastal areas of the Paciﬁc Ocean, particularly inEcuador, Mexico, Peru, and China. The expansionof the white shrimp culture industry has beenfacilitated by development of a high-density cul-ture system that spans the period from larval rear-ing (ca. 10 million larvae/40 m